He Jinghua

01 · Lineage & Regional School

He Jinghua, Female, Han, from Jiangyong, Hunan, is a fourth-batch national representative bearer of Nvshu Customs (Ⅹ-69). The tradition is documented in Jiangyong, Hunan. Within the regional tradition and school record of Nvshu Customs in Jiangyong, Hunan: The Nüshu of Jiangyong circulated in the area of Shangjiangxu in Jiangyong County, which has a population of only twenty thousand (including Shangjiangxu Town, Tongshanling Farm and a few nearby villages). Nüshu was once also current in places such as Xiaopu Town, Qianjiatong Yao Ethnic Township, Yunshan Town and Huangjialing Township of the county, but it disappeared from them one after another as early as sixty years ago. That the Nüshu of Jiangyong is an ancient script has already become the consensus of experts and scholars; however, because Nüshu has left no ancient artifacts and is not recorded in historical or gazetteer literature, the time of its origin cannot be determined.

02 · Mastery & Signature Works

Female, of the Han ethnic group, born in October 1934 in Jiangyong County, Hunan Province. She learned nvshu (women's script) from her mother from an early age. She is skilled in traditional needlework, able to embroider many kinds of flowers and plants and to weave nvshu patterned ribbons. She is also accomplished at paper cutting, and can cut eighteen patterns, among them dragons and phoenixes bringing prosperity, auspicious birds singing amid plum blossoms, and mandarin ducks sporting in water. She can sing and chant ninety-six nvshu songs, which make use of sixty-two distinct tunes. In the nvshu script she recorded the life and customs of nvshu practitioners, and she has created more than fifty nvshu works, including Jinghua Si Shi Er (Jinghua Mourning Her Deceased Son) and Shi Nian Qin Niang (Ten Reflections on My Mother), some of which were published in Hunan Daily. She regularly transmits nvshu culture at festivals and events associated with nvshu customs, such as the Zuogetang singing gatherings, the Bullfighting Festival and the Huashan Temple Fair. She founded the Jinghua Nvshu Academy and has persevered in taking disciples and teaching them. Within the documented technical tradition of Nvshu Customs in Jiangyong, Hunan: Jiangyong County lies on the southern frontier of Hunan Province; its west and south border the Guilin area of Guangxi, and it belongs to Yongzhou City. The Nüshu script is long-rhomboid in shape, with thin, even strokes that resemble mosquitoes or ants; among the people it was called the long-legged-mosquito script or the ant script, and because it was used exclusively by women, the academic world came to call it 'Nüshu' (women's script). The language Nüshu records is the distinctive Yongming local dialect of the region where it circulated; its means and methods of marking language are peculiar, allowing homophonic substitution, so that with only about four hundred characters seven-character verse of a thousand or more characters can be written; Nüshu was passed down from generation to generation through family transmission and instruction among relatives and friends; it was closely integrated with folk activities peculiar to women, such as marriage customs, seasonal festivals and temple fairs, fully demonstrating its function and value. Representative repertoire, works and technical entries recorded for the project include: "Sitting in the song hall": Women sit facing each other in the hall, and the script is learned through antiphonal song. "The woven script band": A woven band carries greetings and family affairs, making dress a second carrier of the script. "Melodies of the women's songs": Melody outnumbers text, letting women who cannot read formal characters voice their concerns through song. "Ox-fighting festival and the mountain temple fair": Fairs and festivals become classrooms where occasion decides both what is written and how it is recited.

03 · Transmission & Safeguarding Status

She is a national representative bearer of Nvshu Customs, a fourth-batch national intangible cultural heritage project. She took part in writing and staging nvshu literary and artistic works and in promotional activities for nvshu. The dance in which she performed, Nvshu Zhi Ge (Song of Nvshu), won the Silver Award of the Sanxiang Qunxing Prize at the Second Art Festival of Hunan Province.

04 · Associated Heritage Item Dossier

05 · Fellow National Bearers Lineage

National representative bearers recorded under the same item code, ordered from the first to the sixth batch. Batch order is not a teacher–student relationship.

06 · Archival Sources & Bibliography

1. He Jinghua · National Representative Bearer Archive