I just finished Lisa See’s novel Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, which was made into a movie and debuted on June 24, 2011 in China.

It’s a novel about the life of a Chinese girl Lily and her lifelong partner Snow Flower who kept contact with each other through secret language Nu Shu written on the fan.

This is even new to me. I’ve never heard of this secret language until reading this book.

It was mainly used in Hunan Province, by women of Yao nationality.

Nu Shu is monosyllable, which is different from ideographic Chinese.  There were totally about 1,700 characters, written on the fan, handkerchief, handwritten books, etc.