Report in National Geographic for May 2003 article by Marisa Larson "Secret Script for Women Only" For centuries they were forbidden to read or write, so the women In Chinas Jiangyong county came up with their own cryptic writing system known only to themselves. Living under strict control of men, often in arranged marriages, they created Nu Shu, meaning "female writing" as a way of communicating and helping one another cope. Article ges on to talk about that today only a hand full of women still use the Nu Shu but the Chinese Government is promising funds to establish a museum and dictionary to preserve the script.I've got a couple of links about nü shu towards the bottom of this page.
Also PBS television ran a good story about the displacement of farmers in China. According to the story after China was allowed to enter the World Trade Org. They developed a taste for new and different foods form foreign markets never before availabe to them. The most popular is Eggplant. Because of the foods that are now available to them, they no longer buy the same amount of rice. It appears that over 20 million farmers are forced to leave their homes to find work as migrant workers to try and feed their families. This is illegal in China. They therefore are working below standard wages and are forced to live in substandard housing. If they bring their families with them and send their children to school then the schools are illegal and the government will not recognize their education as being legal. Thus preventing the children from ever getting a good job. Looks like we're not the only ones that Bill Clinton had a big impact on.We'll be talking more about the WTO's impact on China soon.
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