The women, meanwhile, exhibit their own internalization of patriarchy. When the women make presentations, the men catcall and give them an appraising eye.
A man praises Nushu for its capacity to reinforce women’s obedience, acceptance and resilience. One entrepreneur designs men’s clothing with Nushu writing on them another designs a Nushu-decorated pair of chopsticks that conveniently can be turned into nunchuks. And indeed, promotional efforts, largely led by men, seem to do just that. As such, it’s easily exploited to reinforce patriarchy. Nushu is a tool of secret sisterhood, a tool to cope with and endure oppression. Their experience reveals the contradictions embedded within the promotional project. Their older mentor was never educated, endured a forced marriage, and found in Nushu a solace for her pain. The millennial women were raised by parents who had learned the importance of women’s rights and full participation during and after the Cultural Revolution.
Feng follows three women: Two millennials learning Nushu and their mentor who learned it while it was still a secret system. Nushu was only recently made public, and the current government wants to celebrate and promote it. It concerns Nushu, a once-secret writing system by and for generations of Chinese women who survived lives of disenfranchisement and oppression with the power of sisterhood.
Hidden Letters is an extraordinary film: masterfully conceived, strategically designed and highly crafted. Mixed in were films that left us thinking, wondering and wanting more.Ī true treasure of the festival, for me, was Violet Du Feng and Zhao Qing’s Hidden Letters, which will make its way to Independent Lens in 2023. Tribeca’s huge doc selection (70 films) included plenty of celebrity and performance works, as well as films sure to attract the obsessed and sensation-seeking. Films, of course, but also games, television, immersive installations and projects, audio, live performance, and a daily round of panels. As a FOMO machine, it’s pretty good there’s way too much going on at any one time. The 2022 Tribeca Festival was finally back in person, and there was much hugging, partying and clustering to make up for lost time.
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