Qing Zhao

87-year-old Alzheimer’s patient Lou has forgotten everyone but her husband Feng, who has been her only caretaker for the past 10 years. Yet after a medical check-up, Feng was diagnosed with a pancreas mass. The man who went through a life of hardship in good spirits finally bursts into tears. Before going to the hospital, he takes her out shopping and makes her pretty. Does it mean their time of separation is coming near? Can they still live a life with dignity and freedom? On the way home, they walk hand in hand as Lou says, “We are together no matter what.”
—Violet Du FengRead More »

Throughout history, women have survived the stifling strictures of patriarchy by using their own codes of communication — be it intergenerational secrets, whisper networks or gestures legible only to other women. Several centuries ago, in Jiangyong County in southern China, women went a step further, inventing an entire language that they used to write songs, poetry and furtive missives to one another.

This fascinating language, Nushu, is the subject of the documentary “Hidden Letters,” though if you’re expecting an illuminating deep dive into its history, you’ll be disappointed. The director, Violet Du Feng, uses Nushu mostly as a cursory framing device for a broad portrait of gender relations in modern China, structured around the stories of two Nushu practitioners: a divorced museum guide, Xin Hu, and a soon-to-be-married musician, Simu Wu.Read More »