The Forgotten Language That Only Women Once Knew

Ever had the sneaking suspicion that women speak in different tongues? If you were a Hunanese peasant woman in 20-century China, there was a kernel of truth to the old joke. Inside a hilly, remote village of Jiangyong County, unschooled women and girls developed a mysterious system of writing called Nüshu to express their innermost thoughts and passed around favorite songs, prayers, traditional tales, birthday letters and wedding congratulations to each other in coded script.

The communications were hidden in plain sight from the men, who largely disregarded Nüshu — which means “women’s writing” in Chinese — as frivolous, not bothering to learn a word.

Similar female scripts arose in Japan and Korea too, but only Nüshu bore a certain mystique. When women died, they had their favorite works burned or buried with them. So we don’t know exactly when Nüshu began, but we know that women were using the script around 200 years ago, when girls weren’t expected to go to school and long before they received any formal education. 

read more here @ OZY

'Cone-headed' skull from ancient Silla culture discovered in Korea

'Cone-headed' skull from ancient Silla culture discovered in Korea | Daily Mail Online

The remains of a woman with a bizarre elongated skull, which is between 1,000 and 2,000 years old, have been unearthed in Korea.  The woman's head appears to be far longer than would normally be expected. Yet despite the strange appearance, researchers say it is unlikely that this woman had her head deliberately flattened and she may have been suffering from a medical condition.

Archaeologists believe the woman was part of the ancient Silla culture, which ruled much of the Korean peninsula for nearly a millennium.  The ancient Silla Kingdom reigned from 57 BC to AD 935, making it one of the longest-ruling royal dynasties. Many of Korea's modern-day cultural practices stem from this historic culture.

Read full article at Daily Mail Online: Why The Long Face

Love Letter to Eung-Tae

From the International Business Times:

A poetic love letter written by a mourning Korean wife that was found beside the mummified body of the woman's husband has grabbed the limelight many a time since its discovery more than a decade ago.

Archaeologists at Andong National University found a 16th century male mummy in Andong City in South Korea in 2000. Along with it was a heart-rending letter written by the dead man's pregnant wife who poured out her grief into what has become a testament of loss, lamentation and berievement.

The 5-feet-9-inches mummy was identified as that of Eung-tae, after a total of 13 letters addressed to that name were found in the tomb.

From about dot com - the Tomb of Eung Tea

Eung Tae is the name of a 16th century elite member of the Joseon Dynasty, who was buried in the traditional neoConfucian manner called LSMB by archaeologists, resulting in the excellent preservation of his corpse and his grave goods. One of approximately 100 Joseon royal tombs excavated to date, Eung Tae's tomb is rare in that it contained perfectly preserved written documents, including letters written to the 31-year-old man from his family.

Eighteen letters found within the elite tomb of the Joseon dynasty member Eung Tae provide us with an intimate glimpse of medieval life in 16th century Korea.

Eung Tae was a member of the prominent Kosung Yi clan of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea, when he died in 1586. As was traditional for elite members of society in those days, he was buried in nested pine coffins stuffed with clothing and sealed in a concrete-hard layer of lime and soil. That method led to preservation of his body and grave goods, which included 18 letters written to the deceased, detailing life and society in medieval Korea, and making fascinating reading for us today.

From Letters of Note - transcript of the letter

How could you pass away without me? Who should I and our little boy listen to and how should we live? How could you go ahead of me?

From Without Wax - another transcript of the letter

A mournful note and a pair of sandals from the 16th century have captivated South Korea. On June 1, 1586, a pregnant widow in the east wrote to her husband: "You always said you wanted to live with me until our hair turns gray. How could you pass away without me?" She left the letter in his tomb, along with shoes she'd made as a sign of love for her ailing spouse, woven from her hair and hemp bark. There they lay until the city of Andong began moving graves to make way for houses.

Women Violated in War Denied Memorials

From We:news:

Japanese officials are trying to remove a small monument to Korean "comfort women" in New Jersey. Rochelle Saidel says these and other women violated by war are still being denied official recognition.

In the early 1990s, Kim Hak Soon was the first former comfort woman to speak out, at the age of 67, and her testimony inspired other women to do the same. Within one year more than 200 other Korean women who had been enslaved as comfort women came forward. They have joined together, supported each other and shared their experience.

Peace Monument for Comfort Women

From the Hankyoreh:

A 130-cm bronze sculpture of a young girl was erected Wednesday on the road in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul's Jongno District.

The “Peace Monument” was designed to give shape to the spirit of the “comfort women” who have come to the area every Wednesday for the past twenty years to call for an apology from the Japanese government.

Dressed in a hanbok, traditional Korean outfit, the girl sits on a chair with her fists on her knees, looking quietly toward the embassy. The shadow hanging to the ground beneath the sculpture forms the shape of an elderly woman. A bird sits on the girl's left shoulder, and a butterfly is positioned on the shadow's chest. In addition to representing freedom and peace, the bird is also a spiritual bridge linking the women who have passed away with those who are still alive. The butterfly symbolizes rebirth.

Below the statute is a history of the Wednesday Demonstrations engraved in Korean, English, and Japanese. The empty chair to the girl’s right is a contribution from citizens to offer comfort to the survivors. The peace memorial was likewise made through the actions of citizens.

Jung Sung-im - Civilian in Military

From Business Ghana:

South Korea's military academy has appointed a female civilian as a professor for the first time in its history, an academy official said Saturday.

The development comes as the male-dominated military is seeking to give more opportunities to women.

Jung Sung-im, a former research fellow of Ewha Womans University,became the first woman and civilian professor to have a full-time teaching position at the Korea Military Academy, the official said.

Jung said she had taught cadets at the academy as a lecturer for the past nine years before being named a full-time professor on Friday.

Jung will teach politics and national security as a civilian worker in the military, beginning in the second semester, the official said.

So far, only army officers have taught cadets as full-time employees at the academy.

In a related development, all female college students are eligible to join the military's Reserve Officers' Training Corps program, beginning this year.

There are some 6,400 female commissioned officers and non-commissioned officers in the country's 655,000-strong military. Women are not required to complete military service.

Korea: Song Myung-soon - Interview

From Arirang:

The South Korean army named its first female combatant general in the 60 years of its history. Army Colonel Song Myung-soon, who was promoted to brigadier general, said her promotion means the country recognizes the important role of female soldiers.

South Korea: Women Put Marriage On Hold

From Bernama:

A growing number of South Korean women in their late twenties, considered as the ideal age for marriage, are reluctant to tie the knot, said China's Xinhua news agency citing a report by the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHSA) revealed on Wednesday.

The unmarried rate among women aged between 25 and 29 surged to 59.1 percent in 2005 from 11.8 percent in 1975, the report said.

With the drastic growth in the number of single women in their late twenties, two out of three women hit their thirties without a spouse, it said.

Changed attitudes toward marriage are also apparent even among married women. Only 14 percent of married women saw marriage as necessary, according to the report.

The report said that 59.4 percent of singles, including both men and women, said they are not getting married because of value-related reasons, such as self-development and the pursuit of further education. Economic problems, with 31.9 percent, are the second most common reason for remaining unmarried.

South Korea in recent years has been grappling with the low birth rate. "Marriage-friendly policies along with reducing the age for first marriage should be devised," Byun Yong-chan, researcher at the KIHSA was quoted by local media as saying.

Korea: Groom School

From the Chosun Ilbo:

Of the 309,759 couples who tied the knot in Korea last year, 33,300 or around 10 percent were of different ethnic origin. Some 110,000 women from China, Mongolia and Southeast Asian countries live in Korea, many of them married to Koreans they barely knew before marriage and headed for an acrimonious divorce.

In order to deal with these problems, the Justice Ministry on Sunday announced plans requiring Korean men who want to marry a foreign woman to attend classes on "marriage ethics." The classes will start this August at immigration offices before men head out to China or Southeast Asia in search of a foreign bride. Each class will last three to four hours and will focus on teaching men that it is wrong to think that they are buying a wife and to hide things about themselves like previous marriages or problems with alcohol. The government will not grant visas to foreign brides of men who failed to take those classes.

Korea: Female Unemployed

From Asia One Business:

Almost 200,000 unemployed women have college degrees, according to a report by the state-run statistics office.

According to Statistics Korea, the number of unemployed female college graduates was 196,000 last month, the highest number since 1999, when the office started to collect data on the education level of unemployed women.

This accounts for about 40 percent of the total number of women without jobs, the report said.

The number includes 107,000 women who graduated from a four-year college. The rest were two-year college graduates, the report said.

Korea: The Female Factor

From the New York Times:

So many women have entered public service in recent years that, in 2003, the government revised its quota system. In 1996 it had begun mandating that at least 30 percent of new hires in all government departments except the police and military be women. Now, because so many women have succeeded in competing for these jobs, it is applying the minimum 30 percent quota for men as well.

The recent surge of women in the public sector is an outcome of government efforts to expand democracy after decades of military rule, to combat economic stagnation by bringing more well-educated women into the paid work force and to check the country’s plummeting birthrate, attributed in part to the difficulties South Korean women face trying to combine careers and motherhood.

Faced with all this, it has been the government that has led the way to expand women’s rights. Since the mid-1990s, it has enacted laws addressing issues like sexual and domestic violence.

Korean: Ancient Girl Reconstructed

From JoonAng Daily:
At the National Palace Museum of Korea yesterday officials from the Gaya National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage in Korea unveiled the restored model of the girl from the Gaya confederacy era (42-562).

The restoration is the result of two years of interdisciplinary work that brought together experts in archaeology, forensic medicine, anatomy, genetics, chemistry and other fields - a notable step forward in Korean archaeology.

In December 2007, archaeologists discovered the complete remains of the girl and partial remains of three others in a tomb in Changnyeong County, South Gyeongsang. By the time of the discovery, there had already been a grave robbery.

Archaeologists concluded that the four were attendants of the tomb’s owner because they were positioned horizontally. The remains of the owner, however, were missing.

The work revealed that the four people - two women and two men - died in the early sixth century, either due to suffocation or poisoning. Their main diet had been rice, barley and beans as well as meat.

The girl’s age was estimated through an examination of her teeth. She apparently spent much time kneeled down and engaged in the repetitious task of cutting something with her teeth, according to the medical evaluation. She was wearing a golden earring and is believed to have been a maid, not a slave.

Korea: Closing Gender Gap

From Chosun Ilbo:

Many countries are making great strides toward gender equality, but women still lag behind men in political and economic empowerment. This was revealed in Global Gender Gap Index 2009 released on Tuesday by the World Economic Forum of Switzerland.

The index was based on a survey of 134 nations in four categories -- economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, and health and survival. "The Index's scores can be interpreted as the percentage of the gap that has been closed between women and men," the report said.

Nordic countries had the smallest equality gaps. On a scale of 100, Iceland topped the list with 82.8 points, followed by Finland (82.5 points), Norway (82.3) and Sweden (81.4). Women there find it easy to work outside their home and find a balance between home and work as they benefit from traditionally generous welfare, the report said.

At the bottom, Qatar ranked 125th, followed by other Islamic countries such as Egypt, Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Yemen came last with 46.1 points.

Korea ranked 115th, very close to the bottom. The country slid since its already low ranking of 92nd in 2006 when this survey was started, dropping to 97th in 2007 and 108th in 2008.

Korea: Unwed Mothers

From The New York Times:

Four years ago, when she found that she was pregnant by her former boyfriend, Choi Hyong-sook considered abortion. But after she saw the little blip of her baby’s heartbeat on ultrasound images, she could not go through with it.

Now, Ms. Choi and other women in her situation are trying to set up the country’s first unwed mothers association to defend their right to raise their own children. It is a small but unusual first step in a society that ostracizes unmarried mothers to such an extent that Koreans often describe things as outrageous by comparing them to “an unmarried woman seeking an excuse to give birth.”

The fledgling group of women — only 40 are involved so far — is striking at one of the great ironies of South Korea. The government and commentators fret over the country’s birthrate, one of the world’s lowest, and deplore South Korea’s international reputation as a baby exporter for foreign adoptions.

Yet each year, social pressure drives thousands of unmarried women to choose between abortion, which is illegal but rampant, and adoption, which is considered socially shameful but is encouraged by the government. The few women who decide to raise a child alone risk a life of poverty and disgrace.

Nearly 90 percent of the 1,250 South Korean children adopted abroad last year, most of them by American couples, were born to unmarried women, according to the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs.

Reading: Women Take the Lead

From the Korean Times:

The more culturally aggressive nature of the female half of the population is behind new statistics that show women read more than men, a book publicist said Wednesday.

A survey by online recruiter, www.incruit.com, showed that of 906 salaried workers, women outnumbered men in the number of books they read by 3.9 to 2.6 per month.

About 31 percent were self-help titles, while those in the genres of classical literature, business, sociology and real estate followed.

In contrast, some men feel reading books is feminine. "I read newspapers and magazines but rarely buy books or read them," said one man in his early 40s.

He added that television is another factor blocking his reading habits.

Abortion - and Medication

From the Korea Times:

Many pregnant women make the hasty decision to have an abortion because of medication they were taking when they became pregnant.

The practice is often based on unfounded fears that the medicine could lead to fetal deformities, says Dr. Kim Tae-yoon, head of the gynecological department of Miz Medi Hospital.

"Though doctors assure them that most of the drugs are okay and recommend them to keep the baby, they just ask for the procedure," he said.

Kim's remarks came in response to the Korea Food and Drug Administration's report that about 96,000 women, 10 percent of pregnant women, were having abortions for drug-related reasons each year.

These women say they were unaware of their pregnancy when they were medicated and want to err on the side of caution by having the procedure.

Most had taken weight-loss pills, painkillers, antibiotics, cough drops and anti-histamines.

Abortions are a serious social issue, with the number of procedures reaching 339,818 in 2005. Professor Kim Hae-jung of Korea University said that one out of every five fetuses conceived in Korea is aborted. This rate is nine times that of the United States and 2.5 times that of Japan.

NK Executes Christian Woman

From Fox News:

North Korea publicly executed a Christian woman last month for distributing the Bible, which is banned in the communist nation, South Korean activists said Friday.

Ri Hyon Ok, 33, was also accused of spying for South Korea and the United States and organizing dissidents. She was executed in the northwestern city of Ryongchon near the border with China on June 16, according to a report from an alliance of several dozen anti-North Korea groups.

Ri's parents, husband and three children were sent to a political prison camp in the northeastern city of Hoeryong the following day, the report said, citing unidentified documents it says were obtained from North Korea. It showed a copy of Ri's North Korean government-issued photo ID. It is virtually impossible to verify such reports about secretive North Korea, where the government tightly controls the lives of its citizens and does not allow dissent.

On Thursday, an annual report from a state-run South Korean think tank on human rights in the North said that public executions, though dropping in number in recent years, were still carried out for crimes ranging from murder to circulating foreign movies.

North Korea claims to guarantee freedom of religion for its 24 million people but in reality severely restricts religious observances. The cult of personality surrounding national founder Kim Il Sung and his son, current leader Kim Jong Il, is a virtual state religion.

The government has authorized four state churches, one Catholic, two Protestant and one Russian Orthodox, but they cater to foreigners and ordinary North Koreans cannot attend. However, defectors and activists say more than 30,000 North Koreans are believed to practice Christianity secretly.

The U.S. State Department reported last year that "genuine religious freedom does not exist" in North Korea.

"North Korea appears to have judged that Christian forces could pose a threat to its regime," Do Hee-youn, a leading activist, told reporters, claiming public executions, arrest and detention of North Koreans are prevalent.

Ancient Women

Two stories featuring the discovery of the remains of ancient women.

From UB Post / Mongol News:
"An ancient female skeleton discovered along the Tuul River, some 55 kilometers outside Ulaanbaatar, may be more remarkable for when she lived rather than who she was. After examining earrings and rings discovered amongst the remains, Kh. Lkhagvasuren, an archaeologist who heads the Mongolian Historical and Cultural Heritage Center, said this week that the woman was likely a contemporary of Chinggis Khaan. The discovery is an important one for the discipline and for Mongolia as physical evidence from that period remains rare.

While an examination of the skeleton—specifically the skull and waist—revealed that it belonged to a teenage female, not much else is known about the young woman’s life. The body was buried in a wooden coffin—thought in some circles to be a common Mongol practice at the time—and the trinkets found with it suggest the woman was neither wealthy nor powerful in life."


And from Chosun:
"A well-preserved adult female skeleton dating back 2,000 years ago has been unearthed in Yeongjong Island, Incheon."