Women's voices spill out of Hidden Letters

In 2017, after the birth of her daughter, she found herself struggling to juggle her many roles as a woman. Feeling overwhelmed, she thought of nyushu and the women behind it.

"Women in the past faced conditions far more difficult than ours, yet they chose a path of wisdom, by creating their own medium to empower themselves, which I think is extraordinary," Feng says.

"So I thought of combining nyushu with contemporary women's stories. Rather than presenting it as an intangible cultural heritage, I want it to stay alive in the present and being integrated into modern narratives. Through the stories of contemporary women, I'd like to explore answers to our universal problems."

While the documentary presents both women's struggles, they are also shown to find empowerment in the script.

Hu forms a close bond with 84-year-old He Yanxin, an inheritor who learned nyushu from her grandmother at the age of 10, and is now known as one of the last users and witnesses of it as a natural language.

"I think true strength is to be able to face everything with a composed and calm demeanor. As an inheritor, my efforts have allowed more people to understand and appreciate nyushu. With the growing attention and recognition received by the script, its strength reflects back on me, empowering me in turn," Hu says.