The Nüshu script is used to write a local dialect of Chinese known as Xiangnan Tuhua (, 'Southern Hunanese Tuhua') that is spoken by the people of the Xiao and Yongming River region of northern Jiangyong County, Hunan. In addition to speaking Tuhua, most local people in Jiangyong are bilingual in the Hunan dialect of Southwestern Mandarin, which they use for communication with people from outside the area that Tuhua is spoken, as well as for some formal occasions. If Hunan Southwestern Mandarin is written, then it is always written using standard Chinese characters, and not with the Nüshu script. In the sex-segregated world of traditional China, girls and women did not have the same access to literacy as boys and men, though throughout China's history, there were always women who could read and write; by late imperial times, women's poetry became a matter of considerable family pride in elite circles. It is not known when or how nüshu came into being, but, because it is clearly bas