there is a movie out now, or going out ? called "snow flower and the secret fan". Set in an historical Chinese period. I have a hard time w/ Chinese/ Asian culture somehow, its too alien or something, anyway didnt want to see it.
Before this, Id listened to an interview with the writer on NPR, still didnt want to read it.
Today, I ran into the book (a sort of "catch and release" thing - you find it in public, read it and then "set it free" in a public place for someone else to read) - thought it was God's way of saying - "look, the Chinese are my humans too, learn about them!", so I picked it up and started to read and I cant put it down! Very interesting. It centers around women, and a language they invented for writing to each other in a specific area of China. The language was passed from woman to woman over 1000 yrs.
The book is much deeper than this, and very interesting to say the least. sharet