AI Nüshu (AI女书)
1.jpg | Credits: Yuqian Sun
2.jpg | Credits: Yuqian Sun
3.jpg | Credits: Yuqian Sun
4.jpg | Credits: Yuqian Sun
final_show.png | Credits: Yuqian Sun
final_show_2.png | Credits: Yuqian Sun
state.jpg | Credits: Yuqian Sun
artpl_143s1_figure08.jpg | Credits: Yuqian Sun
Nüshu (女书), also called "Women's Script," is a unique language created and used exclusively for centuries by women in Hunan Province, China, to communicate in Chinese when they were excluded from formal education. Can AI learn from pre-modern Chinese women and create their own secret language?
AI Nüshu is an interactive installation that merges computational linguistics with the legacy of Nüshu. It trains AI agents to imitate illiterate women in pre-modern China to create a new language system, symbolizing the defiance against patriarchal constraints and the emergence of language in a non-Western, feminist context.
This is the first art project to interpret Nüshu from a computational linguistics perspective. Two AI agents simulate how Chinese women developed a unique language under the constraints of a patriarchal society. This cultural phenomenon resonates with the emergence of non-human machine language under human authority, both metaphorically and practically. As this new language is decipherable and learnable by humans, it inherently challenges the existing paradigm where humans are the linguistic authorities and machines are the learners.
Nüshu (女书), also called "Women's Script," is a unique language created and used exclusively for centuries by women in Hunan Province, China, to communicate in Chinese when they were excluded from formal education. Can AI learn from pre-modern Chinese women and create their own secret language?
AI Nüshu is an interactive installation that merges computational linguistics with the legacy of Nüshu. It trains AI agents to imitate illiterate women in pre-modern China to create a new language system, symbolizing the defiance against patriarchal constraints and the emergence of language in a non-Western, feminist context.
This is the first art project to interpret Nüshu from a computational linguistics perspective. Two AI agents simulate how Chinese women developed a unique language under the constraints of a patriarchal society. This cultural phenomenon resonates with the emergence of non-human machine language under human authority, both metaphorically and practically. As this new language is decipherable and learnable by humans, it inherently challenges the existing paradigm where humans are the linguistic authorities and machines are the learners.
Director: Yuqian Sun
AI language system development: Zhijun Pan, Yuqian Sun
Unity development: Chuyan Xu
Website development: Hui Yan, Weizheng (Katheryne) Xu, Huichuan Wang
Research work: Yuqian Sun, Yuying Tang, Yanrang Wang
Advisor: Tristan Braud, Zhigang Wang, Chang Hee Lee, Ali Asadipour
With support from: The winner grant from Lumen Prize - Carla Rapoport Award.
Yuqian (Uchan) Sun (CN), also known as CheeseTalk, is an artist and AI researcher based in London. She's a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art, and a research artist at Midjourney Storytelling Lab. Yuqian aims to create 'alive' narrative experiences that extend beyond video games and into our daily lives through conversational AI agents. Yuqian's interdisciplinary arts and research have been featured in galleries and tech conferences, including SIGGRAPH, CVPR, NeurIPS, GDC and New York Times Square. She won the Reddot Design Award and Lumen Prize in 2024.
Yuqian (Uchan) Sun (CN), also known as CheeseTalk, is an artist and AI researcher based in London. She's a PhD candidate at the Royal College of Art, and a research artist at Midjourney Storytelling Lab. Yuqian aims to create 'alive' narrative experiences that extend beyond video games and into our daily lives through conversational AI agents. Yuqian's interdisciplinary arts and research have been featured in galleries and tech conferences, including SIGGRAPH, CVPR, NeurIPS, GDC and New York Times Square. She won the Reddot Design Award and Lumen Prize in 2024.
AI Nüshu is a fantastic interactive art project that merges computational linguistics with the cultural legacy of Nüshu—a unique, centuries-old language developed and used exclusively by women in Hunan Province, China. Deprived of formal education and written language, these women created Nüshu as a secret form of communication and solidarity within a patriarchal society. Drawing inspiration from this historical act of resistance, the project uses AI agents to simulate how these women may have invented their own linguistic system, envisioning a new language that emerges organically from machine learning processes.
In contrast to pre-defined, rule-based artificial languages, AI Nüshu evolves through the agents’ observations and interactions with their environment. It does not follow predetermined linguistic models like Morse code or constructed languages, but rather mirrors the organic, contextual development of human language. By integrating cultural narratives into an AI framework, the project challenges the conventional hierarchy in which humans create and teach language to machines.
The jury recognizes AI Nüshu as a visionary contribution that critically examines the nature of language, agency, and machine learning through a culturally rich and historically resonant lens. At a time when Chinese AI models are accelerating rapidly, this project provides a compelling counter-narrative—rooted in Chinese history and feminist resistance—that interrogates the epistemologies underpinning large language models (LLMs). The project not only highlights the power of marginalized voices but also repositions culture as an essential force in the future development of AI. AI Nüshu exemplifies how art can leverage history, gendered perspectives, and computational innovation to reflect critically on technology, using cultural memory not just as inspiration, but as a transformative tool to shape more inclusive and ethically conscious AI systems.
AI Nüshu is a fantastic interactive art project that merges computational linguistics with the cultural legacy of Nüshu—a unique, centuries-old language developed and used exclusively by women in Hunan Province, China. Deprived of formal education and written language, these women created Nüshu as a secret form of communication and solidarity within a patriarchal society. Drawing inspiration from this historical act of resistance, the project uses AI agents to simulate how these women may have invented their own linguistic system, envisioning a new language that emerges organically from machine learning processes.
In contrast to pre-defined, rule-based artificial languages, AI Nüshu evolves through the agents’ observations and interactions with their environment. It does not follow predetermined linguistic models like Morse code or constructed languages, but rather mirrors the organic, contextual development of human language. By integrating cultural narratives into an AI framework, the project challenges the conventional hierarchy in which humans create and teach language to machines.
The jury recognizes AI Nüshu as a visionary contribution that critically examines the nature of language, agency, and machine learning through a culturally rich and historically resonant lens. At a time when Chinese AI models are accelerating rapidly, this project provides a compelling counter-narrative—rooted in Chinese history and feminist resistance—that interrogates the epistemologies underpinning large language models (LLMs). The project not only highlights the power of marginalized voices but also repositions culture as an essential force in the future development of AI. AI Nüshu exemplifies how art can leverage history, gendered perspectives, and computational innovation to reflect critically on technology, using cultural memory not just as inspiration, but as a transformative tool to shape more inclusive and ethically conscious AI systems.