In this picture taken 29 October 2004, Z

JIANGYONG, CHINA: In this picture taken 29 October 2004, Zhou Shuoyi holds a copy of the first dictionary for the Nushu language he published in 2003, as he poses in his home filled with scrolls of the language (background), in Jiangyong, southern tip of central China's Hunan province. The elderly man is the keeper of an ancient, enigmatic language, one which Chinese linguists believe is the only script in the world exclusively used by women, which was passed on from previous generations, and which he paid for with twenty-one years of his life when overzealous communist fervour boiled over into mindless witch hunts and collective violence in Mao Zedong's 1960's. AFP PHOTO/Frederic J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)