The Chinese language only introduced a feminine pronoun in the 1920s. Now, it might adopt a gender-inclusive one, suggests JANET DAVEY
Top-notch biblical folk-tale
SIMON PARSONS recommends a musical retelling of the Old Testament story of the sexual awakening of a young childless bride

Song of Songs
Park Theatre, London
INSPIRED by the Old Testament book also known as the Song of Solomon, this award-winning musical play sets out to explore the themes at the heart of the biblical collection of erotic love poems without the religious context.
The simple plot, told as a traditional folk story by the mad, wandering poetess of love is that of a young woman Tirzah, forced into a loveless, unfulfilling marriage who is only awakened to the intense power of desire with the arrival of mysterious love letters that spark her sexual liberation and empower her as a woman.
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