The stories of 10 women, named the "2026 Most Beautiful Women Strivers," were released on International Women's Day (March 8) by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the All-China Women's Federation. Some of the women were pioneers in scientific research. Others led their fellow villagers in achieving prosperity and promoting rural revitalization. Still others provided warm services, from their grassroots posts, to residents. Their stories will encourage women across China to make achievements on the new journey of building a great modern socialist country in all respects, and advancing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Ascending Peak of Science, Technology
Zhu Beiwei, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and director of State Key Laboratory of Marine Food Processing and Safety Control, under Dalian Polytechnic University (DLPU), has conducted research into refined and deep processing of aquatic and agricultural products for more than 40 years.
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Zhu Beiwei |
After Zhu graduated from DLPU, in 1982, she was recruited to teach at the university. To ensure the quality of each class, she prepared a small blackboard, at home, and she practiced many times to improve her lessons.
Since 2013, when she was elected academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, she has developed a talent-cultivation mode oriented to social needs, and which highlights the role of research teams and projects. She has cultivated a group of young, high-level talents in food sciences.
Zhu believes "the value of scientific research lies in resolving practical problems." With that thought in mind, she led her team in inventing the technology that helps facilitate the storage and processing of sea cucumber and makes nutrients of sea cucumber easier to absorb. The technology realizes the breakthrough in sea cucumber processing theory and technology, and it helps upgrade the whole sea cucumber industrial chain.
Key members of Zhu's research team are women. With support from women's federations, at all levels, the team has established a leading marine food research and development application platform, and it has been tasked with overseeing more than 40 major projects supported by the National Key Research and Development Program, and the National Natural Science Fund.
The team's research results have been adopted by 60-plus enterprises, and have generated a combined output value of 100 billion yuan (US $14.29 billion).
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Zhang Yuhua |
Zhang Yuhua, standing member of the science and technology committee of Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST), is a pioneer in China's deep-space exploration. During the past three decades, she has made significant contributions to China's manned spaceflight, and to the nation's lunar- and Mars-exploration projects.
Zhang joined No. 805 Institute, under SAST, in 1990. She was determined to make achievements as a woman spaceflight engineer. From 1999 to 2007, Zhang led her team in completing the range test and launch missions of the Shenzhou I-VII spaceships. In 2004, Zhang and her team worked on the second-phase study and research into China's lunar-exploration program.
The team's efforts contributed to the 2013 successful launch of Chang'e-3 lunar lander. In recent years, Zhang has given lectures in colleges and primary and middle schools, and during those talks she has explained how Chang'e lander and Tianwen Mars probe carried out their missions. "I hope the lectures will help students know Chinese are able to reach deep space and be a leader in this field," she says.
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Ren Pingping |
Ren Pingping, deputy Party (CPC) secretary and vice-president of iFLYTEK Co., Ltd., has been promoting adoption of AI (artificial intelligence) technology in education for several years. In 2017, she led her team in launching an AI education-themed, public-welfare project. The project, intended to provide diverse, interesting curriculum to students, especially those in western areas of China, can help improve the efficiency of teaching and learning. AI-based learning tools and classes in AI technology have been provided to students. The project has benefited more than 1,200 schools in China's remote areas.
Ren has also led the development and promotion of smart-education solutions, and her company's smart-education services have benefited more than 50,000 schools in China.
Contributing to Rural Revitalization
During the past two decades, Han Li, secretary of the general Party branch, and chief of Chaoyang, a village in Dongliao, a county in Northeast China's Jilin Province, has led villagers in building their hometown into a prosperous community, with thriving businesses.
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Han Li |
To promote agricultural development, Han and the village's cadres have encouraged villagers to make good use of their land, through land transfers, and they have encouraged villagers, especially women, to work at collectively owned enterprises, including sock manufacturers and agricultural-processing plants.
Han has also leveraged the village's advantages, in natural and ethnic-cultural resources, to promote the integrated development of culture, tourism, sports and agriculture.
In 2024, the annual per capita income in the village reached 40,000 yuan (US $5,714), and combined revenues of the village's collective businesses reached 9.6 million yuan (US $1.37 million).
Under Han's leadership, Chaoyang has earned many honorary titles, including National Civilized Village, National Model Village for Promoting Ethnic Unity and Progress, and National Model Village for Rural Governance.
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Zhu Xuelan |
Since 2008, Zhu Xuelan, Party secretary of Shanping, a village in Cangwu, a county in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, has spared no effort in helping villagers increase their incomes, by developing local specialty-related businesses.
The craft of making Liubao Tea (a kind of dark tea grown in Liubao, a town in Cangwu) was added to China's list of national intangible cultural heritage in 2014. As a regional-level inheritor, Zhu has taught the craft to residents in Shanping, and neighboring areas, for free. More than 80 residents have become skilled tea producers.
Zhu has led villagers in establishing a tea cooperative, a public tea storehouse and a standardized tea plant. The tea-growing area in Shanping has expanded from 300 mu (20 hectares) to 3,700 mu (246.7 hectares). More than 2,000 farmers have increased their incomes by working in the tea industry.
With the integration of Yao ethnic culture and Liubao Tea culture, in recent years, Zhu has led the village in developing tea-culture tourism, which involves tourism, tea planting, production and processing, sightseeing and science education.
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He Jiaolong (right) |
He Jiaolong, director of the agricultural product brand development and marketing service center of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (in Northwest China), has devoted herself to using the Internet to promote Xinjiang's high-quality agricultural products to all regions of China.
In January 2026, she fell off a horse while filming an agricultural-products-promotion program. She died from injuries sustained during that accident. She was 47.
He, then-deputy mayor of Zhaosu, a county in Xinjiang, began promoting local tourism and agricultural specialties, through short videos and live streams, in 2020. In November that year, a short video, in which she rode a horse wearing a red cape in the snowy grassland, to promote local tourism, went viral. The video racked up more than 100 million views in just three days.
To promote agricultural products, she played a key role in the creation of the brand, Tasting Xinjiang, and she established a strict product-access and source-tracking system.
He refused to receive payments for her live streams; instead, she donated all of the tips from her viewers to charities.
During the five years prior to her death, He led her team in organizing 55 charitable activities, and in donating 11.1 million yuan (US $1.59 million) in cash and materials.
True to Original Aspirations
Lan Zhen is a teacher and secretary of the Party Committee of Zhangzhou Experimental Primary School, in Zhangzhou, a city in Southeast China's Fujian Province. Why has she excelled as a teacher?
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Lan Zhen |
Lan has outstanding Chinese-language-teaching skills, and she has made all-out efforts to help improve rural education in China during the past 30-plus years. Lan has focused on stimulating students' interests in learning, and in enhancing their comprehensive qualities. As one of Fujian's leaders in primary and middle school Chinese-language teaching, she has given 96 public lessons/lectures during national-, provincial- and municipal-level events.
While she remained true to her original aspiration of cultivating virtuous children, she evolved into a pioneer in political and ideological education, by giving 120 lectures.
In 2013, Lan established a studio (in Zhangzhou) dedicated to helping rural teachers improve their teaching skills. The Rural Teachers' Training Plan was implemented, through the studio, during which one-on-one guidance, and all-round-skills training, has been provided to rural teachers, based on their needs.
To date, 1,132 teachers, including those in remote areas, have benefited from 18 free training sessions in Zhangzhou. The recipients have provided quality education in more than 100 rural primary schools.
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Chen Yuwen |
Chen Yuwen, a retired teacher in Jiangwucheng, a town in Cixian, a county in North China's Hebei Province, became a role model for her benevolence. In 2009, Cixian Women's Federation called on local women to provide paired-up assistance to orphans and/or children facing difficulties. Chen volunteered, and she took good care of an orphaned girl, until the girl became an adult.
In 2011, after Chen realized many local children, whose parents lived and worked elsewhere, needed care and assistance, she and her husband, Zhang Zilu, transformed their house into a free, after-school activity center. Children can eat their meals, do their homework and play with each other in the center.
During the past 17 years, Chen has provided daily care, and psychological guidance and academic tutoring, to more than 100 children in need. Those who have benefited from Chen's assistance have carried on her spirit of selflessly helping others. More than 40 volunteers currently help Chen in the center.
"Making the community a better place" is the original mission of Dongxiang Good Moms' Station, in Shanyang District, in Jiaozuo, a city in Central China's Henan Province. The station was established in 2016, and its Party branch was founded in April 2017. Now, the station has more than 3,000 volunteers, whose average age is older than 60.
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Zhang Dongxiang |
Zhang Dongxiang, head and Party secretary of the station, and president of the station's women's federation, has devoted herself to helping local residents solve problems. Under her leadership, the station's 50-plus teams of mediators have solved more than 11,000 disputes through professional mediation.
Through a special, daily radio program, she has organized volunteers to help publicize revolutionary stories, and the Party's guiding principles and policies. The volunteers have also given lectures to foster good family traditions, and they have provided psychological guidance, elder-care services and assistance to children facing difficulties.
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He Hongmei |
He Hongmei, deputy director of the Broadcasting Department of News Center of China Media Group, has fulfilled her mission as a newscaster, with exceptional skills, and with a strong sense of responsibility.
During the past five years, she has filed more than 600 reports involving major political events, including live reports on the 20th CPC National Congress (in 2022), and on the military parade that marked the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War (in September 2025). She has also narrated more than 100 documentaries.
Photos from VCG
Sources: People's Daily and Women Voice
(Women of China English Monthly April 2026)
Editor: Wang Shasha
