Holding Up Half the Sky

By Wang Hairong

Women have made unprecedented historical achievements， demonstrating that they can hold up half the sky， said Vice Premier Sun Chunlan at the closing ceremony of the 12th National Womens Congress held in Beijing from October 30 to November 2.

As part of the contributors to the current e-commerce boom in China， for example， women comprise 55 percent of e-business owners， according to the AllChina Womens Federation.

Official statistics show that women made up 43.1 percent of Chinas workforce in 2016， 51.9 percent of central government civil servants in 2015， and approximately a quarter of all entrepreneurs in the country in 2015.

Sun emphasized the formulation and implementation of policies promoting gender equality， with a focus on tackling employment discrimination and improving education and public health services for women， so as to create conditions for them to devote themselves to innovation and entrepreneurship and play a unique role in society.

Lin Yan is a senior engineer of psychological testing and document inspection at the technical division of the Public Security Bureau in Qingdao City， east Chinas Shandong Province. Over more than 10 years， as a lie-detecting expert， she has tested more than 1，280 suspects， directly leading to the cracking of 265 cases， according to the All-Womens Federation of Shandong.

More than simply administering lie detector tests， Lin carefully observes the minutest details in suspects body language， meticulously carries out multichannel testing and validation and conducts comprehensive analysis.

Inspired by a detective movie， she has developed computer software to capture pupil movements， facial expressions， semantic variations and other signs， filling a vacuum in the lie detection fi eld in China.

Lin has creatively introduced the threedimensional street scene map into lie detection. She once successfully located material evidence in a murder case by monitoring the reaction of the suspect while he watched the street scene. The suspect was confi rmed to have disposed of the evidence in a ditch 20 km away from the crime scene. Her work led to the settling of the three-year-old cold case.

Lin grew up in a family that believed there was nothing a girl couldnt do. Her father is a police officer and her mother is an independent woman who supports police work and taught her children to be independent as well.

In 1996， Lin became a police officer and as she continued to learn new skills on the job， she honed her lie-detecting expertise. Because of her outstanding performance， she was elected as a deputy to the womens congress this year.

Speaking up for children

Zhen Lanfang， 47， has been to Beijing three times. Once for sightseeing， the second on a business trip， and the third as a deputy to the National Peoples Congress （NPC） in March this year and the principal of the Central Primary School of Wenping Town in southwest Chinas Yunnan Province.

The current NPC has 742 women deputies， accounting for 24.9 percent of the total， the highest proportion in the congress history， according to official statistics. Zhen started teaching in a primary school in Yunnan after graduating in 1991. She was promoted to principal of the Central Primary School in 2017， managing more than 3，000 students and more than 300 teachers and staff members. Zhen said that in order to improve her management abilities， she has done a lot of reading and overcome many diffi culties.

She was honored to have been elected to the NPC. “The people elected me as a deputy， so I should represent the people，”she said， adding that she will do her best to perform her duties and bring childrens voices to Beijing.

Zhen said she is gratified with the improvement in the educational conditions in rural schools. With government support， seven schools in her town have added new buildings， libraries， laboratories and rooms for music， sports and fi ne art classes.

She thinks more work needs to be done to improve rural education. Realizing that at present rural schools are short of teachers， she suggested that the recruitment of teachers in the compulsory education stage be accelerated， that teachers be allocated rationally and trained better， and that stronger measures be taken to keep good teachers in rural schools.

Deciphering life science

Born in northeast China， Wang Xiujie never dreamed of being a celebrated scientist. Today， she is director of the Center of Molecular Systems Biology at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“In the whole process of innovationdriven development， women scientists and researchers have made great contributions and the government has given strong support to women scientists and researchers，”Wang told the media in 2017 while participating in the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. She said that there are national and local-level awards specifically offered to women researchers， while the National Natural Science Foundation of China provides more opportunities to outstanding women to receive research funds.

Wang majored in biology at Tianjinbased Nankai University in 1998， and earned her masters degree in biochemistry from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2000， and four years later， she received her Ph.D. degree in bioinformatics from the U.S. Rockefeller University. Returning to China upon graduation， she became a doctoral candidate instructor.

Currently， her team focuses on developing novel computational methods to analyze genomics and other large-scale biological data.

For more than a decade， Wangs team has been researching non-coding RNAs. In the past， non-coding RNAs were considered useless because they could not be translated to produce proteins. It was only in the current decade that non-coding RNAs were recognized to have important regulatory functions. Their research sheds light on the treatment of some diseases such as herpes. The team won the second class of the National Natural Science Award in both 2014 and 2016.

Riding the e-commerce tide

A former model， Zhang Dayi has turned her taste for fashion into a fortune. The online store she opened on e-commerce platform Taobao has been a huge success. In 2014， the stores annual sales exceeded 100 million yuan （$14.4 million）.

During the November 11 shopping festival in 2016， her store shot to the top 10 in sales of womens attire on Taobao. As an Internet celebrity， she often live streams her products and their production process， which has brought in a large number of orders.

While Zhang thrives on the Internet economy， Lin Yaqian， Chairperson of the Womens Entrepreneurs E-Commerce Alliance in Tongshan County， Hubei Province， helps women to start e-businesses. Lin Yaqian was also a delegate to the 12th National Womens Congress. In 2016， she set up an organization called Womens Help to provide e-commerce training and organize cultural activities for women. The organization also connects women business starters with potential suppliers and offers free offi ce space and offi ce support services.

“I want women to get rich both in their pockets and minds through the Womens Help platform，“ Lin Yaqian told Beijing Review. At the womens congress， she proposed creating more opportunities for women to work at home or near home so that they can take care of their young children while working. E-business provides such an opportunity， she said.