Self-taught reader turns writer, publishing 5th book

Jiang Shumei has recently published her fifth book, a collection of 100 folk rhyming songs and 47 folk tales, as well as 50 illustrations she created. 

So it comes as a surprise to learn that the 82-year-old woman from Suihua, Northeast China's Heilongjiang province was illiterate for much of her life.

In 1996, her husband died in a car crash accident. Seeking distraction, she began learning to read, something she had never learned to do before.

Inspired by what she had read, Jiang began learning to write Chinese characters in 2012, and just one year later, she published her first book, a 120,000-word nonfiction work with incredible tales from the past century.

"I didn't have much time to learn the most basic knowledge such as pinyin, but I had my own method," she said. "I repeated and created some rhyming songs, as well as simple poetic verses, and then asked my grandchildren to write them down. After repeatedly reading the characters one by one, I could memorize them,"she explained.

In May 2012, Jiang moved to live with her eldest daughter Zhang Ailing, who is an author herself. 

"My mother told me that she had lots of interesting stories about the old days and she wanted to tell me, which could help me create more excellent literary works," said Zhang, 52, a teacher of Chinese writing at Suihua University. "However, I was too busy with my work at that time, so I suggested she could try to write down the stories herself. She categorically refused me at first, but finally decided to have a try after some encouragement."