Self-taught reader turns writer, publishing 5th book

Jiang then began to write stories after her daughter explained the principles of writing.

"After writing, I would proofread her drafts and fill in the blanks of the characters that she didn't know how to write," said Zhang. "It was a headache to read them at first because her writing has no space, no punctuation marks and is crammed ever so densely."

But Zhang saw the light of really good stories after careful reading.

"Without gorgeous language, her stories, often 1,000 characters long, are positive, motivated and inspirational," Zhang told China Daily. "I posted the words on my blog and they soon got attention, some from well-known writers and publishers."

In April 2013, a publishing house contacted Jiang asking to sign a publishing contract with her.

Six months later, her first book was published, and in the following six years, the prolific writer published another four books.

"I have finished my sixth book and it will be published very soon," she said. "I feel quite happy to keep my life busy with meaningful things."

"What I have done is not for fame but for passing the stories of old times from generation to generation," she added.