China celebrates women who make a difference

Zhang Suli

Pioneering engineer

When she was a young girl, born and raised in a community of railway workers, Zhang Suli quickly grew accustomed to the staccato rhythm of tools striking metal, and she was intrigued by the way technicians manipulated raw steel to forge a range of items and devices. The blue denim of their coveralls was the backdrop to her childhood.

Now, the 46-year-old machine fitter and expert for CRRC Luoyang Co, a leading train manufacturer in Luoyang, her hometown in Henan province, has sharpened her mechanical skills to such a high degree that a workshop has been named after her.

So far, about 40 technicians have been trained there.

She didn't develop her brains and brawn overnight, however. In a traditionally male-dominated industry, Zhang spent plenty of time weeping alone.

In 1992, after finishing a vocational degree at a technical school, Zhang started out in the CRRC metal workshop as a technician responsible for mold production.

She was overwhelmed by the task of carrying steel molds, some weighing more than 20 kilograms, and placing them on shelves.

"The weight was beyond most girls' capacity, and I needed to repeat the grueling task dozens of times a day," she said.

She developed a unique way of raising her spirits.

"For a while, I pretended I was Athena (goddess of wisdom, handicraft and warfare) in Greek Mythology - almighty and invincible," she said.

Zhang does not see her work as a matter of gender difference.

She said determination and practice allowed her to beat male classmates in technical competitions at school, and those victories fed her confidence in the workplace.

What she lacked in physical strength, she made up for with extreme attention to detail, rocksteady hands and a deep thirst for knowledge.

She can drill through the shell of an egg without tearing the thin film inside, and she can slice a sheet of metal to one-fourth the width of a human hair.

In recent years, she has found new pleasure in passing on her techniques to younger trainees, and has been invited to South Korea and European countries to share her experience and work ethic.

"If there is one thing that brings me more joy than seeing a finished product come out of the mold, it is helping to nurture the next generation of machine fitters," she said.