A life of service
Veteran NPC deputy with storied history continues to break records
Sporting her signature dark blue suit and short bob haircut, Shen Jilan, 89, arrived in Beijing to participate in this year’s two sessions.
No one in China has managed to break her record as the longest-serving deputy of the National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s top legislature.
Shen, from North China’s Shanxi Province, was reelected as an NPC deputy in January. She has been elected as an NPC deputy 13 consecutive times since the first NPC in 1954. Her latest tenure will end in 2023, by which time she will be 93.
A farmer from Shanxi’s Xigou village, Shen is viewed by many as representative of the openness of the country’s political system, as it is not limited to elites, but includes people from all walks of life.
However, in recent years Shen has been criticized by some who are unsatisfied with her after she told the media in 2013 that she had never cast a “no” vote against any proposals at the NPC, bringing her capability and credibility in participating in State affairs into question.
Although Shen often says she is only a farmer, she has nevertheless become a political symbol.
Age no barrier
“You think I’m old? Try arm wrestling with me,” the octogenarian told the People’s Daily reporter when he visited. “Back in the old days, I competed with male villagers doing much tougher work, and I never lost,” she laughed.
Shen, born in 1929, only has a primary school education. Despite this, she reached a major turning point in her life when she turned 24.
That year, she was elected as deputy director of the village cooperative.
Back then, as China adopted the “people’s commune system” in its rural areas, farmers’ payments were based on their daily work points. While men earned 10 points for a day’s work, women earned only five, as they were believed to work less.
Shen mobilized women in the village to work more and pushed for equal pay for them. In order to prove women were as good as men, she proposed holding labor competitions. Plowing the land, stirring feces… Everything the men did, she wanted to do better.
The following year, the People’s Daily published an article praising Shen’s work in Xigou, bringing her national fame overnight.
She then joined the Communist Party of China and was awarded the title of National Model Worker.
In 1954, the then 25-year-old Shen participated in the first NPC as a representative of rural residents. “My heart beat like a drum when I sat there,” recalled Shen of her early days as an NPC deputy in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency. “Imagine, I was one of just 147 female deputies in the 1,200-member Congress. Everything was new to me.”
In 1973, Shen was appointed to the position of director of the Shanxi Women’s Federation (SWF).
After taking on these political roles, Shen made efforts to improve her literary ability and broaden her knowledge so that she could keep up with the new job requirements.
In 1978, the opening day for the NPC was fixed and scheduled to be held every five years. From that point on, the deputies’ roles were broadened. They were not only required to turn up, but also to bring their own proposals and suggestions.
Shen, then 50 years old, started to learn more words, read newspapers and study the Party’s new policies.
In previous decades, Shen put forward dozens of proposals focusing on almost every aspect of rural development, including rural transportation, farmland protection and village elections.
“Deputies today are well-educated and highly qualified,” she told the Procurator Daily.
Facing controversy
In 2013, Shen came under scrutiny after she told the media she had never voted against any proposals at the NPC.
Her words annoyed the public. Netizens said a deputy who can only applaud cannot represent the people. Some suggested that she should be replaced by people who are more active in expressing their opinions in national affairs.
Then, an old article that claimed Shen had never communicated with the public surfaced and went viral on the Internet. But her words had been misrepresented. In the original article, she had only said that she didn’t like to talk to voters to win ballots.
Other articles also came out saying that she made millions of yuan from various businesses. A search for Shen’s name on the search engine baidu.com still produces several articles and discussions about her.
Shen devoted herself to business after retiring as director of the SWF. She opened a ferroalloy plant in Xigou village, hoping to help the 2,100 villagers become prosperous.
However, she later decided to close the factory. “Our factory emitted too many pollutants, which was against Party and government policies. Anything that’s against government policy, we won’t do,” she said.
Later, she cooperated with a local businessman to open a beverage company, which saw strong sales.
But she was not paid by the company, according to a report by the 21st Century Business Herald, which interviewed the company’s staff. Shen did not respond to these accusations and claims.
Despite these attacks, Shen does have her fans. After learning about her story, businessman Si Deming in Shanxi was so moved that he invested 7 million yuan ($1.11 million) in making a film about her life.
Other defenders of Shen have elevated her into a symbol of China’s NPC system, with some leftists going as far as saying that people who are against Shen are actually against China’s political system.