[PW] "Most admired woman in china"

[Frances Hammond]

Help!  We have a client trying to find the name of a woman who became known as the "most admired woman in China".  The client is not very clear about any details (and gets less clear the more I ask) however I understand the aforementioned woman is not political (not Madam Chiang or any of Mao's wives) and was held up as an example (possibly from a survey or list), probably in the 1950's (but may be later) (Not Hillary Clinton who you find if you search the web!).  I've had a preliminary hunt through our resources on Chinese women but short of reading them all from cover to cover I'm not having much luck - possible she's one of the women designated an "Agricultural production heroine of the North East"  (a publication quoted in Delia Davin's "Women's work : women in party in revolutionary China") but I can't find the sobriquet "most admired" anywhere.  Possibly tied in to reform of marriage laws and the reduction of infanticide of girl-children (client has mentioned the infanticide bit).  I've also had a bit of a hunt through our Ebscohost databases and Encyclopedia Britannica without any joy and I'm not keen on reading through the "Biographical dictionary of Chinese Women" on what is possibly a wild goose (or should that be swan?) chase.

Anyone have any ideas?  

Frances Hammond
Reference Librarian
Business Specialist
State Reference Library
State Library of WA

ph: 08 9427 3456
email: frances.hammond at slwa.wa.gov.au

If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have asked for a faster horse... Henry Ford