Most Chinese know the story of mythological Chang'e. It's a story about a woman who takes an immorality pill and flies to the moon. The story is s0 popular that people can't hear the word Chang'e without thinking of romantic images of a moon goddess.
For this reason, China's mission to the moon was calling for a strong female figure. Therefore, pictures of a 24-year-old female space commander have gone viral on Chinese social media for her work on the Chang'e-5 Moon exploration programme with comments about how she is a "frontline soklier in the field of aerospace" that young Chinese can look up to.
Ms Zhou, 24-year-old lady of the Tujia ethnic group, is China's youngest ever space commander. She was involved in the successful launch of the Chang'e-5 lunar probe on 24 November, in charge of the rocket connector system, described as a key role.
In Wenchang space launch site, though she is only 1.58 meters tall and looks "mini", she is called "Big Sister" for her powerful core and energy. Since senior high, she has dreamed! of being a member of a space research team. With her great efforts, she was admitted to an aircraft system and engineering major of a domestic university in 2014, making her acrospace dream come true. To grow into a commander, in two and a half years, she changed five positions to be familiar with multiple posts and types of work, each of which takes great courage and is full of challenges. In a working space with no air conditioning and narrow space to accommodate only three people, she worked for 60 days until the completion of "the Long March 5 rocket goes around" battle.
Her story has received attention from Chinese state-run media as well as overseas media outlets. However, it has not appeared to have had much of an effect on her. According to the media, she declined repeated requests for interviews because she does not wish to let fame get in the way of her work.
