Shen Jilan (; 29 December 1929 – 28 June 2020) was a Chinese politician affiliated with the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

and former farmer. She had held numerous governance positions and was elected to the

1st National People's Congress The 1st National People's Congress () was in session from 1954 to 1959. It held four sessions in this period. There were 1226 deputies to the Congress. These were the first legislative elections to take place after the founding of the People's R ...

in 1954, and had been re-elected for all the subsequent sittings of the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2,9 ...

over the next 65 years, the only person to have done so. This has led to some commentators calling her the world's longest serving congresswoman.

Biography

Shen was born in

Pingshun County Pingshun County () is a county in the southeast of Shanxi province, China, bordering the provinces of Hebei to the northeast and Henan to the east. It is under the administration of Changzhi city. Climate Notable Persons * Shen Jilan Shen J ...

, Shanxi on 29 December 1929. Her father Song Jinshui () died early. In 1934 her mother Wu Quanxiang () remarried to Shen Hengtai (), a doctor in Pingshun County. Shen Jilan grew up in Pingshun County. In 1943 she responded to a call by

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

and the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party to establish party organisation in Xigou village alongside Li Shunda. Together with other farming families she established a local agricultural labour mutual aid group and defence force and came to prominence within the party through the 1950s based on the success of this local

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

In 1952 she was encouraged by higher powers in the Communist party to widen the cooperative to cover 26 individual farms - the first production cooperative to be established in the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. On the establishment of this wider cooperative Jilan was elected deputy president. She established a working women's group to carry out agricultural work. In 1954, she proposed the addition of the equal pay for equal work clause in the first constitution of China to reduce gender pay gap, and her proposal was adopted. She commented in a 2018 interview: ''"Men got 10 work points a day, but we only got a maximum of five points no matter how much work we did."'' To highlight the unfairness in this approach she organised a manuring contest between the male and female workers - with the female workers winning the contest. Hu Wenxiu, Guo Lanying, Li Hui and Shen Jilan in 1954

Hu Wenxiu, Guo Lanying, Li Hui and Shen Jilan in 1954

In 1953 Shen joined the

and gained widespread media attention due to the success of the farming cooperative. She was elected to the

in 1954 - one of four female representatives from Shanxi province. Of the 1,226 deputies to attend the first congress only 147 were women. She was the only person to have been elected to every session of the

having been returned to the 13th National People's Congress in 2018. In 1973 she became director of the Shanxi Women's Federation, a position she held for ten years, before returning to her home village of Xigou in 1983. During this period China was establishing a market economy and Jilan established herself as an entrepreneur in the local economy. She helped establish a ferroalloy plant, walnut oil factory and cannery in the local area. She was also an integral part of a reforestation plan in Xigou. In 2008, she was chosen as an

Olympic torch The Olympic flame is a symbol used in the Olympic movement. It is also a symbol of continuity between ancient and modern games. Several months before the Olympic Games, the Olympic flame is lit at Olympia, Greece. This ceremony starts the Olym ...

carrier as part of the buildup to the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was reported by local media that she donated 10,000

Chinese yuan The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...

to the 2008 Sichuan earthquake relief. In 2013 her calls for widespread internet regulation were met with controversy by younger people in China. In 2019 she was awarded the highest order of honour in China, the Medal of the Republic. There is a museum dedicated to Jilan's life in Xigou. She was considered a somewhat controversial figure by democracy activists given the fact she never voted against the party and criticised her voting in favour of the Hong Kong security laws in 2020. She died on 28 June 2020 at the age of 90, from stomach cancer.

Personal life

Shen was married to Zhang Hailiang (), a veteran of the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

and later became director of Changzhi Municipal Urban Construction Bureau. The couple had one son and two daughters, in order of birth: Zhang Lizhen (; director in a military hospital in Handan), Zhang Jiangping (; Party chief of Changzhi Municipal Food Bureau), and Zhang Jiang'e (; staff member of Changzhi Municipal Engineering Division).

References