Women who shine in all walks of life

Dong Lina, content creator, Liaoning province

Dong Lina, 40-year-old, is the first visually impaired person in China to get a master's degree in radio and television broadcasting.

Born into a farming family in Dalian, Liaoning province, Dong was diagnosed with congenital amblyopia and lost her sight at the age of 10 but she never stopped pursuing her education, even during the three years she worked as a masseuse after graduating from secondary school.

Dong started her full-time master's candidate journey at Communication University of China in 2020. By using accessibility technology provided, such as Braille test papers and electronic documents, Dong read tens of thousands of pages in Chinese and English using screen reading software, conducted interviews with visually impaired people, and screened around 100 accessible movies to complete her 60,000-word thesis.

Dong made a speech at the university as the representative of the 2023 graduating class. Later, she became a freelancer, who manages her own accounts on social media. "I also want to do more creative things to communicate with other people, and create more resonance," she said.