She understands where her priorities lie, but is a writer at heart and is determined to make time to put down the words that bring her such satisfaction. "Of course, the dual status is a challenge to me, and I have to be ready to return to my writing whenever there is time between my official duties," she said.

Tie believes in the old saying that God helps those who help themselves, and it is her positive attitude toward life that helps her to move seamlessly between the roles of a writer and an official.

Award winner

Tie began to write in her teenage years, and to date calculates that she has written works totaling more than 4 million words. The publication of the novel Ah, Xiangxue in 1982 was the turning point in her writing career and also brought her to the attention of the writing community.

The novel is centered around the adventures of a country girl who yearns to know about the outside world and gets on a train by mistake. It won the national prize for short novel that year.

Her mid-length novel The Red Shirt Without Buttons and short story June's Big Topic won her another two national awards in 1984.

The Red Shirt Without Buttons was made into a movie and won the award for best story line of a national film. The film Ah, Xiangxue also won a German film award.

Since 1980, Tie has published a number of short story collections and novels and has become one of China's most well-known writers. Her works mainly depict the lives of Chinese women.

While she once lived in the countryside herself, she does not consider it "life experience" for a writer, but acknowledges the emotional impact it made on her.

"That period of rural life is a process of accumulated feelings of the heart, which has enriched my mind," she said.

That is why her early works mainly describe ordinary people and events, especially the inner world of characters. These works reflect the ideal, pursuit and psychological contradiction and unhappiness of people in poignant and fresh language.

In 1986 and 1988, she published two mid-length novels that reflect ancient culture and the living conditions of women, respectively, which marks a new period of Tie's writing career.

In 1988, she finished a full-length novel Rose Door, a complete switch from the style of her former works that exposes the ugly side of life through descriptions of the rivalry among several women.

Her recent work, the full-length novel Big Bath Woman, which was published in 2000, unveils the hard experiences of life woven through a love story and set against a complicated social and family background.

Besides writing, Tie also likes collecting ancient articles and appreciating art. "My heart is full of appreciation when I travel between paintings and words," Tie said.

Keeping it simple

As a representative of China's contemporary women writers, the attractive president is full of praise for the growing team of writers of her gender, but is unimpressed with the Chinese description of herself as a "beauty writer."

"Some people like to be called so, but I think when too much attention is paid to looks, something will be lost at the same time. For those women writers who have literary talent as well as good appearance, the title of 'beauty writer' will make the public neglect their literary accomplishments. To me, literature is literature, and beauties are beauties. They have no direct relationship."

She sees real beauty as the maturity of women. To Tie this is when the soul's purity comes about after the difficult experiences of life are faced with a bright attitude and the heart is broadened by motherhood. It is a process that she pursues in her own life and writing and forms part of all the characters in her work, who can maintain simplicity despite experiencing difficulties.