Stories for women, by women

Though the works chosen for the anthologies should be excellent, Zhang says they guarantee that the works of four to five new writers for each anthology are chosen as well.

"Maybe there are imperfections in their writings but it doesn't matter. We want to encourage them," she says.

In the process of selecting stories, Zhang and her students try to cover as many topics as possible relating to the lives of women from different age groups, marital statuses, classes and regions.

One story from the collection is about a single woman who bought a robot with advanced artificial intelligence. Not only can the robot help her to buy the cheapest goods in the world, but it is also her knowledgeable and considerate companion.

"All my students voted for this story. It vividly reflects our current lifestyle, especially about online shopping, and there is also discussion and further exploration of the topic," Zhang says.

I Just Want to Sit Down by Zhang Tianyi is a story about sexual harassment that a female college student experienced on an extremely crowded train back home. Instead of fighting back, the young woman just sat quietly. After an exhausting journey of more than 20 hours on the crowded train without a seat, she just wanted to sit down.

"It's violence that occurs daily. The writer has managed to describe the complexity in it," Zhang says.

Also like the previous year, Zhang and her students chose 300 short stories from literary magazines and online platforms that are welcoming of new writers. The bigger challenge for them was to find four to five new writers for the anthology to avoid repetition of the 2019 edition.

"Since there are several literary magazines publishing special issues addressing women's writings, it'll be easier for us to select works for next year's anthology," she says.