Fifty years ago, Shen Jilan did not dare say anything as she sat in Beijing at the first session of China's top legislature -- the National People's Congress (NPC).

Though she broke China's millennia-old convention by pushing for equal pay for equal work for women in the early 1950s, Shen, then a 25-year-old farmer from a small mountain village, still found it hard to tell the country's leaders what really concerned her.

"My heart just beat like a side drum when I sat there," recalled Shen, from north China's Shanxi Province, "Imagine, I was just one of the few 147 female deputies to the then about 1,200-member Congress, everything was fresh to me."

It was no surprise, however, for the media and Shen's fellow deputies to listen to Shen publicly voicing her concerns about state affairs such as transportation in rural areas, consumer protection, judicial justice and government corruption.

China's market economy reform has enabled Shen to become head of a collective-owned factory at Xigou Village, Pingshun county in Shanxi.

Shen's story reflects how China's National People's Congress system took shape during the past fifty years. She is the only living deputy in the country who have been to the top legislature's every annual session since 1954.

The people's congress system is the fundamental political system of the People's Republic of China (PRC), the organizational form of the state power of the people's democratic dictatorship in China, and the system of the government of the country.

The system most directly reflects the nature of the PRC, indicating the status of the Chinese people of various nationalities as masters in the country's political life. The NPC is the highest institution through which the Chinese people exercise their state power.

Deputies to NPC are selected from all localities across China, representing the interests of people from all social walks.

The NPC convenes a session almost every year except the Cultural Revolution period (1966-1976). On the NPC sessions deputies from across the country discuss major state affairs and laws, and elect new state leaders. The Standing Committee of the NPC is responsible for law making and supervising over law enforcement.

"Most excited that Chairman Mao was elected"

Born in a poor farmer's family in 1929, Shen Jilan's father died just two weeks after she was born. She received little education and never left her hometown when she was young.

Shen married a serviceman, but felt trapped under her work as housewife.

"At that time, I felt one day was much longer than two," Shen recalled, "I even fell asleep amid tears when working in the fields, picking fresh beans."

Her life began to change in 1949 when New China was founded.

Rising political movements in that era prompted her to think about liberating herself as the Communist Party of China called for citizens to devote to farmers' cooperatives as part of the socialist construction.

Shen learned seed soaking, sowing, tilling and plowing while taught herself how to read and write. But what really made her popularity with the public was her fight against women's unequal pay.

Shen saw that equal pay with equal work for women was adopted into the Labor Law, an achievement promoted her to be picked by locality to attend the First NPC's first session on behalf of the then 505 million farmers as well as 276 million Chinese women.

According to China's first Electoral Law implemented in February 1953, people from different regions and classes were, for the first time in the country's history, conferred the right to choose their own deputies to the legislature.

During the legislature's first session, the Constitution of the People's Republic of China was passed and Mao Zedong became the first Chairman of new China.

"To me, that's the most exciting moment when Chairman Mao was elected," Shen said.

Heavy loads on shoulders

As China's most veteran legislator, Shen witnessed how the congress evolved during the past 50 years: The Congress sessions were shortened, more state affairs discussed and a higher level of education among the younger deputies.

"The country is changing so vastly and rapidly and it still makes me shocked when look back to the past," Shen said.

From taking the class struggle as the key for China during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), the NPC had already made several amendments to China's Constitution. It altered the old planned economy to a socialist market economy, even putting legally-obtained private property under constitutional protection in 2004.

"Even the ID cards of the deputies have become electronic; years ago, they were made of red cloth," said Shen, wearing a short haircut, an old-fashioned black suit and a pair of home-made cloth shoes.

The interest of Shen herself in the congress has changed either, but she still speaks on behalf of farmers.

"I'm proud to be a deputy representing farmers," she said, "it is really an honor to speak for such a huge group."

Though failing to remember how many motions she had made to the congress, Shen made proposals to build more agricultural infrastructure projects like roads, wells and encourage planting trees and developing town and township enterprises for rural villagers.

She even criticized top leaders to their face.

Other proposals Shen made also include grain-selling, agriculture tax reduction, accelerating the economic growth in the countryside and how to increase farmers' incomes.

Shen's fame and her active role in the NPC helped maintained her popularity among the farmers from across the country, who have continue to inform her of problems and opinions in their everyday life.

"I will serve the farmers and speak for their interests as long as I live," Shen pledged at her rough three-room bungalow, inside which hang the hostess' group photos with late Chairman Mao Zedong and late Premier Zhou Enlai as well as current state leaders including Jiang Zemin.

"But my strongest desire is to make every single farmer rich in our country," she said.

Source: Xinhua