She is the 18th and the youngest spokesperson since the ministry introduced the system of spokespersons in 1983. She is also the third spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry.

Zhang said it took her a while to become comfortable under the limelight.

"I'd been so used to working behind the scenes," said Zhang, who joined the ministry in 1983.

For 15 years, she'd enjoyed her behind-the-scenes work. She was one of the first batch of young Chinese simultaneous interpreters with the United Nations (UN) in New York and Geneva.

"At the sight of the card standing on the table before me with CHINA written on it, I became relaxed and devoted to my interpretation," Zhang said.

The next assignment was office work at the Department of International Organizations and Conferences of the Foreign Ministry. Between 1995 and 1998, she spent three years in New York working with the Chinese delegation to the UN.

She was carving out her career as a professional diplomat and fulfilling her dream to follow in the steps of her father, Zhang Shu, a former Chinese ambassador to Belgium and Japan, among other postings abroad.

"In my eyes, this job is interesting for I can enjoy a strong sense of honour when dealing with foreign affairs for our country," said Zhang, who spent two years in the United States in her teens and had observed her father's work there.

Hard Work

In the eyes of her peers, Zhang was lucky to have the rare chance to live in the United States in the years when China locked its door to the outside world and immersed itself in the chaotic "cultural revolution" (1966-76).

However, Zhang did not take her luck for granted. She worked hard, as one of the best students in the Beijing Foreign Languages Institute (now Beijing Foreign Studies University) and one of the best candidates for the UN's programme to train simultaneous interpreters in the early 1980s.

Chance has been good to her but she is also the one who grabs every chance for her development.

It is very important for a person to have a strong willingness to accept various challenges, especially if they dream of being a successful diplomat, she said.

The job of a diplomat is very demanding and challenging, but it is rewarding as well since it forces her to constantly learn new knowledge and monitor changing situations of foreign countries.

She recalled her first year's office work at the Foreign Ministry. Her job was to distribute telegrams for different departments in the ministry.

"I had a very precious chance to accumulate a lot of knowledge about foreign countries," Zhang said.

Everyday she sorted dozens of telegrams according to their content and countries, and then sent them to related departments.

"At that time, I closely studied these telegrams and got to know the background of a large number of issues mentioned in the telegrams," Zhang added.

"The more national conditions of foreign countries you know, the more confident you are when handling issues about them."

Public Eye

Going up to the podium to face the news media turned out to be a new height that Zhang had to scale in her career as a diplomat.

Zhang said, during the two days before she appeared at the press conference for the first time, she was too nervous to fall asleep.

She quickly overcame her nervousness, however. "When I stood before the media, I became very calm and confident, for we had made considerable preparations beforehand," Zhang said.

She won praise, especially during last year's Asian Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) meetings in Shanghai when she served as the spokesperson for the China Secretariat for APEC 2001.

"I have no reason to be nervous before the media for what I say is the result of concerted efforts behind me," she said.

A Dutiful Mother

Besides her diplomatic job, the spokesperson highly values the family.

"On the way back home after work, I experience a kind of change of roles - from spokesperson of China's Foreign Ministry to a common housewife, mother, wife and daughter," said Zhang.

"I often think about what I can do for my family and how to make it happy and harmonious.

"Thus I enjoy doing housework."

Within the family, she and her husband, who is also a senior diplomat with the Foreign Ministry, split the housework. "Whoever is less busy does more work," she said.

Some of her colleagues consult with her whether they should have a child, to which she always answers in the affirmative.

"I think children can give adults a complete life and even a perfect life," said Zhang, who has a 15-year-old son, Pengpeng, who just completed his entrance exam for senior high school.

Zhang showed her deep love when talking happily about her son.

Unlike many parents who only care about their child's scores in academic examinations, Zhang values her son's overall development.

Pengpeng said: "Scores are not as important to my mother as what kind of errors I've made in the exams."

She encourages her son to develop his interests.

When Zhang found that her son loved basketball very much, she began buying magazines about basketball for him.

Even during the examinations at school, she allowed her son to watch National Basketball Association games on TV.

Zhang is pleased her son is kind and considerate.

Once, Zhang and her son presented cooking oil to her mother and took leave quickly.

On the way back home, the boy told her: "We should have stayed at my grandmother's home for a while and chatted with her, for I know the old want us to talk with them."

Zhang also educated her son to be resolute in doing everything.

If the boy promised her he could swim 2,000 metres when they went swimming together, he must finish such a long distance before having a rest.

"But it's really fun," Pengpeng said.

The article first appeared in the latest issue of China Women, a Chinese language magazine.