The 24-year-old female space commander has gone viral on Chinese social media for her work on the Change-5 Moon Exploration Program.
Despite being the youngest commander on the Wenchang spacecraft launch site, Xu Chengyu is known as a “Big Sister” at work.
The Chang-5 mission is China’s third successful lunar landing in seven years.
Ms. Xu was in charge of the rocket connector system – which was described as the main role.
The young astronaut has been a trending topic on the web since the Chinese state media highlighted her as one of the women involved in the successful launch of the Change-5 moon probe on November 23.
His story in particular is reverberating in public with his youth in mind. Social media users celebrate their “brilliance” and refer to it as a “source of pride” for the country.
Xu Chengyu, a 24-year-old woman from the Tujiya ethnic group, took up the mission as commander of the rocket connector system at the Change-5 launch. pic.twitter.com/iHwpYn6CWr
– Hua Chuning @ (ક્સ spokespersonshn) November 28, 2020
Some people jokingly reflect on their own accomplishments, commenting on how far behind they were compared to life.
However, the huge amount of interest in Guizhou’s hometown did not seem to have much effect on him. According to news site Duosai Guizo Net, Ms. Xu turned down repeated requests for interviews because she did not want her work to be publicized.
The purpose of Change-5 – named after the Chinese moon goddess – is to collect lunar rocks and soil to help scientists learn more about the moon’s composition.
If successful, it would be the first in more than 40 years to bring lunar samples to Earth, and China would become the third country to do so, after the United States and the Soviet Union.
The mission is part of Beijing’s push to become a space superpower as President Xi Jinping says the Chinese state media has dreamed of a “space dream” as a step towards national rejuvenation.
For China, space exploration is seen as a way to demonstrate its growing technological prowess, as well as to assert itself as a force to be reckoned with on the world stage.
“The lunar eclipse is a reflection of the country’s wider national power,” Professor Uy Yuang Xiauan, one of the country’s top scientists, told China’s official newspaper, the People’s Daily Beck, in 2006.
Last year, China became the first country to successfully land a robotic spacecraft on the far side of the moon. Over the next few decades, it plans to build a research station on the moon and send people to Mars.
Carrie Allen, China Media Analyst
Most Chinese people know the myth, the story of the moon goddess Change. It’s a story that is no different from Romeo and Juliet – about a woman who drinks immortality, accidentally leaves nothing for her husband, and without weight, flies to the moon so she can stay close to him until she dies. .
It is said every year during China’s Mid-Autumn / Lunar Festival, and so people can’t hear the word “Change” without embellishing the romantic images of the Moon Goddess.
For this reason, China’s mission to the moon is calling for a stronger female figure. And so, pictures of 24-year-old Xu Chengyu have been printed in statewide media, with comments about how she is a “frontline soldier in the field of aerospace” and a “big sister” that young Chinese can see.
China is increasingly trying to publish strong women figures in the country. The country’s top leadership is extremely male-dominated, but in November the national newspaper Global Times invited Netizens to comment on the achievements of the year made by women such as medical scientist Chen Wei, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying and UFC fighter Zhang Weili.
But many in China feel that the role of women in the country is still underestimated, even in many industries. This was a big talking point in September, when a TV drama highlighting the role of women in China’s Covid-19 war was widely viewed as sexist.
