Hearings a step closer to dream

Ma Zhonglan, 67, has been a people's assessor at Beijing Haidian District People's Court since she retired from work at a publishing company 10 years ago.

I'd had a dream of studying law when I was a child, because my father graduated in law from Yenching University, which was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges in Beijing between 1915 and 1920.

I became a people's assessor in the district court in 1994 after a recommendation from the publisher. But I spent little time on this role because I was busy with my own work.