Man of many words

When Zhang Mingzhou was elected head of an international organization for children's books, his peers knew they had found the right candidate for the job, Mei Jia reports.

For a man who grew up in a remote border village in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, Zhang Mingzhou's career has been nothing short of extraordinary.

Starting out as a junior diplomatic staff member, he later became a cultural exchange agent before becoming a publishing copyright manager. Yet the pinnacle of his career came recently when he was elected president of an international organization for children's books - the first Chinese person to do so in its 65-year history.