Cheng Hong, Li's wife, visits a women's organization in Nairobi on May 17. The organization provides small loans to local women to help them plant vegetables and make handicrafts. Xie Huanchi / Xinhua

US first lady visits China

First lady diplomacy: 'soft power' at its finest

When she first met Cheng, "she looked like an ordinary scholar to me", Li Xuejun says. "What impressed me most then was her manuscript." Returning to the Wilderness is the first Chinese research work to serve as a systematic introduction to American nature writing.

"I knew little about nature writing at that time. She's one of the few forward-looking researchers in this field," says Li Xuejun.

It took Cheng a decade to finish translating all four classics. But she maintained her low profile after publishing the collection and asked not to do book promotions, according to Li Xuejun.

"The rapidly changing era calls for willpower and a calm mind," Li Keqiang wrote in a letter in reply to the Sanlian Bookstore, the first bookstore to be open 24 hours in Beijing, on April 22, the day before World Book and Copyright Day.

"In my eyes, Cheng Hong has such willpower and a calm mind," Li Xuejun says. "That's why she's able to persist and continually offer the readers her new discoveries in the area."