As Fu Chen, a lawyer who has worked with Zhang on many occasions, says, "She's got a pure heart, and fame has never been appealing to her."

A professor in the Law School of Shantou University, Zhang impressed her assistant Fan Xinjian as being responsible and considerate. "Last summer, she lectured in our school for seven periods every day. Every time she came into the classroom, she held a pile of material in her arms. She wouldn't let us walk her back home. If we insisted, she'd walk fast so that we could get back to school and have our dinner in the cafeteria on time."

Zhang is also known for her prudence, which stems from long years of working as a lawyer. "I won't comment on things that I don't understand," she says.

As Zhang once said, "women should be strong but not arrogant, ambitious but not willful, have their own careers and at the same time, cook at home." And that's actually what she's been doing. "My family has been supportive and encouraged me a lot." she says.

In 1968, the first job she held after studying abroad in France was to come home and work on a farm. She did the job willingly, adding that the experience "has enriched my life... it was representative of that era".