Chinese Characters is a new series of essays exploring Chinese history through the life stories of key personalities. Here, series presenter Rana Mitter tells the story of Wu Zetian, the female ...

China's Wu Yanni has overtaken Japanese star Tanaka Yumi to become Asia's top-ranked female athlete in the 60m hurdles for the first time in her career.

Wu Zhao - noble, beautiful and well-educated ... reinforced by the sexism of the Confucian beliefs followed by official Chinese historians over the centuries.