Wu Zhengxian and her self-designed hats. [Photo/qz123.com]

She might be nearly 60 years, but Wu Zhengxian, a native of Quzhou, Zhejiang province, has shown that she is still very much young at heart through her colorful knitted hats that come in all sorts of trendy and youthful designs.

Many of her creations, including those with Batman and Pikachu motifs, and those that look like Viking helms, have even been a hit in overseas markets.

These hats could also be seen as a symbol of her compassionate nature. After all, Wu is the founder of a hat-knitting collective in Quzhou that is made up of women whose husbands are working in other cities as well as those who have been laid off.

Every year, this collective makes a whopping 300,000 hats that are worth more than 10 million yuan ($1.45 million). These hats are then sold to more than 30 countries.

Founded in 1996, the collective had at its peak 5,000 women from Quzhou as well as neighboring areas such as Shangrao, Huangshan and Pucheng.

In March 2011, Wu opened an online shop to sell the hats to other nations. Russia and the United States have been the collective’s biggest source of customers.

In 2022, with the help of the Quzhou Women's Federation, Wu set up a workshop to conduct hand knitting courses that have helped more than 5,800 women find jobs near their homes.

In addition, at the invitation of the All-China Women's Federation and the All-China Women's Handicraft Association, Wu went to Gansu, Guizhou and Sichuan to help women whose husbands are working in other cities learn skills to increase their incomes.

For her valiant efforts, Wu has been conferred several awards by the authorities over the years.