Liu Yunxia (middle) shoots a TV series in Zhuanglang county, northwestern Gansu province, in 2011. She is one of the hundreds of women in rural China recorded by photojournalist Hu Guoqing. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing

Liu plays the heroine in a drama based on her own arranged marriage. Liu was married when she was 20 years old for a bride price of 4,000 yuan. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing

Liu edits videos at home. She is also the director and provides the funding. She sold over 40 cattle and invested more than 100,000 yuan ($14,340) in the drama, but the budget is still tight. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing

Liu and the film staff shoot exterior scenes in 2011. Her TV script was published in 2014, although production had stopped. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing

Wang Juxiang guides her students home in 2007 in Zhen’an county, Northwest China’s Shaanxi province. Wang taught over 600 students during her more than 30 years teaching at a primary school in the mountainous region. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing

Liu Zongying makes her bed inside a bus in Zhengzhou, Central China’s Henan province, in 2011. She and her husband bought a secondhand bus in 2006 for 8,000 yuan and transformed it into their home since they could not afford a house in the city. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing

Liu’s son plays around the bus. The lived in the bus with their three children for five years. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing

Li Shixia lives in Baisheng village, Shaanxi province. Her husband was paralyzed after a spinal injury sustained in a 2000 coal mine collapse. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing

Gu Mu and her husband work at a construction site in Zhengzhou in 2012. The couple lived in a work shed with two other young couples and 10 male workers. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing

Gao Xiumei performs at a funeral in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei province. She uses the money earned at her performances to pay for her husband’s cancer treatments. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing

Liu Encui tailors clothes at her home in Longcao Ping village, Shaanxi province, in 2010. Her legs were amputated when she was two years old, and for years, she moved using two rubber sections cut from car tires. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing

Liu moves along a rugged trail in a field. Her husband works outside of the village to earn money for Lie and their two children. Liu earns over 2,000 yuan a year through farming. Photo: Courtesy of Hu Guoqing