By Peng Wei. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Once a critic thought Peng was an old man after seeing her works, and was surprised by her young age when he learned she was a woman.

When asked if she minded people adding "beauty" before her title as an artist because of her good looks, she smiled and nodded.

"To some degree I don't like it," she said. "'Beauty' has become an over-used word in China nowadays. And adding 'beauty' before the title is a sort of ignorance of the true value of a woman artist."