Renowned Chinese poet Yu Xiuhua has made headlines by saying that the menopause was a happy thing and writing a poem in its praise.

Yu, 49, from a village in central China’s Hubei province, achieved overnight fame in 2014 for her talented writing.

Her poetry brimmed with spiritual vitality despite the physical limitations she suffers from as a result of being born with cerebral palsy.

The upbeat nature of her writing also exists despite the fact that she dropped out of secondary school, married a man arranged by her parents at 19, and has a son with him.

She has been labelled the “poet with cerebral palsy” and the “peasant poet”.