Lijia Zhang

Lijia Zhang or Zhang Lijia (born in May 1, 1964 in Nanjing) is a writer, journalist and public speaker. She describes herself as a communicator between China and the world[1] and has given talks at conferences about contemporary China and lectured at many top universities including Stanford[2] and Harvard and the University of Sydney.

Early in life she wanted to become a writer. At the age of 16 she had to start working in a factory instead of finishing her promising school career. During the decade at the factory she taught herself English.[3]

In 2003 she was able to attend Goldsmiths, University of London, England to study creative writing. Her articles have been published in many newspapers and magazines. She co-authored China Remembers (OUP, 1999) and her memoir 'Socialism is Great!' A Worker's Memoir of The New China,[4] is published by Atlas & Co. and Random House and has been translated into seven languages. During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, she served as a producer for the BBC crew reporting the games. She was the subject of a BBC TV documentary Peschardt's People. Sponsored by the US State Department, she was a fellow on the University of Iowa's International Writing Program in 2009.[5] Her first novel, Lotus, about prostitution set in modern day Shenzhen, was published in 2017.[6]

She is a regular guest on ABC, BBC and CNN. Zhang was married to Calum MacLeod, a reporter for USA Today. She currently lives in Beijing with her two daughters.[7]