About

Lijia Zhang is a rocket-factory-girl-turned writer, columnist and public speaker, and one of the few Chinese social commentators who writes in English for international publications. Her commentary on China’s social, cultural and political transformation has appeared in The South China Morning Post, The Far Eastern Economic Review, The Japan Times, The Guardian, Newsweek and The New York Times.

Born into a poor working-class family in Nanjing, on the banks of the Yangtze River, Lijia excelled at school and dreamed of becoming a writer and journalist. In 1980, at the age of sixteen, she was pulled out of school and sent to work at a military factory producing intercontinental missiles, where she spent a decade greasing machine parts. As an escape, she taught herself English and found solace in literature. Lijia arrived in England in 1990, where her childhood dream resurfaced. She studied journalism and, after returning to China three years later, began her career assisting foreign correspondents before becoming a journalist in her own right. Writing in English was a struggle, but she believed she had something distinct to offer: insider insight into a culture that remains little understood outside China.

Her first book, China Remembers, an oral history commissioned by Oxford University Press, sparked her passion for long-form writing. She went on to publish a memoir about her factory years in the 1980s, reflecting the profound social changes brought about by China’s reforms and opening-up. The book achieved international success.

Lijia later turned to fiction with her debut novel, Lotus, set in modern-day Shenzhen, often dubbed China’s “capital of sins.” The novel explores the tensions between tradition and modern desire through the life of a young working woman. Published by Macmillan in 2017, it was featured on the BBC World Book Club.

In 2018, Lijia received the Mulan Award in recognition of her contribution to arts and literature.

She has lectured widely at leading universities and institutions around the world, including Columbia, Stanford, Harvard, London Business School, the European Institute for Asian Studies and the EU–Asia Top Economist Round Table Forum. She has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4, ABC Australia, Al Jazeera, CNN and NPR.

Lijia divides her time between China and the United Kingdom.