Bridging between China and the West – Zhang Lijia

Image by Fantake via Flickr

Celebrity author Zhang Lijia continues to win over new audiences, here in an interview with the leading Spanish newspaper El Pais (in a Google Translate induced translation).

“I was born in a working class family. My mother worked in a military missile factory in Nanjing. When I was a teenager, was enacted a policy by which people could pass the job to their children, and my mother decided to take it. My father had been sent to another city. “

It was 1980. China has just launched the process of economic reforms, and Zhang dreamed of going to college and become a writer. “Instead I found myself with 16 years, becoming a full worker control, with strong British accent. “The factory had a long list of prohibitions. The first three years you could not go out with a guy and you could not paint the lips or carry heels. Every month you have to show blood to prove that no rule were pregnant. “

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Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. If you need her at your meeting or conference, do get in touch.