Author Zhang Lijia of the recently published Lotus: A Novel is a native from Nanjing, but writes in English. Writing in her chosen language makes her feel more free, she explains in an interview with Mengfei Chen of the LA Review of Books.Read More →
More reviews are coming in of author Zhang Lijia´s Lotus: A Novel, about prostitution in China, this time from the NPR. The reviewer is rightfully impressed. “We can count ourselves lucky to get this glimpse into the fascinating world of Lotus.”Read More →
The story of her grandmother, first a prostitute, then a concubine, triggered author Zhang Lijia´s into writing her latest book Lotus: A Novel. With meticulous research she explored the life of today´s sex workers, and tells in Refinery29, how a middle-class lady explored a secret world.Read More →
One remarkable conclusion by author Zhang Lijia of Lotus: A Novel on sex work in China is her conclusion that prostitution in China is largely a free choice, where women are free to enter, and free to leave. Yes, there is economic pressure, but no organized crime or human trafficking on a major scale, she says.Read More →
First reviews of journalist Zhang Lijia´s touching Lotus: A Novel, are coming in, like here from the Star Tribune, focusing on the Chinese migrants, the unsung heroes who made the country´s economic development possible. “Lotus and Bing, as well as the secondary characters, feel like real, rounded human beings. Zhang portrays them compassionately.”Read More →
Social mobility between the generations in China has stalled, argues author Zhang Lijia, even more than elsewhere. While she moved herself from factory worker to a social commentator, and recently wrote Lotus: A Novel on prostitution in China, most Chinese are currently stuck socially where they were born.Read More →
Author Zhang Lijia explored the life of more than ten million women in the sex trade in China for her book Lotus: A Novel. How is the trade organized? How does their life look like, and how voluntary is a choice to go into prostitution? Zhang Lijia spent years on the ground, and comes with a few remarkable conclusions. Organized crime has only little grip on prostitution, and most is organized by women themselves.Read More →
Zhang Lijia, author of the forthcoming book on prostitution in China, Lotus: A Novel, will attend the conference China – secret stories, on January 22 in Maastricht, as the main speaker from mainland China.Read More →
Chinese has followed the lead by their former leader Deng Xiaoping to “become rich first”. But while hundreds of millions have indeed become more wealthy, social mobility has stalled, writes journalist Zhang Lijia, author of the forthcoming book on prostitution in China Lotus: A Novel in the New York Times.Read More →
Just after the election of Donald Trump, some Americans discovered there is this other country, called China, that might gain a leading role in some international arenas. Unfortunately, most Americans have no clue about China, says journalist Zhang Lijia, author of Socialism Is Great!: A Worker’s Memoir of the New China, to John Pilger who visited the country for the New Internationalist Magazine.Read More →
China is proud about its millennia old culture, but just like the rest of society, its culture is also changing very fast. Old concepts like guanxi, losing face and the suppressed position of women are not what they were even a few decades ago. Many so-called China experts still cling to those old idea, but fortunately, we can offer a range of speakers at the China Speakers Bureau who have a clear view on how China´s culture is changing.Read More →
China´s state media have gone in overdrive pointing out, what they call, the decline of US democracy, Zhang Lijia, author of Socialism Is Great!: A Worker’s Memoir of the New China tells at CNN. “They have gone into an overdrive,” she tells, although the official reactions have remained polite, naming this a win-win situation. Hillary Clinton, much more than Donald Trump, was seen as a potential anti-China force in the US.Read More →