Zhang Ling 張翎

Zhang Ling was born in 1957 in Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province in China and later moved to Wenzhou with her parents. She graduated from Fudan University with a BA in English and moved to Canada in 1986. She has an MA in English from University of Calgary and Masters degree in Hearing Recovery from University of Cincinnati. She lives in Toronto and works as a hearing specialist at a local clinic.

Of the time she studied abroad, Zhang wrote “For a decade, I migrated between Canada and the US. I lived in six cities and moved fifteen times. Often I woke without knowing where I was. I spent days with no money, no love, no friendship. I witnessed events big and small. I met people who searched so hard but lost harder.”

Zhang started writing in mid 90’s and has published four novels and three collections of short stories. She’s won numerous literary prizes, including the October Literary Award in 2000 and 2007, the International Chinese Literary Award for Best Essay in 2003, the first Yuan Huesong Literary Award in Canada in 2005, the People’s Literary Prize in 2006, etc. Besides writing novels, Zhang also excels at the novella form, three of which have been chosen for The Best Novella of the Year by the Chinese Fiction Association. One of them, “Aftershocks” was made into a major film by director Feng Xiaogang.