Jianying Zha
Jianying Zha or Zha Jianying (Chinese: 查建英; born 1959) is a Chinese American writer, journliast, and media critic.[1][2] She writes and publishes in both English and Chinese.[3]
Born in Beijing, Jianying Zha was educated in China and the United States. She is a contributor to The New Yorker and The New York Times.[4]
Life and career
Zha was born in Beijing in 1959 to a family of intellectuals; her father was a professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.[5] She grew up during the Cultural Revolution, experienced home ransack of her own, and saw families torn apart.[1] At the age of six, she recalls participating in kindergarten activities involving the pasting of Big-character posters, a common tool of political struggle at the time.[6]
In 1978, Zha enrolled in the first class of students at the newly reopened Peking University.[5] She left China in 1981 to study in the United States, earning a master's degree in English from the University of South Carolina in 1984 and a second master's degree in comparative literature from Columbia University in 1986.[5]
She wrote the introduction to the English version of The Cowshed: Memories of the Chinese Cultural Revolution upon its publication in 1996[7], and considered it "a devastatingly direct and detailed testimony on the physical and mental abuse an entire imprisoned intellectual community suffered."[8][1]
Zha has described navigating China's censorship as a "complicated and tough terrain," with decisions varying by individual circumstances and moral considerations. In 1995, after the publication of her English-language book China Pop, Beijing publishers sought a Chinese edition but required excisions of Tiananmen Square-related content central to its analysis of post-1989 cultural shifts; Zha refused, resulting in no mainland version. Similarly, for Tide Players (2011), mainland publishers proposed an abridged edition, but Zha rejected demands to remove chapters on her dissident brother Zha Jianguo and Liu Xiaobo, leading to a full Hong Kong release; the excised sections had previously appeared in The New Yorker and circulated briefly online in China before deletion.[9]
Works
Books written in English
- China pop: how soap operas, tabloids, and bestsellers are transforming a culture. New York: New Press, 1995.
- Tide players: the movers and shakers of a rising China. New York: New Press, 2011.[10]
Books written in Chinese
- 到美国去，到美国去！(Dào Měiguó qù, dào Měiguó qù!; ''Going to America, Going to America!'') Beijing: Zuojia chubanshe (作家出版社), 1991.
- 留美故事（Liú Měi Gùshì; Stories of Studying in America) Shijiazhuang: Huashan wenyi chubanshe 花山文艺出版社，2003
- 八十年代访谈录 (Ba shi nian dai fang tan lu; The Eighties) Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 2006.[11]
References
- ^ a b c "Q. and A.: Zha Jianying on Remembering the Cultural Revolution (Published 2016)". Archived from the original on 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2026-03-06.
- ^ Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang (2001). "Zha Jianying (b. 1959)". In Jane Eldridge Miller (ed.). Who's Who in Contemporary Women's Writing. Routledge. pp. 359–360.
- ^ Dan Washburn, Interview: Author Zha Jianying on Grappling With a Rising China, Asia Society, 13 May 2011. Accessed 23 March 2013.
- ^ "Zha Jianying". ChinaFile. 2015-05-21. Retrieved 2026-03-06.
- ^ a b c "Zha Jianying 查建英". Paper Republic. Retrieved March 6, 2026.
- ^ "Voices From China's Cultural Revolution". The New York Times. May 16, 2016. Retrieved March 6, 2026.
- ^ Ni, Taili (2024-02-27). "Jianying Zha's China Bookshelf". China Books Review. Retrieved 2026-03-19.
- ^ Jianying, Zha. "China: Surviving the Camps". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on 2021-03-09. Retrieved 2026-03-06.
- ^ "Censorship and Publishing in China". ChinaFile. 2015-05-21. Retrieved 2026-03-06.
- ^ "Tide Players". The New Press. Retrieved 2026-03-13.
- ^ "八十年代訪談錄 | Oxford University Press (China)". www.oupchina.com.hk. Retrieved 2026-03-13.