After the collapse of the Gang of Four and at the time of the post-1978 economic reform in China, Zhang entered Shanxi's modern drama theater to become a stage actor.

[7] Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, was the first work Zhang did as a producer for China Central Television (CCTV).

One month later, Zhang received a note from CCTV saying that changes had been made to the production team, and there was an open position to film the fourth part of the show.

Zhang accepted and went on to produce 13 of the 84 episodes for the series, when he had endure over 10,000 kilometers of travel in 11 months in the remote areas of Yunnan, Qinghai, Tibet and Inner Mongolia, as well as battle scenes involving thousands of extras and hundreds of horses.

In 1999, Hong Kong writer Louis Cha told a mainland Chinese newspaper that if CCTV treated an adaptation of one of his novels as seriously as with Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin, he would only charge one yuan for the rights.

The series helped propel Hu Jun and Liu Yifei to fame, who moved on to star in films such as Red Cliff and The Forbidden Kingdom.

In 2008, Zhang and Huayi Brothers produced Bing Sheng, a historical television series based on the life of Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War.

Zhang is in the pre-production phase of his film adaptation of Journey to the West, another one of the Four Great Classical Novels, with the story focusing on Sun Wukong, a household name in China and in other Asian countries like Japan and South Korea.

He has hired Neil Gaiman as a screenwriter and the two were introduced to each other by James Cameron, who turned down the role as director, but has agreed to help with the special effects of the film.

[13] Zhang is also developing a theme park, an online game and a television series based on his company's digitized content of Sun Wukong and Journey to the West.

Traditionally, most of this work was handled by the film director,[14] but experts explain that they give him such a title because he has popularized and contributed to the producer-centered system in China.

The Legend of the Condor Heroes provided promotion for the attraction and tourism for the Peach Blossom Island increased tenfold the year the show was released.