She belongs to a generation affected by the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
[1] Zhang was among the few young people sent to the remote countryside to be 're-educated by the poor and lower-middle-class peasants.
[1] At the age of 19, Zhang volunteered to go to Heilongjiang Province, where she faced a life marked by deprivation and abuse by the party cadres assigned to re-educate the new arrivals before going on to study in Harbin in 1977.
[2] She returned to the city eight years later after the death of Mao Zedong and was allowed to resume her studies.
[1] She is married to a fellow writer, Jiang Rong, known for his 2004 novel, Wolf Totem.