When China resumed the College Entrance Exam policy, Zhu's age only allowed her to be enrolled in the class of advanced studies at the Central Conservatory of Music.

Her life-changing event was when the American violinist Isaac Stern visited China in 1979, which eventually contributed to Zhu's study in the United States.

At the beginning, she could barely make ends meet, but with the admiration and generous help of one professor in the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris, she was offered a teaching position in the school and a budget accommodation in which to live.

With the help of friends, her piano skills started to draw attention both from Europe and South America, leading to several music concerts and recitals in those areas.

Without an agent's promotion, she managed to make her impact in the classical music circle, focusing her interest on a handful of composers of whom she was particularly fond.

Her interests include the Goldberg Variations, Domenico Scarlatti, Joseph Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Schumann, but it is Bach who remains at the heart of her music universe.

Her autobiography, The Secret Piano: From Mao's Labor Camps to Bach's Goldberg Variations was published by Robert Laffont in 2007 and won the 2008 Grand Prix des Muses.