Yilin Zhong

Early life

Yilin Zhong was born in China and began to learn writing words from her grandmother at the age of two. Her father was a literary editor at China Federation of Literary and Art Union in Beijing, however was exiled to south west China as miner during the Cultural Revolution. Zhong wrote her first poem at five which was published when she was seven, and she started to write short stories at twelve, which was released in Shanghai Youth Literature. At thirteen, Zhong wrote a research thesis 'Who broke up the wood-stone engagement?' and it was released in the academic journal A Dream of Red Mansions Journal in 1993.

At fourteen, Zhong wrote her first full-length novel Embracing the Sun, which was not published, and then she wrote her second novel Sunshine and the Monsoon at sixteen, which was published in 1995 and won her national reputation as the youngest talented writer; Zhong was interviewed by CCTV's Book Review. In 1992 Zhong received an Award voted by national readers, for a short story released in Shanghai Youth Literature, as the 'Best Work of The Year'.

At the age of sixteen, Zhong successfully passed the most highly competitive exams and interviews from three best Art Academies in China: Central Academy of Drama, Beijing Film Academy and Beijing Broadcasting and Television University; she achieved No.1 at Beijing Broadcasting and Television University, and received the highest mark 90 (of 100) in the final interview at Central Academy of Drama. Zhong decided to go to the Central Academy of Drama and study Drama Literature and Play Writing, while she also passed the exam for the Play Director department.

Education

Yilin Zhong was educated in The Central Academy of Drama at Beijing, China, and achieved a distinction BA degree in Drama Literature and Playwriting.

In 2002, Zhong came to the UK and achieved her MA degree in Cultural Studies from the University of Warwick. Afterward she immigrated to the UK and has been living in London.

Career

Yilin Zhong started her creative literary writing when she was five. In 1995, she published her first novel Sunshine and the Monsoon(under pen-name '鍾鲲') and became a well-known talented young writer and a 'rising star' in China. In 1996 She was interviewed by the CCTV(China Central TV Station)'s Book Review program as its youngest writer interviewed, and was called 'hugely successful and notable'. From 1995 to 2002, while Zhong was at Beijing, she was working for Beijing TV station, Beijing Broadcasting station and various magazines and newspapers, published five books, including three novels, one essays and one short stories collection. Zhong was ironically listed in 'Top 10 most beautiful Chinese women writers online' together with Wei Hui and Mian Mian by internet readers (although she said it was 'totally a misunderstanding'), and become an iconic figure of 'New Women' writers of the 'Post 70s Generation' in China. Meanwhile, she also became a successful journalist and received a National Award for her exceptional contribution on reporting the IT technology blooming in China. Zhong wrote a film script 'Sunshine and the Monsoon' (adapted from her own novel) at the age of nineteen and won the Excellence Award for Chinese Youth Film Script in 1996. Her translation work 'In a Station of the Metro'(Ezra Pound) was collected into Chinese national high school's Literature Textbook and Chinese universities' textbook for American Literature. Her letter to editor was published in 'One person's Literary History'(by Cheng Yongxin, Editor-in-chief of Harvest Literary Magazine) as one of writers' documentaries in contemporary Chinese literature. Before coming to the UK, Zhong was one of notable contemporary women writers in China, and was known as one of leading women writers in the 'Post 70s Generation' writers, among all Chinese women writers whom 'supported half sky of Chinese literature' in the 20th century.

After immigrating to the UK in 2002, Zhong has been living in London anonymously and continued writing fictions, essays, drama criticism, etc. In an online news, Zhong said she had decided that she would never work in mass media again after 'working as a journalist in media industry for years' in China, because 'to report news in China', was 'completely a challenge of humanity's conscience and the bottom line'. This may have explained why Zhong has completely vanished from media from 2002 to 2015, and has not had any interviews for a dozen years when living in London, while continuing writing and publishing novels and books in Chinese language.

London Single Diary(2009) was her first series writing written in the UK and published in China, the twin work London Love Story(2010) peaked at #3 in the Amazon Bestselling Fiction List and sold out its first edition within three weeks, and then constantly staying on the bestselling list more than 40 weeks. Her novel Chinatown(written in 2005 at London) was released in 'Harvest' in 2011, which gathered American Chinese writer Ha Jin, British Chinese writer Yilin Zhong, and Taiwanese writer Qi Bang Yuan's works as a 'Special Issue of Oversea-Chinese Writers', and sold out in three months. In 2012, Zhong translated 'The Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 Award Ceremony Speech'(Awarded to Mo Yan) into Chinese and published in China, which was the only complete full version released in China without official abridgment. Zhong attended the London Book Fair in 2012 and met many Beijing writer friends, such as the Vice Editor-in-chief of People's Literature and Pathlight magazines, whom recalled their friendship in Beijing in his published London Diaries. Zhong also wrote London drama reviews for Chinese newspapers and National Drama Study, and was cited by Shakespeare beyond English published in the UK. In 2013, her novel Personal Statement(written in 2000 at Beijing) was published in Shanghai, and was recommended by Swedish Taiwanese writer Chen-Malmqvist(Sinologist Göran Malmqvist's wife), whom commented that 'her 23-year-old thought seems even more fulfilling than my 40 years' life'.

In 2013, Zhong joint a reality dating TV show of Channel 4 and appeared on First Dates as herself. This was her first public appearance in the UK and she became the TV advertising model in its first season. In 2014, Harvest published the Kindle version of Chinatown, which peaked at #1 at the Amazon's Paid Kindle Bestselling Literary Fiction list within one week; then the paperback edition was published in 2015, and was appraised to have filled the 'remarkable blank space of illegal immigration in contemporary Chinese literature history' (Editor's Review). In March 2015, Yilin Zhong had her first interview since 2002 with Harvest literary magazine for her new book Chinatown, and the interviewer recommended that 'one of this literary work's very great significance', is that 'it has changed our understanding of the world'.

Up until 2017, Zhong has published ten books including eight novels, and nine sold out. In November 2015, she took a trip to New York, and then she started to write her first novel in English: Dear New York,(1-4); Book 1-3 was written between Dec 2015 and March 2016 in London, and Book 4 was completed in May 2016 in New York. She also sketched a new fiction Miss China and a non-fiction Folks of New York at Manhattan, and then wrote her first collection of poems in English after coming back to London in the fall of 2016. In July 2017, Zhong wrote her latest fiction The Private Scene as the third book of the personal statement trilogy, which was a derivative work of the second book of the trilogy, In London. The novel In London was signed to be published in China in late 2017, twelve years after it was written in 2005 in London, with a foreword written by Wenfen Chen-Malmqvist. Her life writing series London Single Lady (season 1-5) was signed to be published from 2018 to 2021.

Books