In the 1990s, China had lost its innocence - Zhang Lijia

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Author Zhang Lijia spoke Friday 17 July in Amsterdam on her autobiography "Socialism is Great". Her book plays in the 1980s as she is working in a factory for long-distance missiles in Nanjing and ends with the aftermath of the demonstrations she helped to organize in May 1989, to support the student protests in Beijing in the time. Why did she stop there, was one of the questions, were the 1990s less exciting than the 1980.
"China had lost its innocence in the 1990s," she said. In the decade after the opening up of China, it was an almost romantic period, that abruptly ended in June 1989. Since then, she said, the Chinese government successfully let its citizens focus on making money, partly explaining the title of the book "Socialism is Great", suggested by her publisher.
The title did not go that well down with an American audiences, she discovered on a recent book tour in the US. "Not all Americans like socialism," she grins.

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Zhang Lijia is represented by the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your event or conference, do get in touch. You can find a BBC documentary on her here. 

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