Zhang Zangzang

Zhang Zangzang (born 1964), original name Zhang Xiabo, is a Chinese writer and the CEO of Phoenix Cultural Media. An avant-garde poet in the 1980s, Zhang and his co-authors wrote the 1990s Chinese nationalist bestselling book China Can Say No.

Zhang was born in 1964.^[1]: 225

He graduated from East China Normal University and worked in Zhenjiang's art propaganda department for approximately six months.^[1]: 225 Zhang then moved to Shanghai, where he was an avant-garde poet whose works focused on the metropolitan aesthetics of the 1980s.^[1]: 225

In the 1990s, Zhang became a book seller.^[1]: 225

Hew is the CEO of Phoenix Cultural Media.^[1]: 225

In the early 1990s, Zhang was struck by the strength with which the Chinese public expressed nationalist sentiment following a series of diplomatic disputes between China and the United States.^[1]: 225 In 1995, Zhang recruited four co-authors to write a book that would appeal to growing nationalist sentiment.^[1]: 227 These were Song Qiang (a college friend of Zhang's who was working as an advertising manager in Chongqing), Qiao Bian (a gardener at the Beijing Gardening and Greening Bureau), Gu Qingsheng (a Beijing-based freelance writer), and Tang Zhengyu (a reporter from the China Business Times).^[1]: 227 Zhang asked each author to write their portion of the book and combined their five sections as a collection of views.^[1]: 228 The resulting book, China Can Say No, became a benchmark for 1990s nationalist sentiment.^[2] Shortly after publication, Zhang and his co-authors became national celebrities.^[1]: 240

The first 50,000 copies sold out on the day of release and an additional 100,000 copies sold within one month.^[1]: 212 Total sales are estimated at one million to two million copies.^[1]: 212 It has been translated into eight languages.^[1]: 212