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Lijia Zhang: Lotus

Lotus follows a young woman torn between past traditions and modern desires - as she carves out a life for herself in China’s β€œCity of Sins”.

This month ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ World Book Club comes from Beijing with Lawrence Pollard.

The programme is a guest of the Bookworm, three rooms and a roof terrace full of books in Chinese and English, a fixture on the literary scene here for over a decade.

Bestselling Chinese writer Lijia Zhang answers questions about her novel Lotus. Lijia taught herself English while working in a missile factory in a bid to become a writer and a journalist, and she’s written Lotus in English. It’s the story of a young migrant worker from the country who ends up as a prostitute in Shenzen, the economic powerhouse of Southern China. It’s also a deeply researched picture of the people who look up at the economic miracle from beneath and their struggles for dignity, love and a future they can believe in.

(Image: Lijia Zhang. Credit: Will Baker.)

Available now

50 minutes

Last on

Thu 8 Nov 2018 00:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sun 4 Nov 2018 03:06GMT
  • Sun 4 Nov 2018 14:06GMT
  • Wed 7 Nov 2018 09:06GMT
  • Thu 8 Nov 2018 00:06GMT

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