Zhang Ling was born in Wenzhou, China. Since the 1990s she began to write overseas and publish works. Her representative works include Laoyan, Aftershock, Golden Mountain. She has won several major Chinese literature awards, including the annual novelist award of the Chinese Literature Media Award, the Overseas Chinese Literature Award, etc. In 2009, Zhang's novella, Aftershock, a tale about the survival of the horrific 1976 Tangshan earthquake, was made into China’s first IMAX movie, directed by Feng Xiaogang, which became the greatest box office success at the time and has won many awards including the best film of the Asia-Pacific Film Festival and the best film of the Chinese Popular Film Hundred Flowers Award. Her works have been translated into various languages.