Zhang Jizhong
| Zhang Jizhong | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Chinese name | 張紀中 (traditional) |
| Chinese name | 张纪中 (simplified) |
| Pinyin | Zhāng Jìzhōng (Mandarin) |
| Jyutping | Zoeng1 Gei2 Zung1 (Cantonese) |
| Born |
August 23, 1951 Yantai, Shandong, China |
| Other name(s) | "Beardy" |
| Occupation | Film director, producer, actor, teacher and writer |
| Years active | 1981 - present |
Zhang Jizhong (born August 23, 1951) is a Chinese film producer, director, teacher, and writer. He is known as one of the more prominent television producers in China. His best known productions include the CCTV adaptations of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, namely Romance of the Three Kingdoms and The Water Margin, as well as adaptations of Louis Cha's wuxia novels. He is also known for building large film cities with the support of local government authorities, sets that have later been developed into tourist attractions.
Zhang's adaptations of Louis Cha's works are somewhat controversial in China. Reception to these productions are generally mixed as some feel his productions are largely overblown, muddled and bombastic, while others champion his large budget and use of scenic locations.
In Zhang's early life, he and his seven siblings endured many hardships because his father served as a county head for the Kuomintang. In the sixth grade, with the encouragement of one of his school teachers, he applied for the PLA School of Fine Arts, but was rejected after a background check on his father's political status, even though he passed the exams. Before 1972, he also applied to China's Central Academy of Drama and other schools, but his application was still rejected after a political check, despite passing the entrance requirements. During the Cultural Revolution, Zhang was sent to work in the countryside as part of the Down to the Countryside Movement, where he worked in a coal mining town in Shanxi for six years. In 1974, Zhang became a teacher in a coal mining town in Shanxi and taught history, Chinese and biology. He also led a literature and art performing troupe that consisted of coal workers and assumed the roles of director, screenwriter and composer.
After the collapse of the Gang of Four and at the time of the post-1978 economic reform in China, Zhang entered Shanxi's modern drama theatre to become a stage actor. In 1979, a friend took him to a film set at the Shanghai Film Group Corporation, where he was discovered and later cast for the main role One Day When We Were Young, a television drama. In 1983, Zhang met Zhang Shaolin on set, who would become his long-term working partner. Zhang Jizhong and Zhang Shaolin's first television production as producer and director respectively, One Hundred Years of Suffering, won the Five One Award. Some of their other works, including Vice Squad General, The People's Policeman, and Good Man Yan Juqian, all won Flying Goddess awards, one of China's awards for television production.
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