Zhang was born in June 1935 in
Gaizhou,
Liaoning province. Zhang graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of
Peking University in 1960, and worked at the Institute of Latin American Studies of the
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. During the
Cultural Revolution, he was sent to perform manual labour at a
May Seventh Cadre School in
Shenqiu County,
Henan, from 1969 to 1973. In 1973, he became a faculty member of the Department of Chinese Language of
Liaoning University, serving as lecturer, associate professor, professor, and eventually department chair. He was known as the leading scholar of the Liaoning writer
Xiao Jun, whom he had met in the 1950s and after the
Cultural Revolution. He wrote two biographies of Xiao Jun. Zhang joined the
China Democratic League in March 1984. He entered politics in 1989, when he was appointed vice mayor of
Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning. He later served as vice chairman of the Liaoning
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), chairman of the China Democratic League Liaoning Provincial Committee, and vice chairman of the China Democratic League Central Committee. Zhang retired in July 2009. He died on 3 February 2019 in Shenyang, at the age of 83. == References ==