Women writers from Asia
Arundathi Roy
Zhang Ailingwas born September 9, 1920 in Shanghai, China. Her mother was a cosmopolitan, sophisticated woman. Despite her husband´s more traditional preferences she took responsibility for Zhangs western education; Zhang learned English and studied art and music at a very early age. She also read Chinese novels and attempted writing throughout her childhood. In 1939 she enrolled in the University of Hong Kong to study English literature, only to have her plans shattered two years later by the Japanese invasion and the closure of the institution.
Yōko Ogawa Since 1988, Ogawa has published more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction. In 2006 she co-authored
"An Introduction to the World's Most
Elegant Mathematics" with
Masahiko Fujiwara, a
mathematician, as a dialogue
on the extraordinary beauty
of numbers.