Personal Statement

Personal Statement is a novel Yilin Zhong wrote in Beijing at age 23, before coming to the UK.

[About the Novel]

Personal Statement is an autobiographical novel by Yilin Zhong. The novel tells the story of "I", a 23-year-old single girl, and her interactions and lives with all kinds of people from all walks of life, including writers, poets, literary editors, film directors, stars, singers, agents, musicians, painters, female editors of fashion magazines, beautiful writers, evening newspaper reporters, IT elites, wealthy officials and businessmen, trade tycoons, wealthy businessmen from Hong Kong and Taiwan, and other people in Beijing, the core city of China, as well as their respective experiences. It presents an urban landscape painting of the so-called upper class of the cultural and entertainment circles in Beijing in the early 21st century.

This is an era recorded by a 23-year-old girl, a panoramic picture of Beijing's upper class. Only after reading it, which is the closest to reality, you can see the truth behind the real life in Beijing and the true fate of those celebrities under the glamorous halo of the entertainment industry. In this story, there are beautiful women in luxury clothes and rich men who spend money lavishly, as well as poor people and urban dwellers who live in basements or countryside's farmhouses, cannot get a sip of tap water in the winter.

The most upper-class society, the most inferior society, all the inside stories of the fashion and entertainment circles, all the extravagance and splendour of this gilded age, are all in this book, that slowly unfolds the panoramic view of this era like a cloud map: Beijing, Beijing.

Recommended by leading commentators

Yilin Zhong was 23 years old when she wrote this novel, but her thoughts at 23 seemed to be more fulfilling than my life at 40. After reading the novel, I think the title should be "Life in Beijing at the End of the Century". The end of the century has passed and turned into a fairy tale. But fairy tales sometimes hide dangers. The complicated relationships in Beijing's literary and art circles make the pace of life very tense, and the protagonist of the novel is like a little rabbit in the jungle.

• Wenfen Chen-Malmqvist, Swedish Taiwanese writer

Yilin Zhong's talent is unquestionable. Her novel has a certain autobiographical nature, and the "current situation" she describes is the late 20th century and early 21st century. It is these two points that make this work, which describes the situation in the literary world and the emotions of literati, irreplaceable. That is to reproduce the true picture of Beijing's cultural circle at that time from a personal perspective and in a nearly documentary manner.
As time goes by, "Beijing, Beijing", which is filled with vivid memories and fresh accounts, is both a look back at history and a portrayal of reality.

• Bai Ye, Literary critic, President of the Chinese Contemporary Literature Research Association

"Beijing Beijing" is a novel written by Yilin Zhong before she went abroad. At that time, I saw her shuttling between various gatherings in Beijing's fashion and literary circles all day long. No one would have thought that she would write these things into a novel. Like a Ukiyo-e, this novel vividly describes the seemingly prosperous lives of celebrities in Beijing's fashion and cultural circles, as well as those artists and migrant workers living at the bottom of society. It also reveals the bitterness and confusion behind the prosperity of people in modern cities.

• Pan Qian, GM of New Media China at Conde Nast Group

Table of contents

Part One: Evening
Chapter 1-5
Part Two: Noon
Chapter 1-5
Part Three: Night
Chapter 1-5

[Postscript]