In the 1950s, Zhang Xin's parents, third generation
Burmese Chinese, left Burma and immigrated to China, leaving behind their confectionery business.
[3][4] There, they worked as translators at the Bureau of Foreign Languages.
[5] They separated during the
Cultural Revolution.
Born in
Beijing in 1965, Zhang Xin moved to Hong Kong at the age of 14 with her mother and lived in a room just big enough for two bunk beds. To save for an education abroad, she worked for five years in small factories that make garment and electronic products. As she has described, the 'conditions there were similar to those in mainland China today'.
By 19, she had saved enough for airfare to London and supporting herself for English study at secretarial school.
[6] Later, she studied
Economics at the
University of Sussex. In 1992, she graduated with a Master’s Degree in Development Economics from
Cambridge University.
[7] In 2013, Zhang Xin received honorary Doctor of Laws from her Alma Mater, University of Sussex.
