A Slice of more contemporary history – Ning Ken’s Zhong Guan Village: Tales from the Heart of China’s Silicon ValleyA Slice of more contemporary history

My monthly column for the China-Britain Business Council magazine Focus touched on more recent Beijing history this month (click here to read in full)…Ning Ken’s Zhong Guan Village (2022)…

Ning Ken is a Beijing-based writer and journalist who has long been fascinated by Zhongguancun. His recent book, Zhong Guan Village: Tales from the Heart of China’s Silicon Valley (ACA Publishing, 2022 and translated by James Trapp) looks at the origins of the area from the viewpoint of a fascinated novelist, the story of some of the big names that have established themselves there, and some musings on what the ‘village’ means to the future of China’s technology sector. Paul French caught up with Ning Ken to talk tech, Zhongguan village and how one goes about telling its stories.