leading playwright and motion-picture director in China.

Zhang was educated at Qinghua University in Beijing and at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and then studied film technique in Hollywood. His first published play, Xiaocheng gushi (1940; Tale of a Small Town), is a comedy about the psychological conflicts of a woman in love. Wanshi shibiao (1943; “Model Teacher of Myriad Generations”), considered his best play, follows the fortunes of a group of Chinese intellectuals from 1919 to 1937.

Returning to China during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45), Zhang directed several successful plays in Chongqing and rose to preeminence in the Chinese film industry with his first film, Chenglong kuaixu (1948; “The Great Son-in-Law”). After the establishment of the communist regime in 1949, Zhang became a director of the governmental Central Motion Picture Company. His film Cuigang hongqi (1951; Red Banner on the Emerald Ridge) won acclaim throughout China; its hero is a soldier in the communist army. Zhang continued to direct films until the 1980s. He also wrote books about filmmaking, including Guanyu dianying de teshu biaoxian shouduan (1958; “Specifics of Cinema Expression”) and Yingshi suoyi (1985; “Bits and Pieces About Film”), and edited an encyclopaedia of Chinese cinema (1995). A two-volume collection of Zhang's plays and articles was published posthumously in 1997.