Born in China, Song Nan Zhang has since made eastern Canada his home, and has shared his unique cultural heritage with North American readers through his art and his many books for children. While Zhang considers himself to be primarily an oil painter, he has also earned respect as a writer since publishing of his first book for children, the award-winning A Little Tiger in the Chinese Night: An Autobiography in Art. Zhang's straightforward text about growing up in communist China is accompanied by realistic paintings in what a Kirkus Reviews critic called a "classic Communist style."
Zhang studied at China's leading art college, the Beijing Central Institute of Fine Arts. He also studied at L'Ecole.
Zhang won Mr. Christie's Book Award, Children's Literature Roundtables of Canada Honor Book, and Red Cedar Book Award.