Mark Salzman

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Mark Joseph Salzman born December 3 1959 in Greenwich Connecticut is an American writer Salzman is best known for his 1986 memoir Iron Silk which describes his experiences living in China as an English teacher in the early 1980s Salzman grew up in Ridgefield Conn the oldest child of a piano teacher mother and a social worker father He studied Chinese Language and Literature at Yale University He graduated Phi Beta Kappa Summa Cum Laude in 1982 and spent the next two years in Changsha Hunan teaching English at Hunan Medical College and studying martial arts with Pan Qingfu a Chinese martial arts teacher and kung fu movie actor His experiences in China are recounted in his first book Iron Silk A young American encounters swordsmen bureaucrats and other citizens of contemporary China published in 1986 Salzman received several literary awards for Iron Silk The book was made into a 1990 film of the same title Salzman wrote the screenplay and starred as himself in the film Though the real venue of the story was in Changsha the film was shot in Hangzhou Zhejiang Salzmans other publications include several works of fiction a memoir dealing with growing up in suburbia more specifically Ridgefield Connecticut and a report on his work as a creative writing instructor for juvenile delinquents Salzman plays the cello In high school he played the cello for the Norwalk Youth Symphony In the mid1990s Salzman appeared in magazine advertisements for Dewars Scotch Whisky In 2007 Mark Salzman along with three other men was featured in the documentary Protagonist directed by his wife Jessica Yu Salzman was awarded a Guggenheim fellowship in 2000 He his wife Jessica Yu an Academy Awardwinning filmmaker and their daughters Ava and Esme live in Los Angeles Description above from the Wikipedia article Mark Salzman licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia