Mark Salzman

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.

Salzman's 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 mid-1990s, Salzman appeared in magazine advertisements for Dewar's 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 Award-winning filmmaker, and their daughters Ava and Esme live in Los Angeles.

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