Founder of Youwei Library | Alumna of the University of Cambridge
Jin Zhang started her career in finance in Hong Kong. In 2012, she left a well-paid job and returned to her hometown, Sanmen, Taizhou, where she set up Youwei Library, the first privately funded non-profit library in Zhejiang Province. The library’s name, in Chinese, is supposed to convey the meaning “to have a dream and make it happen”. Jin hopes that the library will enrich the cultural life of local citizens and help young people grow into a new generation of independent thinkers with broad horizons. At the same time, Jin wants to share the joy of reading and promote life-long learning.
Studying in the UK exposed Jin to social entrepreneurship and she learnt much through on-site visits to community libraries in the UK, which together laid a solid foundation for the establishment of Youwei Library. It is Jin’s hope that Youwei Library will enable people from her hometown to experience a larger world.