Zhang Yin (Cheung Yan)

Zhang-yong belongs to Group 6 - Consumer/retail/real estate. The consumer, retail, and real-estate group covers founders who built mass-market consumer brands (Nongfu Spring, Muyuan Foods, Haidilao), paper packaging (Nine Dragons), education (New Oriental), and property (Evergrande, Country Garden) — a cohort shaped by urbanization, the 1998 housing reform, and, for several, the 2021-2023 property-sector deleveraging.

Zhang Yin (Cheung Yan) — founder profiled in the Chinese Founder Ledger — is documented as follows: former Guangdong textile-factory bookkeeper who moved to Shenzhen to work in paper trading, then founded Nine Dragons Paper, a recycling company that imports US scrap paper into China and turns it into cardboard for export packaging, becoming China's biggest paper maker. The profile is grounded in the 1 sources indexed for this founder.

Zhang Yin (Cheung Yan)'s role is documented as: founder and Director, Nine Dragons Paper Holdings Limited Wikipedia lists her current title as 'Founder and director of Nine Dragons Paper Holdings' (research date: 2026-08-23); this reflects the source's most recent update rather than a freshly confirmed 2026 primary filing.

Zhang was born Zhang Xiuhua in 1957 in Shaoguan, Guangdong, the eldest of eight children; her father, a Red Army lieutenant, was jailed for three years during the Cultural Revolution for 'rightist activity,' which meant Zhang never attended college and began working young to support her family.

After working as a bookkeeper in a Guangdong textile factory and studying accounting at trade school, Zhang moved to Shenzhen to manage the accounting and trading departments of a paper-trading company as Shenzhen was becoming a special economic zone and export hub.

Nine Dragons Paper's business model involves buying scrap paper from the United States, importing it into China, and converting it mainly into cardboard for boxes used to export Chinese goods -- directly linking Zhang's fortune to the physical logistics of the US-China trade relationship.

As of the Hurun Report China Rich List 2013, Zhang ranked as the fourth-richest woman in mainland China and 24th richest overall; she was also reported in January 2007 to be a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.