Ilaria Maria Sala was born in Italy and grew up in Bologna and Florence. She has studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies, Beijing Normal University, and Beijing University. After a few years in Japan she is now based in Hong Kong, where she writes about China and Asia. Sala is the author of Il Dio dell’Asia: Religione e Politica in Oriente: Un Reportage (Italian; Il Saggiatore, 2006) (winner of the Bruce Chatwin Award for Travel Literature), a book of travel features about religion; and a volume of essays, Lettere dalla Cina (Italian; Una Città, 2011). She writes for the Italian daily La Stampa (for which she won the Igor Man award for journalism in 2011) and contributes to The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. She is passionate about a lot of topics, but particularly enthusiastic about ceramics, tea, and the Qianlong Emperor.
Ilaria Maria Sala was born in Italy and grew up in Bologna and Florence. She has studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, Beijing Normal University, and Beijing University. After some years in Japan, she now calls Hong Kong home. Sala is the author of Il Dio dell’Asia: Religione e Politica in Oriente (Italian; Il Saggiatore, 2006) (winner of the Bruce Chatwin Award for Travel Literature); and a volume of essays, Lettere dalla Cina (Italian; Una Città, 2011). Her ChinaFile piece “Beijing Autumn” obtained a Human Rights Press Award in 2016. She is a contributing writer for Quartz, and various other publications. She is passionate about a lot of topics, but particularly enthusiastic about ceramics, tea, and the Qianlong Emperor.
