A street in Dali retains its original looks. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Next comes a song called The Mud Fish. The words are those of a fish that is about to be eaten, but the song is metaphorical, a lament about the plight of a humble farmer.

As Zhang recounts from this songburst: "He might be a little fish, Chief Li sings, but at least his bones will scratch the throats of his masters on the way down."

I thought this was a book about ham, you are probably thinking－and you are right. But for Zhang, ham is something of a metaphor too, a symbol of ordinary life in her birthplace and the ordinary people who shape the culture in sleepy villages not far from tourist hot spots like Dali Old Town.

As a teenager, Zhang was bored by the "perfect" climate and the slow pace of Yunnan, and couldn't wait to escape to the energy and bright lights of the world beyond. Her escape began in the United States with her acceptance at Harvard Business School and then a job as a consultant for McKinsey.

At a recent talk, Zhang got a laugh from a bookstore crowd when she described her first encounter with a bland ham-and-cheese sandwich in the US.

"This is ham?" she remembers asking.