Status
Available
Call number
Publication
Tor Books (1992), Edition: 1st, Hardcover, 313 pages
Description
I am Zhang, alone with my light, and in that light I think for a moment that I am free.' Imagine a world: a sinocentric world where Chinese Marxism has vanquished the values of capitalism and Lenin is the prophet of choice. A cybernetic world where the new charioteers are flyers, human-powered kites dancing in the skies over New York in a brief grab at glory. A world where the opulence of Beijing marks a new cultural imperialism, as wealthy urbanites flirt with interactive death in illegal speakeasies, and where Arctic research stations and communes on Mars are haunted by their own fragile dangers. A world of fear and hope, of global disaster and slow healing, where progress can only be found in the cracks of a crumbling hegemony. The world of Zhang. An anti-hero who's still finding his way, treading a path through a totalitarian order - a path that just might make a difference.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member edgeworth
Science fiction is a reflection of its own age. Look at any contemporary sci-fi story, whether it’s Kim Stanley Robinson’s novel 2312 or the time travel film Looper or the TV series Firefly, and it’s commonly accepted that the United States is in decline while China is on the rise – in
In any case, Maureen McHugh deserves credit for being ahead of the curve on science fiction’s trending geopolitical prediction. China Mountain Zhang was published in 1992, just as the Cold War was wrapping up and before most people thought China might ever make something of itself. Set in the early 22nd century, it proposes that China is the world’s dominant power and the United States has undergone a communist revolution. China Mountain Zhang, the protagonist, is an “ABC” or American-born Chinese. Secretly, he is half Hispanic, but his mother had him genetically modified as a child to make him appear more Asian, which gives him a social advantage in a Chinese-dominated world. (“The Chinese are the worst racists,” his mother opines. Zhang thinks, “This is not surprising but nor is it helpful. Nor is it a good political thing to say but everybody knows it.”) Zhang also has a second, more troubling secret – he is gay. In the US this is socially unacceptable; in China it is a capital crime. The book begins with Zhang’s boss trying to arrange for him to marry his daughter, using the promise of studying in China as a reward, and the uncomfortable situation Zhang is dragged into as a result.
China Mountain Zhang is a deeply realistic science fiction novel, primarily in the way that it portrays the situation in the United States. Most American authors would depict a communist, Chinese-dominated USA as a nightmarish dystopia – and, indeed, Zhang’s America is far from wonderful, and despite America’s gross hypocrisy and myriad social problems, I would never seriously compare it to China. Yet the truth is that most people all over the world spend their time just getting by, and it makes not much difference to them whether they live under capitalism or communism, democracy or dictatorship. Just look at the hundreds of millions of new middle class Chinese who are happy to live under the Communist Party as long as they have running water and electricity, or the hundreds of millions of Americans who don’t much care if Obama is murdering American citizens as long as he does something about the economy. Or, as Zhang puts it, “I don’t believe in socialism but I don’t believe in capitalism either. We are small, governments are large, we survive in the cracks. Cold comfort.”
It’s clear from early on that this is not an epic sci-fi novel, not even on the politically realistic scale of one of Kim Stanley Robinson’s books. A miniscule amount of humans ever have any grand impact on the world they inhabit, and China Mountain Zhang is about exploring Zhang’s world and developing his personal story rather than chronicling some critical event in a well-developed future history. The “Cleansing Winds” are referred to throughout, and it only gradually becomes clear that this is the name for the American communist revolution. We learn that Canada is still a constitutional monarchy and Australia is on track to become the “next economic power,” but these things are only mentioned in passing. China Mountain Zhang is told from the bottom, looking up – not the top, looking down.
China Mountain Zhang is thus a slow-moving, character-driven book, and while I can’t say I hugely enjoyed it, I did find it compelling, readable and worth my time. It deserves its various awards and accolades. Even twenty years on from its initial publication, I found it to be notably different from most mainstream science fiction novels, and it’s certainly worth reading.
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fact, 60-70% of Americans consistently say just that in polls. Personally, I think this is shortsighted – remember the late 1980s, the time of Nakatomi Plaza and The Rising Sun, when everyone thought the Japanese were going to take over? I have no doubt that China will certainly enjoy its moment in the sun this century, but the further one goes into the future the less likely one’s predictions are to be accurate, and I wouldn’t mind seeing some sci-fi writers buck the trend and focus on a world where the hyperpower is India (the next obvious choice) or something less obvious but just as justifiable given a couple of centuries, like Brazil or Indonesia or Australia. Or a unified Africa. Or the Pan-Pacific Empire. Or whatever.In any case, Maureen McHugh deserves credit for being ahead of the curve on science fiction’s trending geopolitical prediction. China Mountain Zhang was published in 1992, just as the Cold War was wrapping up and before most people thought China might ever make something of itself. Set in the early 22nd century, it proposes that China is the world’s dominant power and the United States has undergone a communist revolution. China Mountain Zhang, the protagonist, is an “ABC” or American-born Chinese. Secretly, he is half Hispanic, but his mother had him genetically modified as a child to make him appear more Asian, which gives him a social advantage in a Chinese-dominated world. (“The Chinese are the worst racists,” his mother opines. Zhang thinks, “This is not surprising but nor is it helpful. Nor is it a good political thing to say but everybody knows it.”) Zhang also has a second, more troubling secret – he is gay. In the US this is socially unacceptable; in China it is a capital crime. The book begins with Zhang’s boss trying to arrange for him to marry his daughter, using the promise of studying in China as a reward, and the uncomfortable situation Zhang is dragged into as a result.
China Mountain Zhang is a deeply realistic science fiction novel, primarily in the way that it portrays the situation in the United States. Most American authors would depict a communist, Chinese-dominated USA as a nightmarish dystopia – and, indeed, Zhang’s America is far from wonderful, and despite America’s gross hypocrisy and myriad social problems, I would never seriously compare it to China. Yet the truth is that most people all over the world spend their time just getting by, and it makes not much difference to them whether they live under capitalism or communism, democracy or dictatorship. Just look at the hundreds of millions of new middle class Chinese who are happy to live under the Communist Party as long as they have running water and electricity, or the hundreds of millions of Americans who don’t much care if Obama is murdering American citizens as long as he does something about the economy. Or, as Zhang puts it, “I don’t believe in socialism but I don’t believe in capitalism either. We are small, governments are large, we survive in the cracks. Cold comfort.”
It’s clear from early on that this is not an epic sci-fi novel, not even on the politically realistic scale of one of Kim Stanley Robinson’s books. A miniscule amount of humans ever have any grand impact on the world they inhabit, and China Mountain Zhang is about exploring Zhang’s world and developing his personal story rather than chronicling some critical event in a well-developed future history. The “Cleansing Winds” are referred to throughout, and it only gradually becomes clear that this is the name for the American communist revolution. We learn that Canada is still a constitutional monarchy and Australia is on track to become the “next economic power,” but these things are only mentioned in passing. China Mountain Zhang is told from the bottom, looking up – not the top, looking down.
China Mountain Zhang is thus a slow-moving, character-driven book, and while I can’t say I hugely enjoyed it, I did find it compelling, readable and worth my time. It deserves its various awards and accolades. Even twenty years on from its initial publication, I found it to be notably different from most mainstream science fiction novels, and it’s certainly worth reading.
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LibraryThing member sturlington
In the 22nd century, when China is the dominant superpower and the US has had a socialist revolution, Zhang is trying to figure out what to do with his life.
Whenever I read futuristic science fiction written during the Cold War that assumes the Soviet Union continued as a superpower, I find myself
This future is not dystopian, not really (although I'm sure many Americans would consider a socialist USA the worst thing that could ever happen). It's far too realistic for that. The characters are all ordinary people with ordinary concerns about work, success, love, and community. I think that's why I enjoyed this book so much--the story is told by real people with the minor concerns of real life, but it maintains a broad scope. The story begins and ends in New York City, but it travels to an Arctic research station, a rich and glittering Shanghai, even Mars.
The characters, however, are all people who don't quite fit into this new normal. The protagonist, Zhang, is gay and half Latino (which has been obscured by genetic manipulation) who must keep both these aspects of himself secret in order to get ahead. He chafes against these restrictions and longs for community, finally choosing to do something very American: he starts his own business. Other sections of the book are told from the points of view of characters that Zhang meets peripherally. One is a Chinese woman with a medical condition that has rendered her "ugly"; once she has that corrected, she unexpectedly faces the possibly worse problems of pretty girls. Another is a loner who has finally moved to a commune on Mars in order to be left alone, but yet finds herself reluctantly helping to build her new community.
These are quiet stories, and the events that take place are not big ones. Without the technological enhancements, all of these stories could take place today. Through her speculative premise, McHugh shines a light on the persistent tensions that characterize the human species: the tension between conformity and individuality, and the desire we all have to make our own lives and to truly be ourselves.
Read for female science fiction/fantasy month (June 2014).
Whenever I read futuristic science fiction written during the Cold War that assumes the Soviet Union continued as a superpower, I find myself
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mentally substituting "China" for Soviet Union, just to keep the story believable for me. Now here's a book written in the '90s that actually does posit China as the dominant superpower, and of course, it's a lot different and more realistic than those Soviet-era books. For one thing, the United States has declined quite a lot, as well as having undergone its own socialist revolution. This version of the near future also brings in questions of race -- people of Chinese ethnicity have privilege here -- sexuality, and gender as well as politics.This future is not dystopian, not really (although I'm sure many Americans would consider a socialist USA the worst thing that could ever happen). It's far too realistic for that. The characters are all ordinary people with ordinary concerns about work, success, love, and community. I think that's why I enjoyed this book so much--the story is told by real people with the minor concerns of real life, but it maintains a broad scope. The story begins and ends in New York City, but it travels to an Arctic research station, a rich and glittering Shanghai, even Mars.
The characters, however, are all people who don't quite fit into this new normal. The protagonist, Zhang, is gay and half Latino (which has been obscured by genetic manipulation) who must keep both these aspects of himself secret in order to get ahead. He chafes against these restrictions and longs for community, finally choosing to do something very American: he starts his own business. Other sections of the book are told from the points of view of characters that Zhang meets peripherally. One is a Chinese woman with a medical condition that has rendered her "ugly"; once she has that corrected, she unexpectedly faces the possibly worse problems of pretty girls. Another is a loner who has finally moved to a commune on Mars in order to be left alone, but yet finds herself reluctantly helping to build her new community.
These are quiet stories, and the events that take place are not big ones. Without the technological enhancements, all of these stories could take place today. Through her speculative premise, McHugh shines a light on the persistent tensions that characterize the human species: the tension between conformity and individuality, and the desire we all have to make our own lives and to truly be ourselves.
Read for female science fiction/fantasy month (June 2014).
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LibraryThing member andreablythe
China has become the dominant in the world, and after the Cleansing Winds campaign in the U.S., socialism is the norm. The U.S. is not quite a third world country, but it is close, and many people living there hope to find their way to China, where there exists the most advanced technology and the
Zhang, sometimes called Rafael, has strikes against him in this world. As an ABC ( American Born Chinese) he's at the top of the chain for being a foreigner, however the fact that he is only half Chinese (his mother is Latina) and is bent (homosexual) means that his prospects in the world are somewhat limited. The first could keep him from getting and keeping a descent job, the second could get him a trip to a prison camp or a bullet to the back of the head.
One of the things I loved about this book, along with the clean writing style, is how McHugh shapes a complex world, when she could have easily fallen back on socialism cliches. Instead she looks at the world from many levels and from many cultural points of view, while showing the intricate and subtle ways the dominate culture infiltrates everyday life. (I especially like that "Marx", "Lennon", and "Mao" are used as curse words, the way "Jesus Christ" is now.)
Part of how she accomplishes this is through the presentation of a variety of characters, who are all complex and interesting. Though Zhang is the main character and his quest to define himself is the main arc of the novel, in every other McHugh switches to a short story from the point of view of a different character. Each of these characters' lives intersects with Zhang's in some small way (a great, simple way to keep the story coherent), but their stories are their own and each, like Zhang, is trying to find a way to define themselves, to pursue their own passion and possibly achieve some measure of contentment and peace, if not outright happiness.
This is a beautiful book, one that's been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time, but that I am so thrilled to own, because it's definitely a favorite.
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best, most respected Universities. Zhang, sometimes called Rafael, has strikes against him in this world. As an ABC ( American Born Chinese) he's at the top of the chain for being a foreigner, however the fact that he is only half Chinese (his mother is Latina) and is bent (homosexual) means that his prospects in the world are somewhat limited. The first could keep him from getting and keeping a descent job, the second could get him a trip to a prison camp or a bullet to the back of the head.
One of the things I loved about this book, along with the clean writing style, is how McHugh shapes a complex world, when she could have easily fallen back on socialism cliches. Instead she looks at the world from many levels and from many cultural points of view, while showing the intricate and subtle ways the dominate culture infiltrates everyday life. (I especially like that "Marx", "Lennon", and "Mao" are used as curse words, the way "Jesus Christ" is now.)
Part of how she accomplishes this is through the presentation of a variety of characters, who are all complex and interesting. Though Zhang is the main character and his quest to define himself is the main arc of the novel, in every other McHugh switches to a short story from the point of view of a different character. Each of these characters' lives intersects with Zhang's in some small way (a great, simple way to keep the story coherent), but their stories are their own and each, like Zhang, is trying to find a way to define themselves, to pursue their own passion and possibly achieve some measure of contentment and peace, if not outright happiness.
This is a beautiful book, one that's been sitting on my bookshelf for a long time, but that I am so thrilled to own, because it's definitely a favorite.
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LibraryThing member hayduke
A very engaging first novel set in a possible future when China controls the United States. Themes of class struggle, sexuality and spirituality woven throughout. Young Zhang is a engineering technician who is just trying to create a stable future for himself, despite the odds stacked against him.
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I look forward to reading more from Maureen McHugh. Show Less
LibraryThing member gendeg
China Mountain Zhang is one of the most unusual science fiction books I've read in a while. There are no epic battles or time travel or bending of the rules of physics. If most science fiction feels like space opera, played out on a large stage, this books reads like a quaint period drama, small in
China Mountain Zhang is beautiful slice-of-life storytelling at its best. Even in such a speculative, futuristic world, people still get by and cope with everyday anxieties and issues (the Mars chapters are particularly well done). It's a world that looks a lot like our own. I was really surprised to discover that the novel was first published in 1992. A sleeper hit that is now a classic I hope.
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scale, where the dramatic beats occur in tiny spaces—cramped apartments, dorm rooms, kitchens. By most measures, it isn't an exciting book; no one saves the world here and there are no edge-of-your-seat moments. And yet Maureen McHugh has created a fully realized world like no other. The world is eerily ordinary and real; the characters feel true and and solid. There is a line in the book that captures the storytelling: "We are small, governments are large, we survive in the cracks."China Mountain Zhang is beautiful slice-of-life storytelling at its best. Even in such a speculative, futuristic world, people still get by and cope with everyday anxieties and issues (the Mars chapters are particularly well done). It's a world that looks a lot like our own. I was really surprised to discover that the novel was first published in 1992. A sleeper hit that is now a classic I hope.
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LibraryThing member Gwendydd
This book follows four characters in a future where China has taken over most (all?) of Earth, and humans have colonized Mars. The characters are occupy various fringes: a gay man in a culture where homosexuality is illegal, an ugly woman whose parents couldn't afford plastic surgery, a middle-aged
The four stories only barely intersect: all of the characters are acquaintances of the gay man, China Mountain Zhang. Other than that, there is no connection between them, and you could remove any one of the story lines without affecting the others. I found this frustrating. The stories also didn't really seem to go anywhere, except for China's but even his didn't really have a satisfying arc. I was particularly disturbed by the storyline of the ugly woman: there is a long, detailed, and predictable chapter about her date rape, which is totally gratuitous.
The world building is pretty interesting, but there's a paradox here: I think the main point of the book is that people strive and struggle to find happiness in connections to other humans, and that people on the margins of society have to swim upstream to find their way. In other words, the point is that people are the same in any time and place. That makes the world-building totally incidental - if people are the same everywhere, then it doesn't matter what the world is, which means that the world is just background and doesn't really play a role in the story. This made the world-building unsatisfying.
I found this book very engaging while I was reading it, but then it was over and it was unsatisfying.
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loner who has a farm on Mars, and a young athlete in the sport of kite racing. The four stories only barely intersect: all of the characters are acquaintances of the gay man, China Mountain Zhang. Other than that, there is no connection between them, and you could remove any one of the story lines without affecting the others. I found this frustrating. The stories also didn't really seem to go anywhere, except for China's but even his didn't really have a satisfying arc. I was particularly disturbed by the storyline of the ugly woman: there is a long, detailed, and predictable chapter about her date rape, which is totally gratuitous.
The world building is pretty interesting, but there's a paradox here: I think the main point of the book is that people strive and struggle to find happiness in connections to other humans, and that people on the margins of society have to swim upstream to find their way. In other words, the point is that people are the same in any time and place. That makes the world-building totally incidental - if people are the same everywhere, then it doesn't matter what the world is, which means that the world is just background and doesn't really play a role in the story. This made the world-building unsatisfying.
I found this book very engaging while I was reading it, but then it was over and it was unsatisfying.
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LibraryThing member greeniezona
This book was on one of the featured theme endcaps at the library and caught my eye. I've been wanting to read more female authored scifi, and the list of awards on the back -- Tiptree, Lambda Literary, Hugo, & Nebula? Some awards, some only nominated, but seriously? The Chinese influence, which
And then! The whole passage on Baffin Island! Totally polar fiction!
(mild spoilers ahead)
This book shifts narrative focus between loosely connected characters -- Zhang - a construction tech engineer who struggles with his in-between status as an American Born Chinese, Angel - a flyer in the kite races Zhang loves to watch, Martine - a military vet who has settled on Mars, raising goats and bees, Alexi - a single father at the bottom of Mars' hierarchy, San-xiang - an unattractive girl whose father tried to match her to Zhang (not knowing Zhang is "bent" or gay), whose life changes when her face is reconstructed. (Her story was physically painful for me to read. She has no idea how to handle the new ways people treat her, I wanted to scream at her through the pages.)
This is such an interesting world to live in through this book. I loved immersing myself in corner after corner of it, it was so well imagined. I kept expecting, though, for all the characters to come crashing together somehow in some crisis. In the final third of the book, I kept racing, faster and faster, turning pages expecting the crisis to come at any moment. It never did.
As I turned the final page, I exclaimed both, "What the holy crap was that?" and "Oh, dear Lord, I loved it!" Hugging the book to myself, even as it had defied so many of my expectations of what an sf novel should be, I was calculating and weighing whether I could bear to return this book to the library without buying a copy of my own.
The perfect mesh of literary fiction and speculative fiction. I adore.
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I've become more interested in as my kids learn the language, was just icing.And then! The whole passage on Baffin Island! Totally polar fiction!
(mild spoilers ahead)
This book shifts narrative focus between loosely connected characters -- Zhang - a construction tech engineer who struggles with his in-between status as an American Born Chinese, Angel - a flyer in the kite races Zhang loves to watch, Martine - a military vet who has settled on Mars, raising goats and bees, Alexi - a single father at the bottom of Mars' hierarchy, San-xiang - an unattractive girl whose father tried to match her to Zhang (not knowing Zhang is "bent" or gay), whose life changes when her face is reconstructed. (Her story was physically painful for me to read. She has no idea how to handle the new ways people treat her, I wanted to scream at her through the pages.)
This is such an interesting world to live in through this book. I loved immersing myself in corner after corner of it, it was so well imagined. I kept expecting, though, for all the characters to come crashing together somehow in some crisis. In the final third of the book, I kept racing, faster and faster, turning pages expecting the crisis to come at any moment. It never did.
As I turned the final page, I exclaimed both, "What the holy crap was that?" and "Oh, dear Lord, I loved it!" Hugging the book to myself, even as it had defied so many of my expectations of what an sf novel should be, I was calculating and weighing whether I could bear to return this book to the library without buying a copy of my own.
The perfect mesh of literary fiction and speculative fiction. I adore.
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LibraryThing member autopoietic
I thought that this book had a light touch for the sci-fi elements of the story, which left a lot more space for exploring the character aspects and developing believable conflicted characters and a sense of place(s).
The political dimensions were well rounded and gave a strong contrast to the
I got a lot out of the read, and was glad not to have it all tied up to an unbelievable climax, rather left as a fine example of daoist engineering.
The political dimensions were well rounded and gave a strong contrast to the
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contemporary (declining) western dominance without ramming a dys/utopian society in your face.I got a lot out of the read, and was glad not to have it all tied up to an unbelievable climax, rather left as a fine example of daoist engineering.
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LibraryThing member ScoLgo
Slow, scattered, and compulsively readable.
In a near-future world, China is economically and culturally dominant and Mars is the new frontier. The United States is no longer an economic force and people there work and play and dream of living in China. But only genetically pure Chinese are allowed
The book is divided into chapters/sections that each follow different protagonists - three on Earth and two on Mars. The bulk of the narrative follows the titular character, Zhang but there is overlap between all of the storylines. None of these characters find much in the way of resolution and, in truth, not much happens with most of them. The conflicts are mostly (but not all) internal.
What elevates this book is McHugh's writing; it is evocative and her world-building is breathtaking. There is a melancholy and almost desperate feel to each character as they muddle along looking for improvement and envying others their status. With each step forward, they come to realize that, despite their advancement, there will be no escaping themselves. That seems to be the common thread here. It does not sound like very compelling stuff but, once I began this book, it was difficult to stop. China Mountain Zhang is not action-packed by any means but it is a very memorable and intriguing novel.
In a near-future world, China is economically and culturally dominant and Mars is the new frontier. The United States is no longer an economic force and people there work and play and dream of living in China. But only genetically pure Chinese are allowed
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that privilege. Everyone else is denied the Middle Kingdom and must make do by emulating its culture, its fashions, and by riding its economic coat-tails.The book is divided into chapters/sections that each follow different protagonists - three on Earth and two on Mars. The bulk of the narrative follows the titular character, Zhang but there is overlap between all of the storylines. None of these characters find much in the way of resolution and, in truth, not much happens with most of them. The conflicts are mostly (but not all) internal.
What elevates this book is McHugh's writing; it is evocative and her world-building is breathtaking. There is a melancholy and almost desperate feel to each character as they muddle along looking for improvement and envying others their status. With each step forward, they come to realize that, despite their advancement, there will be no escaping themselves. That seems to be the common thread here. It does not sound like very compelling stuff but, once I began this book, it was difficult to stop. China Mountain Zhang is not action-packed by any means but it is a very memorable and intriguing novel.
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LibraryThing member burritapal
I loved this book. And two of my favorite subjects in it: living on mars, and a revolution to put down capitalism. Even if it's just fiction this was so special to me.
The protagonist (he's the ABC, American Born Chinese) likes to go watch the kite races, which is where tiny little humans that strap
This book takes place in what I believe is the 22nd century. Technology has advanced so much that everybody has these ports on their wrists, so that they can plug themselves into stuff. If you want to speak another language, you can be "augmented" for it.
Fliers..
"... A bunch of us go out to a place on LaGuardia where we can drink and make a lot of noise. It's called commemorative, and fliers hang out there. Cinnabar's picked up two guys; a blonde and an ABC, both clearly bent. So's cinnabar. They aren't fliers, of course. Cinnabar has the hots for the blonde, whose name is peter. He isn't tall, not for, you know, a non-flier, I'm not good at heights, maybe one-seven? And not heavy. But next to him Cinnabar looks like nothing but bone and hair. He's pretty, too. And scrawny Cinnabar is not pretty.
(5'6")
After the protagonist works for a year at Baffin Island (Arctic Circle), he gets the chance to get his 4-year degree in engineering at the University in Guangzhou. He feels so all alone there; he knows no one. But he gets lucky, because his tutor turns out to be gay, or what is known as "bent" in the book. He doesn't know how to dress so he notes how his tutor is dressing, as he is a real fashion plate.
The fashion in Gangzhouo:
"I dress in my new clothes; calf-high boots, black jacket with swallow Tails over red, and brushed gray tights like Haitao wore. Am I doing it wrong, I wonder? Have I chosen well? I could disappear on the street in a thousand similar outfits. Will he approve?
The male sex worker Liu Wen, who Zhang meets at Haitao's place:
"Escape is escape. And if I must be a bad element, I might as well allow myself the luxury of indulging as many categories as possible.
Bad elements. There used to be five categories of black elements; landlords, criminals, counter-revolutionaries, capitalists, and one other which I don't remember. We studied it in Middle School in political theory, that was a long time ago for me. Capitalists have been rehabilitated. I don't remember where intellectuals originally came in, perhaps counter-revolutionaries, but bent [gay] as we are, we are criminals. That has not changed in all the years since the revolution."
(Gawd I love this book)
They go to a club that is raided by the police. Haitao and Zhang escape, but only just. They climb floors and spend the night on a catwalk.
"The catwalk is too narrow for us to stand side by side. It's wider than an i-beam, of course, but we are high above the floor and it looks narrower. I take Haitao's wrist with my left hand and start across it. I can see the control panel on the other side and a set of stairs going down, but that side of the building is shadowed and I can't see if there is a loading dock. There should be.
'Hold on to the railing,' I say. Haitao does what he's told. I wish he would think a little for himself, I am cold and I ache and he's acting like a child. Damn it, I ought to leave him here, let him find his own way out.
Anger is good. Anger is better than what Haitao is feeling, than apathy or, what did Maggie Smallwood call it? Perlerorneq, the awareness of the futility of it all. Despair. Underneath my anger I am all too aware that I've been just as paralyzed as Haitao is now."
ZhaoXiezhi was the father of the revolution that destroyed capitalism
The protagonist (he's the ABC, American Born Chinese) likes to go watch the kite races, which is where tiny little humans that strap
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themselves into Kites and then plug themselves into it, so that it's sort of like plugging your phone into your charger. This book takes place in what I believe is the 22nd century. Technology has advanced so much that everybody has these ports on their wrists, so that they can plug themselves into stuff. If you want to speak another language, you can be "augmented" for it.
Fliers..
"... A bunch of us go out to a place on LaGuardia where we can drink and make a lot of noise. It's called commemorative, and fliers hang out there. Cinnabar's picked up two guys; a blonde and an ABC, both clearly bent. So's cinnabar. They aren't fliers, of course. Cinnabar has the hots for the blonde, whose name is peter. He isn't tall, not for, you know, a non-flier, I'm not good at heights, maybe one-seven? And not heavy. But next to him Cinnabar looks like nothing but bone and hair. He's pretty, too. And scrawny Cinnabar is not pretty.
(5'6")
After the protagonist works for a year at Baffin Island (Arctic Circle), he gets the chance to get his 4-year degree in engineering at the University in Guangzhou. He feels so all alone there; he knows no one. But he gets lucky, because his tutor turns out to be gay, or what is known as "bent" in the book. He doesn't know how to dress so he notes how his tutor is dressing, as he is a real fashion plate.
The fashion in Gangzhouo:
"I dress in my new clothes; calf-high boots, black jacket with swallow Tails over red, and brushed gray tights like Haitao wore. Am I doing it wrong, I wonder? Have I chosen well? I could disappear on the street in a thousand similar outfits. Will he approve?
The male sex worker Liu Wen, who Zhang meets at Haitao's place:
"Escape is escape. And if I must be a bad element, I might as well allow myself the luxury of indulging as many categories as possible.
Bad elements. There used to be five categories of black elements; landlords, criminals, counter-revolutionaries, capitalists, and one other which I don't remember. We studied it in Middle School in political theory, that was a long time ago for me. Capitalists have been rehabilitated. I don't remember where intellectuals originally came in, perhaps counter-revolutionaries, but bent [gay] as we are, we are criminals. That has not changed in all the years since the revolution."
(Gawd I love this book)
They go to a club that is raided by the police. Haitao and Zhang escape, but only just. They climb floors and spend the night on a catwalk.
"The catwalk is too narrow for us to stand side by side. It's wider than an i-beam, of course, but we are high above the floor and it looks narrower. I take Haitao's wrist with my left hand and start across it. I can see the control panel on the other side and a set of stairs going down, but that side of the building is shadowed and I can't see if there is a loading dock. There should be.
'Hold on to the railing,' I say. Haitao does what he's told. I wish he would think a little for himself, I am cold and I ache and he's acting like a child. Damn it, I ought to leave him here, let him find his own way out.
Anger is good. Anger is better than what Haitao is feeling, than apathy or, what did Maggie Smallwood call it? Perlerorneq, the awareness of the futility of it all. Despair. Underneath my anger I am all too aware that I've been just as paralyzed as Haitao is now."
ZhaoXiezhi was the father of the revolution that destroyed capitalism
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LibraryThing member fikustree
I really enjoyed this book. It wasn't a typical sci-fi but more like a novel that spent its pages ruminating over life's questions rather than moving a plot along. McHugh's writing is lovely and her ideas about the future where China is the only world power seemed very likely and a little
In addition to the struggles of the characters who deal with an oppressive government, relationships, gender issues, and beauty the novel also gives fanciful descriptions of a new sport where humans race with giant glider wings attached, zen architecture where your mind interfaces with a computer, and they ate lots of Thai food which made me very hungry.
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unnerving. The book takes place in New York, the north pole, China, and a colony on Mars. I wish we would have learned more about what happened to the other countries but it focused only on China and the US.In addition to the struggles of the characters who deal with an oppressive government, relationships, gender issues, and beauty the novel also gives fanciful descriptions of a new sport where humans race with giant glider wings attached, zen architecture where your mind interfaces with a computer, and they ate lots of Thai food which made me very hungry.
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LibraryThing member wealhtheowwylfing
Zhang is a young queer man who works construction and hopes for a brighter future in an alternate world where communist China overtook the US as the global power. This book blew me away. I read it in a single sitting, instead of sleeping.
LibraryThing member questbird
A science-fictional gen-X late 20's crisis. Zhang "China Mountain" Zhong Shan is an American Born Chinese (ABC) in New York City in a future where the USA has had a socialist revolution and China is the number one country in the world. It's rich and everyone wants to live there or work there. Zhang
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looks the part -- he appears Chinese and speaks Mandarin. But he is a diffident gay American who tries to conceal parts of his identity daily. Gradually he fumbles his way towards realising what to do with his life. Zhang is the main narrator, but the book is interspersed with perspectives from others in this world. A shy Chinese girl, a cybernetic kite flyer and some homesteaders from a Martian colony are all linked tangentially to Zhang. The Martian connection is the most tenuous, though their stories are still interesting. Show Less
LibraryThing member ccarlsson
amazing novel of a world in which Chinese Marxism-Leninism is triumphant and the U.S. is a colonial backwater... main character is an ABC (American-born Chinese) but not, and he's gay, so it's all very complicated. Incredible job of showing this altered world without saying exactly how it got that
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way. When I read it in 1999 it seemed slightly odd, but every day we seem to move closer to that world! Show Less
LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
This was the 2nd book I've read by Maureen McHugh, although it is her first.
I have to admit, I preferred "Mission Child" - but this was pretty good as well. McHugh is an excellent writer, with a real gift for creating vivid, complex and believable characters.
However, I felt the structure of this
Every so often, the story goes on a tangent, exploring the lives of people that come into contact with Zhang - a settler on Mars that he tutors, athletes involved in a dangerous sport (cybernetic hang-gliding, basically), and a girl that he reluctantly takes out on a few dates.
Each of these scenarios remarkably quickly comes to life - but remains tangential to the plot. Each dilemma faced by these sub-plot characters is only partially resolved. Much like real life - and I believe it was intentional on the writer's part - but it's still somewhat frustrating.
The book also has a tendency to, every so often, "jump ahead" a few years - so, although we see Zhang's growth from irresponsible young man to well-respected engineer, it seem to occur in a jerky, slightly disorienting rhythm rather than a flow...
Regardless of these small things, I'd highly recommend the book - it's a pleasure to read, and deeply insightful of human nature, with a thought-provoking look at a possible near-future...
I have to admit, I preferred "Mission Child" - but this was pretty good as well. McHugh is an excellent writer, with a real gift for creating vivid, complex and believable characters.
However, I felt the structure of this
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book was slightly awkward - the main plot follows Zhang, an American of half-Chinese heritage, in a near-future where China has become the dominant world power.Every so often, the story goes on a tangent, exploring the lives of people that come into contact with Zhang - a settler on Mars that he tutors, athletes involved in a dangerous sport (cybernetic hang-gliding, basically), and a girl that he reluctantly takes out on a few dates.
Each of these scenarios remarkably quickly comes to life - but remains tangential to the plot. Each dilemma faced by these sub-plot characters is only partially resolved. Much like real life - and I believe it was intentional on the writer's part - but it's still somewhat frustrating.
The book also has a tendency to, every so often, "jump ahead" a few years - so, although we see Zhang's growth from irresponsible young man to well-respected engineer, it seem to occur in a jerky, slightly disorienting rhythm rather than a flow...
Regardless of these small things, I'd highly recommend the book - it's a pleasure to read, and deeply insightful of human nature, with a thought-provoking look at a possible near-future...
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LibraryThing member JeremyPreacher
Man, reading decades-old near-future science fiction is always kind of a trip. On a purely technical level it's solid - the writing is plain but functional, the characterizations are thorough and the depictions of relationships - which are the core of the book - are as well-done as anything I've
In terms of actual content, though... On the one hand, it was nice to read an early-90s book about gay men in New York that didn't involve all of them dying of AIDS. On the other hand, combining communist China and early-90s attitudes towards gay people made this a painful read. (Not the author's attitudes, by any means - the societal attitudes described and extrapolated to this future culture.) I have very little context about the whole China thing, so I'm just going to assume that McHugh knows what she's talking about - it certainly seems like it, and both the American Chinese culture and the set-in-China culture were thoroughly developed, fascinating, and fascinatingly different from one another.
The non-Zhang vignettes varied in effectiveness for me - the ones set on Mars were great, the one about the flier wasn't bad but seemed unnecessary, and the date-rape one was agonizing in exactly the way it was intended to be. (I don't love rape as a character device, in general, but I have to wonder how common this sort of grimly honest portrayal was twenty years ago.)
I'm not at all surprised that this is regarded as an important book, and I'm glad I read it. I'm going to be chewing over it for a while.
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read in a while. It's not a plotty book - it's a coming-of-age story with various supporting vignettes - and I am getting better at not hating those; this one at least comes to a relatively satisfying conclusion.In terms of actual content, though... On the one hand, it was nice to read an early-90s book about gay men in New York that didn't involve all of them dying of AIDS. On the other hand, combining communist China and early-90s attitudes towards gay people made this a painful read. (Not the author's attitudes, by any means - the societal attitudes described and extrapolated to this future culture.) I have very little context about the whole China thing, so I'm just going to assume that McHugh knows what she's talking about - it certainly seems like it, and both the American Chinese culture and the set-in-China culture were thoroughly developed, fascinating, and fascinatingly different from one another.
The non-Zhang vignettes varied in effectiveness for me - the ones set on Mars were great, the one about the flier wasn't bad but seemed unnecessary, and the date-rape one was agonizing in exactly the way it was intended to be. (I don't love rape as a character device, in general, but I have to wonder how common this sort of grimly honest portrayal was twenty years ago.)
I'm not at all surprised that this is regarded as an important book, and I'm glad I read it. I'm going to be chewing over it for a while.
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LibraryThing member dbsovereign
One of my favorite sci-fi books of all time even though surprisingly little happens. McHugh creates a world in which the Chinese rule the world - something that is [today] not hard to imagine happening. And she does it all by showing us the day-to-day routine of a very few people.
LibraryThing member fetchseven
Zhang lives his life and you get to see it. Different parts are told from the points of views of various characters and they weave together to form a subtle, single tale.
It's a story about life in the future. Though it's sci-fi it stays simple, and stays true to the feelings of its characters.
It's a story about life in the future. Though it's sci-fi it stays simple, and stays true to the feelings of its characters.
LibraryThing member Knicke
I loved the format of this book, the way it's made up of one long first person narrative broken up by a bunch of other, shorter narratives set in the same universe. I'm not sure I've encountered this exact format anywhere else, but it seems like it would be useful in other science fiction novels.I
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thought the characterization was great, especially compared to most science fiction, and I also think the author did a fabulous job integrating the specifics of the fictional universe into the characters' lives. There were only a few places that felt at all 'info-dumpy', and these were limited to moments in the narrative that made logical sense (i.e., you can get away with an info-dump on alternate history in the context of a class lecture). This only gets 4 rather than 5 stars for the institutionalized homophobia. While I think it was portrayed relatively realistically (I mean, as realistically as you can get within the context of a fictional future), I just am not sure logically why it was there, other than to add pathos and drama. It's very possible that this springs from historical state-sanctioned homophobia in China's past, but as a Westerner, I know nothing about historical attitudes toward homosexuality in China. If this is the case...I wish there had been some explanation of it in the book, if only because fear of being outed is such a constant in the main character's story. Show Less
LibraryThing member raschneid
Strong character-driven science fiction. I enjoyed reading something with cyberpunk elements that didn't have the gritty, psychedelic feel of traditional cyberpunk. Instead, people in this book feel like real people. They do things like drink beer, study whales, or keep goats.
This is part of my
This is part of my
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Readercon Guest List Reading Regimen, as I'm plotting to attend in July, yay. Show Less
LibraryThing member eclecticlibrarian
One of my favorites from the "Gender-bending Utopias, Fantasies, and Science Fictions" class I took several years ago. The book deals with identity in a restrictive society. I liked the idea of zen architecture and am still intrigued with a future dominated by China.
LibraryThing member wyvernfriend
I don't know if I'll finish it, it's just not gripping my attention
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1993)
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1992)
Lambda Literary Award (Winner — 1992)
Locus Award (Finalist — First Novel — 1993)
Gaylactic Spectrum Award (Winner — Hall of Fame — 1999)
Otherwise Award (Winner — 1992)
Italia Award (Finalist — 2003)
Language
Original publication date
1992
Physical description
313 p.; 8.5 inches
ISBN
0312852711 / 9780312852719
Local notes
OCLC = 374
Google Books
gift from SZ
Google Books
gift from SZ