From /tmp/sf.5173 Mon Apr 12 22:37:11 1993 Xref: lysator.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:70 rec.arts.books:13145 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!gatech!enterpoop.mit.edu!uhog.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!nobody From: Evelyn.Chimelis.Leeper@att.com Subject: CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG by Maureen F. McHugh Message-ID: <9304011747.AA19493@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Sender: news@news.media.mit.edu (USENET News System) Organization: Date: Fri, 2 Apr 1993 15:27:57 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu (Alan Wexelblat) Lines: 56 [Cross-posted to rec.arts.books. --AW] CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG by Maureen F. McHugh A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper The premise of this novel may be unlikely--a 21st Century proletariat revolution in the United States, followed by a civil war which results in a de facto Chinese takeover--but then many good books are based on equally unlikely premises. The question is whether the follow-through is both well-developed and true to the premise, and in this McHugh gets full marks. Undoubtedly the time McHugh spent living in China helped her to draw a believable Chinese, especially since it needn't be precisely the same as the present: time and events will effect changes in China, and outside of China her societies are blends of the Chinese influence with existing cultures. Even the main character, Zhang Zhong Shan, a.k.a. Raphael Luis, is a blend -- half-Chinese, half-Hispanic. Though he "passes" as Chinese, he lives in fear that his Hispanic background will be discovered and his status lowered as a result. And he has other secrets, yet more dangerous. Interleaved with Zhang's story are those of Angel, the kite flyer; Martine, the Martian colonist; and Qian San-xiang, the ugly daughter of Zhang's foreman. The inclusion of the Martian story strikes me as trying to put too much in one novel; though I can see some of what McHugh is doing with it, it often seems to be just stuck in, as if the printer had accidentally stuck pages from another book in here. There is some interaction between Zhang and the colonists, but it seems unnecessary overall. But the main story of Zhang's development keeps the reader interested. He doesn't undergo the epiphany so many protagonists do. His change is more gradual, and more realistic. (San-xiang's transformation is more sudden in some ways, yet here the suddenness both makes sense and serves to make a point about change.) McHugh's short fiction shows her knowledge of China and this, her first novel, shows that she can project this into a future that has complexities which are to us at the same time both strange and familiar. I recommend this compelling story of a society and the people withing it. (By the way, CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG won the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, given to works which expand and explore gender roles in science fiction and fantasy.) %T China Mountain Zhang %A Maureen F. McHugh %C New York %D January 1993 %I Tor %O paperback, US$3.99 [1992] %G ISBN 0-812-50892-0 %P 312pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com <======== Note new address: ecl@mtgzy.att.com will work only until April 30. From /tmp/sf.4585 Thu Apr 22 01:10:30 1993 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!pipex!uunet!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!dog.ee.lbl.gov!network.ucsd.edu!pacbell.com!amdahl!netcomsv!netcom.com!dani From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig) Subject: China Mountain Zhang Message-ID: Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest) Date: Tue, 20 Apr 1993 05:20:08 GMT Lines: 33 Now that Maureen McHugh's "China Mountain Zhang" is out in paperback -- and I've read it -- I'll join the chorus praising it. It deserves its Hugo nomination. This story of a Chinese American in a future dominated by a socialist China is interesting, plausible, and well-crafted. I agree with the poster (I think it was Evelyn) who thought the Mars chapter and the Gargoyle chapter unnecessary: Both convey information which is needed at the end, but which could have been conveyed in other ways, without ringing in viewpoint changes for relatively minor digressions. For that matter, those details of the ending could have been changed without seriously affecting the rest of the story, in which case the chapters would have been completely redundant. I'm also not sure how necessary the rape scene was. It should be stressed, though, that these are not major weaknesses. At most, they represent instances where the book could have used some organic engineering to tighten it up. If you've been put off from reading the book because it doesn't sound like the sort of book you'd like (a gay Hispanic-Chinese pretending to be pure Chinese, making his way in a socialist future...), you may want to reconsider: The book is a triumph of good writing over unpromising plot elements. ----- Dani Zweig dani@netcom.com 'T is with our judgements as our watches, none Go alike, yet each believes his own --Alexander Pope From /tmp/sf.1110 Fri Jul 23 13:41:47 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!pipex!uunet!gatech!udel!news.intercon.com!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: reeder@reed.edu (P. Douglas Reeder) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Review of "China Mountain Zhang" by Maureen F. McHugh Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Organization: Div, Grad & Curl Message-ID: <1ve74c$svl@scratchy.reed.edu> Date: 14 Jun 93 23:18:29 GMT Lines: 65 Review of "China Mountain Zhang" by Maureen F. McHugh review copyright 1993 by P. Douglas Reeder In the future of this novel, Communist China is the dominant world power. Zheng Zhong Shan is an American homosexual engineer whose mother is Hispanic. He struggles to find a place in a world where he must hide both his sexuality and his ancestry. There is little in the way of a plot and the narrative switches every twenty pages or so from Zhang to other viewpoint characters who interact only peripherally with him. Each of the other characters faces some problem (unrelated to Zhang's), which is resolved by their final sections and well before the end of the novel. Their narratives broaden the picture of the society, but fragment Zhang's story. Zhang is a very minor character in their stories, which I found most disconcerting, as was trying to remember who was what after hiatuses of many pages. McHugh unfortunately leaves the explanation of how this unexpected society came about until near the end, since the background is more plausible than it may at first seem. There are several science-fictive elements: direct brain-computer interfaces, Mars colonies, and towering latticework cities, but thematicaly the novel is less SF than East-meets-West, with China of a decade past projected onto America of two centuries hence. The characters are well drawn and the events of the novel very realistic, natural, and believable, but I found it difficult to identify with them, perhaps because their problems would not occur (at least to the extent they do) in our society. They accept their society as a fact of life and don't consider that it might be different, which is a common theme in science fiction and one which many readers will have in their minds. Economic collapse followed by revolution and the rejection of capitalism is not implausible, but that the U.S. would emulate modern-day China is much, much less so. I would find her society much more believable if it was set far in the future on some other planet, and did not require the reader to swallow a total reversal of current trends. Future societies which do not believe in our current values of freedom and tolerance can be fertile ground for fiction, but identifying one with our near future makes it very difficult to accept. The minimal plot and storyline fragmentation will cause many readers problems. If the material was re-arranged as a collection of short stories with Zhang's novella coming last, it might allow readers to follow it more easily. If the aforementioned elements do not throw you, you may find this an interesting read. %A Maureen F. McHugh %T China Mountain Zhang %I Tom Doherty Associates %C New York, NY %D copyright 1992 %G ISBN 0-812-50892-0 %P 312 %K SF, China %O paperback $3.99 -- Doug Reeder Internet: reeder@reed.edu Div, Grad & Curl USENET: ...!tektronix!reed!reeder programming & derivative work I am actively seeking scientific programming contracts. From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 02:08:09 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!doc.ic.ac.uk!agate!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Aaron V. Humphrey) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Prograde Reviews--Maureen F. McHugh:China Mountain Zhang Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 11 Jun 1994 19:14:21 GMT Organization: The Anna Amabiaca Fan Club Lines: 57 Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <2t68pc$8ud@scapa.cs.ualberta.ca> Reply-To: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu Originator: mcb@remarque.berkeley.edu Maureen F. McHugh: China Mountain Zhang A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey This is one of the most interesting books I've read in a while. It's not really a novel, despite appearances. It tends to follow one character, Zhang Zhong Shan/Rafael Luis, but does wander off onto only partially-linked tangents with other main characters. No, this is really a collection of linked short stories. As such, there is no plot on the grand scale. This is a story of a man trying to find a place for himself, in a world where the U.S. has become Communist Chinese, and pure Chinese are the first-class citizens. Zhang himself is half-Hispanic, and American-born at that. Further, his name, Zhong Shan, is embarrassing because it's the name of a Communist hero (a.k.a. Sun Yat-Sen), which translates as "China Mountain". And, finally, he is gay, under a regime that considers it a capital crime. But he manages to carve a niche for himself anyway. Through a length posting on Baffin Island, he gets a scholarship to a university in Beijing, where he learns a new technique called "organic engineering". By the end, he was returned to the States and is setting up his own business. It's an almost prosaic, very low-key succession of events. The reason it succeeds is that Zhang is a very interesting character. He's prone to underestimating himself, and expecting failure because of his background. Watching his confidence develop is one of the joys of the book. The few non-Zhang chapters deal with a few other aspects of the world that McHugh wanted to explore. One of them concerns kite racers over New York. Two others deal with Mars colonists (one of whom gets tutored in basic engineering by Zhang) trying to scrape by. Another deals with a friend of Zhang's who, shortly after surgery to make her face more beautiful, gets date-raped. But it's Zhang that's the power of this book. If you like character-driven fiction, this is it. It's aroused in me an interest in Chinese language and culture like nothing else has. I recommend it highly. %A McHugh, Maureen F. %T China Mountain Zhang %I Tor %C New York %D March 1992 %G ISBN 0-812-50892-0 %P 312 pp %O Paperback, USD3.99, CAD4.99 -- --Alfvaen (Editor of Communique) Current Album--Kitchens of Distinction:Strange Free World Current Book--Michelle Sagara:Lady of Mercy "It's a one-time thing. It just happens a lot." --Suzanne Vega