China Mountain Zhang in Beyond Reality

Apr 07, 2011 carol. rated it really liked it

Shelves: end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it, represent, dystopia, sci-fi, awards-of-all-sorts

China Mountain Zhang is an impressive work, well deserving of its Hugo and Nebula nominations and its Tiptree and Lambda awards. Thoughtful, precise writing and Zhang’s fully developed characterization make this a stand-out read, with only overall structure and the subject of one point of view preventing me from awarding a full five stars.

Setting is thoughtfully built; information about society is shared indirectly through character experience. China appears to be the dominant world power after ...more

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Mar 12, 2018 Bradley rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi, 2018-shelf, worldbuilding-sf

This book is one that's brilliant on multiple levels, but first, you have to manage your expectations. What do I mean?

This came out in 1990 but it resembles the more modern trend of literary SF in that most of the focus is on characterization and social interactions but in my opinion, it is superior to those because McHugh's wild worldbuilding is detailed, pervasive, and devoted to a fundamental conclusion. Or several conclusions. Interesting ones. In this respect, it's more like Samuel Delany's ...more

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Feb 13, 2017 Cheryl rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The GR-default cover (red & black, vibe of a pyramid) is much better than the mm pb I read (military vibe). This is not an adventure, much less a military one. It is world-building, it is philosophy, it is character development and interaction. How does one young man, a gay "half-breed," stumble up from being an ordinary construction worker to being a professor of organic engineering? From being uncomfortable with his identity to realizing that he can bring beauty and joy to the worlds?

I do reco The GR-default cover (red & black, vibe of a pyramid) is much better than the mm pb I read (military vibe). This is not an adventure, much less a military one. It is world-building, it is philosophy, it is character development and interaction. How does one young man, a gay "half-breed," stumble up from being an ordinary construction worker to being a professor of organic engineering? From being uncomfortable with his identity to realizing that he can bring beauty and joy to the worlds?

I do recommend it to anyone who reads Speculative or Literary Fiction. If you're like me, you might have trouble with the first section. But persist, at least until Baffin Island. Google for images of Baffin Island. Watch how everything kinda sorta comes together, but not really, just like real-life. Pay attention to all the gritty details of this extrapolated alternative future (sure, some things the author got wrong, but everything certainly seems plausible from her perspective in 1992)... it's not really a dystopia, but fans of same might like it too....

The epigraph by Albert Camus is apt: "A simple way to get to know about a town is to see how the people work, how they love, and how they die."

"Einstein [the billy goat] does his trick, leaping high over Carmin [a nanny] and pushing off the wall to vault into the middle of the pack. Goats do well in light gravity [Mars], unlike cows, poor stupid things."

"I hadn't changed by getting on a shuttle and coming to Mars. I wasn't happy. I can't say it was a mistake, I wasn't happy on earth, either. But on earth at least I was comfortable. For a long time I wasn't comfortable on Mars. Six months after I got here I about made up my mind to go home, but I kept putting off doing anything about it and now it's gotten to the point where it's easier to stay than go."

Ah, I'm not doing a good job of explaining why I enjoyed and admire this book, or of recommending it. Maybe you'd be more interested if I admitted that I'm not giving my copy away, and do plan to reread it? Well, put it on your list anyway. Maybe someday you'll be lucky enough to have time to enjoy and admire it yourself.

(Oh, and don't let it bother you that McHugh is allergic to the semi-colon.)
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Second read. Again found it entertaining, satisfying, and impressive. Highly recommended. I'm glad to see that there's a kindle edition... it's worth it, imo.
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Discussing with group. Some have commented on predictability of motifs (iiuc). I didn't feel as if we were reading tired tropes here. Imo, we were exploring the universality of themes. Even in this new world, we can't escape human nature. We carry our Mythos with us, wherever we go.
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Reminded of this during the covid 19 Situation. This would be a good read for you now. Puts our *relatively* minor plague into perspective, but not in a scary or depressing way. Life is full of challenges, and humans are good at meeting them. Survivors will come out stronger and smarter. ...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Maggie K rated it it was amazing

Shelves: tiptree-award

China Mountain Zhang is such a great example of showing place through the day to day lives of its characters that it almost seems like a book about nothing....not except a futuristic earth (and a Mars colony) so alive in its humanity it shine! Really, really quite thought provoking.

Rafael "China Mountain" Zhang is the loose knot tying the characters stories together, hi POV sandwiching those of his Chinese boss' daughter, 2 Martian colonists, and a kite-flyer; each of whose perspective adds anot ...more

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Nov 19, 2018 Tomislav rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2-times, science-fiction, 5-stars, sff-2018-read-all-the-books

second read – 4 December 2018 - *****
Maureen McHugh is an American science fiction writer whose four novels and other works were published mostly in the 1990s. China Mountain Zhang was her debut novel, and while it was nominated for both Hugo and Nebula, it did not win either. However, it did win the 1992 Tiptree Award, the Locus Award for first novel, and the Lambda Award. I first read it when it was relatively new, and went on to read McHugh’s three other novels as well. This re-read was promp second read – 4 December 2018 - *****
Maureen McHugh is an American science fiction writer whose four novels and other works were published mostly in the 1990s. China Mountain Zhang was her debut novel, and while it was nominated for both Hugo and Nebula, it did not win either. However, it did win the 1992 Tiptree Award, the Locus Award for first novel, and the Lambda Award. I first read it when it was relatively new, and went on to read McHugh’s three other novels as well. This re-read was prompted by the novel having been selected as book of the month by Goodread’s SciFi and Fantasy Book Club.

The novel is structured as a loosely connected set of novelettes and novellas, told sequentially, but from several different perspectives. 1) Zhang himself is a young man in a future America which has come to be dominated by communist China. Zhang is half-ABC (American born Chinese) and half Hispanic, but his parents invested in having his genes tweaked so that he appeared fully Chinese – which is a social advantage in New York and throughout the world. Zhang (also known as Rafael) is gay in a world where homosexuality is forbidden. 2) Angel is a kite flyer, a lightweight athletic woman who flies competitively in the skies over New York, while allowing fans to purchase the live sensory experience – a very dangerous occupation, but with the remote possibility of fame and glory. The media presumes her to be in a romantic relationship with another flyer named Cinnabar. 3) Martine is a settler on Mars, eking out a good life in a backwater commune through hard work. Alexi is also on Mars, but has only recently been sent there with his daughter after a series of patriotic economic failures on Earth. 4) San-Xiang is the daughter of China-born parents who have slipped down the prestige ladder and now live outside China in New York. She was born with an unacceptably ugly face, lives at home, and has been raised with low self-esteem and self-expectations.

Of these stories, Zhang’s is the primary one, and McHugh returns to him in alternating chapter. All of the perspective characters touch on each other’s lives briefly during episodes in which they do not fully see each other. That is an effect that I thoroughly enjoy, having seen something similar in Andreas Eschbach’s Die Haarteppichknüpfer. In this way, we gradually learn of this future world that McHugh has created. There was the cultural revolution known as Great Cleansing Winds a few years ago; there is the secret world inhabited by gay men in this speculative New York and in China; there is the blending of communist Chinese culture into all others. Along the way, we get glimpses of some of the medical and technological advances that have taken place. It is this organic and detailed world-building that I have appreciated throughout McHugh’s work, including in this one.

first read - 2 June 1997 - ***** Maureen McHugh's debut novel, and my first read of her. I was very impressed. I read it while laid up with a broken ankle, and finished it in a one day reading marathon. ...more

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