China Mountain Zhang Paperback – April 15, 1997

Maureen F McHugh's China Mountain Zhang is a "topic" (not dys or u) future where China is the global superpower. The US collapsed in on itself as a result of debt burden (much speculation at the time of publication) and is considered a '2nd' world nation. The tale follows a part Chinese (an ABC - American Born Chinese) twenty something as he struggles establishing himself. There are also vignettes of others, kite fliers (the X games equivalent of the times), a fledgling Martian colony/commune, etc.), who all intersect with the main character. His travels and adventures take him to the Arctic, China itself, less developed parts of the US, in addition to his main stomping grounds in New York City. The reader observes his struggles with an unforgiving economy and societal intolerance towards homosexuality. There's no grand revelation or world turning pivotal event; rather, this is an unredacted tale of one individual's journey to find himself in a unique, alternative future.While the sci-fi elements are throughout, they are largely muted relative to the story itself. Colonization of Mars is discussed, but only in the struggle, not so much for survival, but rather for sustainability against a global governance that see Mars as a place to send excess Earth humans, a kinda of safety valve. Global warming has had its impact, but life goes on. Perhaps the most intriguing element is William Gibson-like element of jacking in to AI-like computer systems for engineering designs that Zhang uses extensively. While this seems a concept with lots of potential, there is little application beyond engineering and computer program debugging. Finally, the political and societal evolution has remained firmly in the socialist/communism realm, including addressing individuals as comrade. There is also a conservative stance with regards to homosexuality that suggests Chinese values and perceptions have changed little over time. Overall, this is less a coming of age tale and more a finding your place story in a future that is a unique situation.

If this were published today it might be considered solarpunk.The climate crashed but is being restored, the US had a Second Depression but it led to a proletarian revolution and is only moderately impoverished.Characters are three-dimension, complex and not always lovable, and their dramas are all recognizable. This world is fully-realized (and it’s fascinating how not-at-all dated a 90s sci-fi can be) and in the end the world is just the world. This is a gently braided set of stories in human scale.

This came highly recommended by a friend, and there were quite a few things that I enjoyed about it. The primary MC was interesting, and the world-building, with the US as a communist puppet state under Chinese control was quite fun to read. However, there were a couple of side plots that didn't add anything, IMO, to the story but extra pages, and (I was reading it on Kindle) the ending was somewhat surprising in that it just seemed to stop after a while. Still a decent book, but if I'd bought a paper copy I wouldn't have any qualms about dropping it in the book exchange at work.

Such a rarity in genre fiction. /China Mountain Zhang/ is not a story about apocalypses, revolutions, wars, disasters or other great events, it's simply a novel, about men and women living their lives in a future socialist America, in a world-dominating China, in Mars colonies and elsewhere. Nothing world-changing happens, except to the lives of the characters, but it's so far from boring. If you've ever enjoyed the world building of an author, but felt the novel hasn't really explored what it would be like to *live* there, then this is the book for you.

One of the most thoughtful and beautiful books I ever read in sci fi, this is the kind of near future character driven sci fi I adore, as a thirty something asperger from the third world struggling to make a life I feel compelled by a protagonist that feels so alienated like myself, love it for the subtle way of handle complicated themes, love it for the fluid and charm prose, if you like Theodore Sturgeon and OPhilip Dick, this is for you.

This is a wonderful and beautifully written character study with a fairly superficial SF gloss. That isn't a criticism - I read a lot of SF but found this novel far more engrossing than most plot-driven stories. The main character, Zhang, is complex and faces many difficult situations. Read this book for an excellent portrayal of a sympathetic man finding his way. If Ms. McHugh ever gets the urge, it would be interesting to see what happens to Zhang following the conclusion of this novel.

I finished this book thinking "THAT's why I read science fiction." Such an excellent story, McHugh does a really great job envisioning the entire world setting/circumstances. I loved the parts on Mars and just wished there was one more chapter there - I was left hanging, wondering how it turned out on the farm. But that's MM for you, she leaves you thinking about the story and envisioning how things worked out later. You either like her style or you don't with her open endings, I for one like her very much.

Love science fiction - always thrilled to find something out of the ordinary, like a sci-fi story with a gay protagonist. McHugh does a great job describing a future world where China has become the one and only power, with all other cultures falling in its wake. Her take on the cultural customs that would emerge from such a scenario feels right on. The themes and obstacle experienced by Zhang are recognizable as concerns alive and well today - making the story believable and relatable.Unfortunately one can only take in-depth descriptions of surreal forms of architectural design so far and McHugh went a little past that. Still, I look forward to reading more from this author.

There are five point-of-view characters in China Mountain Zhang who live in America and on Mars. Zhang is the main character, a young man who spends his life passing as something else and feels as if he must exist between the cracks of society.Set in the future after a climate disaster, where China is the world power and America is a Communist satellite state, we follow Zhang from New York to the Arctic Circle to China and then back to New York. He passes as American Born Chinese thanks to genetic manipulation, but his mother is Hispanic, and he must hide his sexuality, being homosexual is illegal, but somehow he leads a rich life full of friends, love, and work, although not without tragedy.The POV characters lead very different lives within the regime, although all their stories are at least tangentially linked. One flies kites over New York, one breeds goats and bees on Mars, and one is born ugly but finds that her corrective surgery simply leads to a different kind of unwanted attention. It’s very much a story about workers getting by and is a remarkable read, a debut novel that was short-listed for both the Hugo and Nebula Prize.

Ironically it take a woman to write perhaps the best SF novel of the 20th century in which a gay man is the main character. Zhang is not only gay, he is an ABC (American Born Chinese) and is living in a Socialist States of America, a country still recovering from an ideological pogrom, `The Campaign of Cleansing Winds.'The title comes from Zhang's other names which which translate as China Mountain, and though they may mean little to Americans, the Chinese recognise them as being those of Zhong Shan. This is a mild embarrassment to Zhang. It as if, he explains, an American had called his child George Washington. Zhang is not even genetically Chinese, as his mother is Spanish and he is a result of gene-splicing techniques. Thus he has many reasons to feel isolated and not completely at home within any culture.Zhang becomes the victim of his own good nature when he agrees to let his boss's daughter San-xiang stay with him after she argues with her father. The father assumes that Zhang has been sleeping with her and fires him, which is the start of Zhang's adventures. This section is a marvellously constructed portrait of the complex rules of Chinese manners and etiquette, an intricate verbal dance which is designed to minimise embarrassment and `save face'.Zhang, more by accident than design, gets a temporary assignment in the Arctic, on Baffin Island, which will allow him to gain enough credits to study engineering in China itself.Occasionally, we divert to three other characters and see brief sections of their lives, such as Angel, one of the Kiteracers who gain wealth and glory by risking their lives flying through the skyscraper canyons of New York; and Martine, who produces honey and goats' milk in a domed Martian colony, and San-xiang.Later in the novel the tangential connections between Zhang and these `sidebar narratives', as John Clute describes them, become clear and it is probably no coincidence that the three other voices are all women, albeit three very different women who have `unconventional' relationships with men.McHugh sublimely balances the human stories against a beautiful background of societal and technological development. The science of McHugh's future is not without its drawbacks. Tailored viruses are used in one instance to cure Zhang (when he first visits China) of an infection, but one which mutates and attacks his system to the extent where an another tailored phage is employed to regrow new kidneys within his body.Similarly, San-xiang undergoes treatment via another virus which rebuilds the bones of her skull to give her a more attractive appearance. later, however, unused to the effect that her new face might have, she is picked up by charming stranger and raped.One of Zhang's vices is the kite races, although the danger for the racers themselves (who pilot kits like bats through the canyons of New York's skyscrapers) is the mortality rate, as fliers are often killed. Later, in China, Zhang gets taken to an illegal club and plays a virtual reality game in which a kind of `Quidditch ping pong' takes place in a virtual reality space. Managing to catch certain balls invokes a heightened sense of erotic pleasure which builds with the number of balls caught. The game is illegal, it transpires, because it is understandably addictive.This theme of duality, the combination of positive and negative aspects, is echoed throughout the book on various levels, particularly in Zhang's character, who is gay in a straight society and is a combination of Spanish and Chinese.Alexi and Martine's system in the Martian commune provides the dome in which they live with oxygen, but has developed a fault and therefore - being a mechanism which gives them life - can also be a bringer of Death.Hai Tao, Zhang's tutor and lover in China, wears white suits, a colour which, depending whether one is occidental or oriental can symbolise Life or Death. Later Hai Tao goes to elaborate lengths to soften the safety glass of his apartment windows so that he can leap through it to his death.It's a stunning debut novel from McHugh, one which transcends the genre and works on many levels.

This is a book that grips you from the very first page. Although set in the future the time, place and characters are all so beautifully drawn that the author's imaginary future world is totally believable. The main character is likeable, intelligent and ever so slightly vulnerable. The action keeps moving, with interweaving stories which all fit neatly together so you have to keep turning the pages. Anyone who loves Sci-Fi will find this an enthralling read. Some may find the sexual content offensive, though to be fair, in comparrison to many books this topic is handled iwth delicacy and taste.

This is a stunning tale of lives lived in alienation. Zhang is marginalised by his mixed race heritage and his sexuality, and the other characters are mostly just as conflicted about the trials of hard lives and expectations of others.I don't think I've read a sci-fi book where people prevaricate and dissemble so much. Against a background of Martian colonisation, communist Chinese economic dominance and global warming, McHugh gives us a humane tale of survival and adjustment. It left me wanting more.

Bit it's still a great read and I wish/hope there will more to come, a scene had been set, the characters introduced. Now we need the story