Heavy Wings

by Jie Zhang, Howard Goldblatt (Translator)

Dramatizes the conflict in modern China between reformers and party hardliners

Genres: Fiction, China, Asia, Chinese Literature, 20th Century, Historical, Politics

308 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

My name is Jie Zhang, I'm from China and loves life very much, I work in Shang Hai Hoqing Consulting Company(http://www.hoqing.com), and I'm responsible for human resources consulting projects.

I have published fiction "Heart Of Red River", business book "Cultural Challenges", book series"Beginning" and poetry "Expression Of Love" which can be found on Amazon, B&N, Smashwords. I also published app "Mysterious English" which can be found in Google play store, some videos like " The cat loves to greet" could be found on Youtube.com. Meanwhile, some new works will be completed.

Reviews

[Sabina Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is adapted from Sabina Knight, *The Heart of Time* (Harvard, 2006), p. 168-169.

Zhang Jie's 張潔 (1937-) *Heavy Wings* 沉重的翅膀 [a.k.a. Leaden wings], 1981) may be the most distinguished work of “reform literature” (改革文学), a key genre in the post-Mao period. The novel's attention to moral responsibility challenges the character determinism that marked much Mao-era literature. Instead the character portrayals reject class determinism to highlight possibilities for personal transformation. The novel thus defends individual conscience in the face of entrenched bureaucracy, corruption, hypocrisy, & ordinary misunderstandings.

"Winner of the 1985 Mao Dun prize, the novel confronts industrial modernization, corruption and personal compromise through the interwoven stories of several families and connected individuals. Zhang paints a complicated picture of power struggles and economic hardship, a world of mitigating circumstances that often lead the older characters to suppress their humanity. At the same time, the novel suggests the possibility of slow change for the better both within individuals and across generations.

"The most compelling conversion is that of the protagonist Zheng Ziyun 鄭子云, a Vice Minister of Heavy Industry whose daughter Yuanyuan 圓圓 opposes her parents’ prejudice against her boyfriend’s class background and insists on marrying him. After she accuses them of hypocrisy and leaves their home, Zheng realizes the extent to which he has compromised his integrity to keep up appearances. As he seeks out Yuanyuan in the final chapter, he reflects on his abdication of responsibility: 'To cast off fetters from the outside world is perhaps not so hard, but to cast off one’s own fetters, to surmount obstacles of one’s own thinking, [in this] people often fail' (p. 352).

"Yet Zheng refuses to be discouraged from his devotion to reform, and he insists on his own positive development in an internal monologue he addresses to Yuanyuan: 'You must allow and accept that I am also a caterpillar in the process of undergoing a painful metamorphosis. Perhaps I won’t necessarily turn into a butterfly before I die' (p. 354). Although the novel confronts how selfishness and fear can lead people to obstruct reform, ultimately it holds out hope that honest analysis and individual accountability will lead to positive transformation.

"While the optimistic agenda of reform literature sometimes results in a prosaic dreariness, the relentless specificity of its concerns also testifies to the need for people to resist becoming instruments of ultimate plans. This fiction calls for people to remain concerned about the particulars in their lives, their selves and their families. After the ravages of Mao’s program of ultimate goals, it is hardly surprising that authors might develop a fear of abstraction. One response is to stake everything on specific incidents and thus reintroduce individual people making individual choices as agents of history."

Note: The English translations of this novel are abridged versions of the Chinese original. The quotations and page numbers above are from the 1998 reprint of the Chinese edition published by People's Literature in 1981. The translations are by Sabina Knight.

[Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

taaie kost over het post-Mao China in een groot scala aan sociale lagen, waarin zowel de levens van simpele fabrieksarbeiders, hartstochtelijke jongeren, ongelukkige aan huis-gekluisterde vrouwen, in het nauw gezette journalisten, als mannen met macht worden gevolgd. die veelvoud aan personages, hun persoonlijkheden en intersecties met eenander maakt het soms lastig om ze goed van elkaar te onderscheiden en wat hun rollen en relaties in het verhaal als geheel zijn. daarnaast is het tot de nok gevuld met ethische dilemma’s, beladen en valse keuzes, hectische politieke samenzweringen, continue machtsstrijd en (on)rechtvaardigheden, en is het op momenten wat mat en traag, er zit weinig schwung in de schrijfstijl en veel humor is er ook niet. wel belangrijk om op te merken dat de Nederlandse editie is direct vertaald vanuit de Duitse, dus er is een reëele kans dat het een en ander verloren is geraakt in dat proces. afgezien daarvan is het niettemin vrij origineel in de zin dat er veelal hedendaagse Chinese fictie bestaat die zich in Mao’s tijdperk afspeelt, en dit juist tijdens Deng Xiaopings heerschappij, waarin weer compleet andere historische gebeurtenissen en ontwikkelingen relevant zijn. het grote aantal karakters is zowel zegen als vloek, want dat maakt het natuurlijk ook mogelijk dat er diverse perspectieven en ideologieën aan bod komen, waar gewoonlijk vaak wordt gekozen om alleen de politieke dissidenten af te beelden. zo worden op een uitgebalanceerde manier de verschillen tussen hardliners van de partij en diegenen met een progressievere, open en frisse blik blootgelegd, waarin je ook meegenomen wordt in de innerlijke strijd die die tweede groep voert en waarom het zo ingewikkeld is om het machtige systeem te veranderen, laat staan verbeteren of verlaten. en terwijl het overgrote deel van de zestien hoofdstukken zich niet afspeelt in private sferen en veelal gaat over kantoorperikelen en partijbijeenkomsten, gaat de laatste opmerkelijk genoeg juist terug naar de basis met een melodramatische gezinsruzie waarin de hoge pief, een viceminister, zich plotseling realiseert wat er werkelijk toe doet, dat zijn naar buiten toe-hautaine bestaan minder waardevol -zelfs redelijk triviaal in het grote geheel- is dan hij zichzelf deed geloven, hij omwille carrièredrang zijn leven heeft vergooid, zich over de verkeerde prioriteiten heeft ontfermd.

[Freddie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The novel moves at such a quick pace that I am not fully absorbed in the story and characters. As a result the story feels incredibly dull and the characters somewhat one-dimensional. The tone is also somewhat incoherent - there are parts that sound satirical and a little humorous, and parts that are sentimental and dramatic.

[Grada (BoekenTrol) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad I've read this book.
Theme-wise it is not an easy book, but it reads okay, not paying any attention to the language that is a tid bit outdated.

For me it was very much worth reading, because I'm interested in China and know a little about the country as well as about Eastern European countries.

The things that Zhang Jie describes (bureaucracy, hard work, women at work successfully, not heard at home which causes trouble) are familiar. I knew it was the way things worked in Russia during the Soviet era, but that China also had these features, is new to me.

The book follows several characters, with their own problems, ideals, desires, but ultimately they all go back to the above themes. Very dry descriptions of situations, showing in Western eyes absurd situations.
I liked reading this book very much.

[Margie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This isn't one of those books I'd tell all my friends to read but it was a very good read for me. The writing is fine, not astonishing (hard to know what's been lost in translation) but the combination of politics, marriage, life of women during a period when China was trying to rapidly industrialize and develop was surprisingly compelling.

[Amerynth · Rating 2 out of 5]

While Jie Zhang's "Leaden Wings" is interesting from a historical and cultural perspective, as a novel it is incredibly dull.

Set in China, the novel succeeds in its portrayal of the upheaval that occurred after the Cultural Revolution in the 1980's. The main focus of the story is whether the traditional way of running a factory is more efficient than new-fangled western ways. What makes it unsuccessful is the endless parade of characters and lack of any substantive movement in plot.

For a short novel (175 pages) this took me such a long time because I couldn't read 20 pages without falling asleep.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

Heavy Wings (also called Leaden Wings)
Background: the author studied economics and was a Chinese government statistician until the Cultural Revolution when she was sent to the countryside for "re-education" and was given a factory job. Zhang only started to write after the fall of the Gang of Four when it became safe to be seen as a thinker in China. The book assumes a basic level of knowledge of 1960s to early 1980s China, including the Cultural Revolution, the Gang of Four and the beginnings of Reform under Deng Xiaoping.
Plot/Premise: the story focuses on the personal and professional lives of four people: a hairdresser, a reporter, a reformist vehicle factory manager and most extensively on Zheng Ziyun a reformist Vice-Minister of Heavy Industry. While we get insight into the day-to-day "current" (1979-80) lives of each of the characters, we are also given information on their earlier lives, including Zheng's own suffering under a period of "re-education" during the Cultural Revolution. With the focus on the vehicle factory and heavy industry, individuals falling into three categories are presented:
a) traditional leftists who admire Mao, central planning and political control for Party cadres
b) reformers who are willing to change and experiment and see this reform as the path to Chinese economic success
c) fence-sitters who sway with the times and try not openly endorse either the leftist or reformist ideology

Those in category a) are portrayed as narrow-minded and not very bright. Those in category c) are portrayed as political/amoral opportunists while those in category b) are portrayed as daring, good to others and willing to take risks in order to help China succeed. The portrayal is understandable from an author who spent time in enforced "re-education" by leftists.

During the story, Reformist actions result in improvements both for the factory and its workers and reformers advance in the process.

Analysis: The book won China's top literary prize, the Mao Dun Prize, reflecting the Reformist mood of the day - it's doubtful that Xi's China in the 2020s would endorse a book that gives so little weight or respect for Communist Party ideology. The story is particularly good in showing the difficulties that regular people faced with rapidly changing norms where actions that were acceptable or even praised one year might result in job loss or even serious punishment a short time later. With recent history, the people in this time understood that the winds could sway again so today's position/norm itself was not necessarily "safe" either. In places, the story drags a bit but overall it's a very worthwhile choice for a reader wanting a deeper understanding of China in the 1960s to early 1980s period.

[Christopher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leaden Wings takes place in communist China in the late 1970s after Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution and the downfall of the Gang of Four. The book focuses on China’s modernization plan, specifically in the Dawn Motor Works company. The title is an illusion to a butterfly that has leaden wings and is struggling to take off.

There is a whole slew of characters including the journalist Autumn, the hairdresser Jade, Minister of Heavy Industry Zheng, his wife Bamboo and daughter Yuanyuan, etc. The book is made up of 16 chapters with short episodes into the lives of these characters as they deal with all of the changes in Chinese society.

I enjoyed reading the book, although it deals a lot with Chinese politics of that period. We hear about the bureaucracy and the vested interests of the old guard who are in conflict with the reformers who are seeking to make China more competitive on the world market. The book also looks at several relationships and exposes the tension between Minister Zheng and his uncaring wife Bamboo as well as the budding romance between Zheng’s daughter Yuanyuan with Autumn’s adopted son Mo Zheng.

The book is very readable, even with a long list of characters. We get a feel for how people thought, acted and survived during the early modernization period of China. The book was remarkable when it was released and translated in the late 1980s when China was still very much a closed country.

This book is on Boxall’s “1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die” list.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

A satirical novel on Chinese industry during the 1970s, where China was in the throes of reform. The characters in the novel are linked to the Morning Light Auto Works business. I found the portrayal of the characters’ domestic lives and their struggle to break out of a rigid social and economic structure interesting and realistically described.

An interesting novel about Chinese culture at the time and the relationships between men in positions of power. The book also provides insight into women’s role in the workplace and domestically.

Reformers face obstacles from officials whose careers grew under the old system.

A satisfying, mainly character based novel, with good dialogue, presenting a variety of perspectives on issues the characters grapple with.

This book was first published in 1981.

[Hamoir Léonard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Petit 3 étoiles… Bien que le sujet soit très intéressant je trouve que le livre est trop « industriel ». Cette lourdeur rend sa lecture pénible car on ne comprend pas toujours les enjeux politiques des divers personnages.

La hiérarchie en Chine étant super complexe j’ai vraiment rien compris des rapports de force entre les différents cadres du parti. Les personnages étaient trop unidimensionnels ce qui les rendait parfois un peu cartoonesques.

Enfin, j’ai apprécié l’annexe avec le résumé des personnages et de leurs fonctions (car on se perd très vite), peut-être auraient-ils dû préciser le sexe des gens en plus car je n’arrive pas à le déterminer sur base de leurs nom/prénom en chinois.

[Maryann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a window into Chinese life after the Cultural Revolution, from the factory worker up through ministers and politicians, such as they were at the time. As someone who is not well educated about China, this book made me ask lots of questions and seek out answers. The culture of the time, how relationships between men and women in particular, is so interesting, and I wonder how much is still present in today's China.

Food: shrimp crackers. Something totally different for me, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

[Kel Lizarazo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a while to finish this book because it has many different characters with names that are difficult for me to remember, but even the author knew this and included the characters and a description in the first pages, perfect for when I mixed up the Chinese names. Also, I liked learning a little about The Cultural Revolution, part of Chinese history.

My favourite parts here ⬇️

P.22: “Maybe women are actually stronger than men, more determined, and more capable of self-sacrifice”

P.192: “Love is funded upon knowledge and common interest”

[Xovee Xu · Rating 4 out of 5]

2020年3-4月于子洲家中。 同意书评中某人的意见：对文艺作品的评价要放在相应的历史条件下。 作者心思细腻，在文革结束，三中全会召开后的这几年冲突剧烈的时间里，勇敢地拿起笔描写出自己对这一切的观察及思考，有其独特的历史价值，单纯地用现在的视角来评判这本书有失偏颇了。书中人物众多，形式略分散，看起来有点吃力。描写的人物中，有些很生动，有些则过于生硬了（例如夏竹筠等）。 从剧情、技巧来看，离我想象的茅盾文学奖还有一段距离，不过茅盾文学奖本身就有其显著地社会性，这点补足了本书的缺陷。 开始看下一本：平凡的世界。话说回来奇怪的很，平凡的世界我尝试看过两三次，结果都是看了开头便看不下去了。

[Brian Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zhang Jie’s Heavy Wings exhibits China’s state after the Cultural Revolution in a captivating novel of historical fiction. I chose this book because I heard that the novel presents modern China in a way that not many people know about. I have also always had an interest in history, Asian history in particular. Heavy Wings is told from the point of view of many characters that are in different positions in society. Hindered by selfish and corrupt bureaucrats, China tries to get back on its feet after the fall of The Gang of Four. As advocates of reform and advancement, benevolent government officials like Zheng Ziyun greatly risk their careers. Mo Zheng, an orphan of persecuted intellectuals, lives in discontent as he searches for happiness in the hateful world he lives in. A weary wife named Liu Yuying struggles to support a family that lives a life of poverty. For everyone in China, there is no easy way out of the strife and despair that attacks the population like a plague.

Heavy Wings is a multi-faceted story that includes the conflicts between man against man, and man against in the society he finds himself in. Mo Zheng, who basically represents China’s disillusioned youth, is constantly bludgeoned by others for his image as a different being. His parents were killed during the Cultural Revolution, which has scarred his life and thus made him an outcast. He seeks desperately for love and a reason to live, but his savaged soul stays chained by society."Ye Zhiqiu cares about him, but no matter how broad and strong her shoulders she can't carry the burdens of social prejudice that weigh so heavily on him" (Zhang 162). Zheng Ziyun is constantly attacked by jealous and corrupt government officials. His liberal thinking is often taken advantage of by the more conservative majority who wish to ruin Zheng Ziyun. He works for the common people, yet is not close enough to them to receive their support. He is also despised by many factions in the Communist Party, who fear men of psychology, science, and reform. Characters in the novel are often trying to do their best for a better China, but in the way of them is China’s own society and men. The (Communist) Party is a symbol of China’s turmoil that affects every citizen and drives them into fruitless selflessness. Food also serves as prominent role as a symbol of hope for those in despair. Again and again, food is something the poor and wealthy find in times of need in order to find a temporary calm and enjoyment. A theme that really stood out to me came as I read the stories of the many men and women living and working for the sake of others. Even though you may not live to see change in your lifetime, it is still important to contribute for a better tomorrow.

In general, Heavy Wings is an intriguing book I had a lot of run reading for many days and nights. Zhang, the author, wrote the book from the point of view of many people from all walks of life; this creates a broad prospective anyone can appreciate. However, some may find it confusing to navigate through the book as a result of the skipping around done in the novel. This work is intellectually satisfying, as it dives into political, and personal issues that still exist today. I recommend Heavy Wings to anyone who may have an interest in modern Chinese history, or those who appreciate a story of one’s struggles and fortitude. If you can handle taking on many characters’ stories at once, you will be in good shape while reading. The novel is smart and enchanting with but a few kinks in its pages, earning it four out of five stars.

[Eadie Burke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Leaden Wings was praised for its honesty and condemned for its satire and has been described as 'China's first political novel'. The novel shows the upheaval that occurred after the Cultural Revolution in the 1980's. The main focus of the story is whether the traditional way of running a factory is more efficient than western ways. I found it rather interesting except that the language was very outdated. There is a host of characters but not much of a plot. I would recommend Leaden Wings to anyone who may have an interest in modern Chinese history.

[Books written by POC]

I discovered an author called Zhang Jie who was published by Virago in the 80s, stunning short story writer.

[Amber]

by Zhang Jie