Beyond Reality discussion

Here's a general topic for people who have finished reading China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh.

Warning: Spoilers likely!

Has anyone else finished up yet? I loved how McHugh wove her various storylines together. She made me really care about the characters.

I finished. Very interesting. Has a short story collection style of plot and narrative which occasionally bothers me.

I liked the inclusion of the Mars scenes--I was definitely engaged--at the same time, I have to wonder why she did it when Zhang was, at best, peripheral to the story. Likewise the flier in the first part. After all, it is called "China Mountain Zhang." I find myself wondering why the title directs the reader's focus towards Zhang if the theme is the dystopia, yet he was the clear subject in most of the stories. The sections have almost the wrong balance for me, thematically--either more Zhang, or less.

I felt that way at first too, but I think he was just the 'connection' between the different characters, the true focus being the 'world' McHugh created being shown through her characters.
If I am making any sense anyway....lol. I enjoyed it a lot!

Yes, I noticed too that some of the POV, had very minimal connections to Zhang. It didnt really bother me, but gave me a different perspective on the world. I liked that the different POVs had slight different monologues, they all had different worries and emotions about what was happening around them.

I loved this book. It was just every day normal people living in a world slightly different than ours. I'm not even sure if you can really consider it a dystopia? The world wasn't perfect, but neither was it a world so awful than one couldn't imagine our world turning into that world.

Just finished it. I expected that Zhang would develop to be a hero, start a political rebellion and save the world. But this Bildungsroman (is there a word for it in English?) stayed calm and continued its interleaving, small every day-celebration of interpersonal relationships.

My favourite gem was the cute, funny and sad argument of Alexi and Martine during their crisis of finding an oxygen leak while goats stumbled around the kitchen.
I think, this well-paced section resembles the novel best: Ordinary lives described as smooth moving page-turners.

The world-building remembers me a little bit of Kim Stanley Robinson in his Red Mars without its cold technicality and of his The Years of Rice and Salt. The Cyberpunk aspects of architecture, flying sports and engineering was surely nothing brand-new, but its detailed description in every day life was very good.

At the same time, the deep dive into the mashup of US, Chinese and homosexual culture was very exotic and believable for me.

On the down-side I found the the different short-story parts to be badly balanced. I wanted to read more about Alexi, Martine and the Dragon-fliers. At the same time, ABC Zhang's story sometimes dragged and could have shortened a bit, for example in his philosophical roundup towards the end. The detailed discussions of Chinese meanings irritated me a little bit.

But I think that the awards (Locus, James Tiptree) were really well deserved.

I digged a bit deeper and found that there she wrote at least short story "Protection" (Asimov's April 1992, Hugo shortlisted, and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Tenth Annual Collection) in the same "universe". Do you know any others?

I really enjoyed this novel, I loved the ways the different stories combined to give an amazing picture about "surviving in the cracks" in this society, be it in the USA, in China or on Mars.

All the characters are deep and well thought out, and this is expecially true for Zhang. Seeing how each of his experiences influence the way he behaves in the later chapters was very believable and interesting.

I loved the two martian chapters (the interplay between Martine and Alexi is great) but my favorite chapter must be Baffin Island and the impact of the long night on Zhang. I found the writing highly evocative and, being from a southern european country, the thought of not seeing the sun for months was deeply affecting. Adding this stress on top all the internal secrets that Zhang was trying to keep (not only his homosexuality but also his half-spanish descent) created some great internal monologues.

The only negative in my reading experience was that I struggled a bit through the "Three fragrances" chapter (the San-Xiang chapter). It seemed clear from almost the beginning in which direction would the story go and I really did not want to read that. It does show that in this future women risk the same kind of violence as in our world, but having all this happen just as San-Xiang got her new face was a bit too much in my opinion.

Since I also loved this month's Clarkesworld's reprint of a McHugh's short story (it's set in China, but I don't think it's in the same world) this as been a really positive McHugh month. Sad that she did not write many novels, but I guess I could look into her collections.

I found myself thinking about McHugh's technique in this book quite a bit, I think this is going to be a favorite...the humanity of the piece just shines through

Alessio wrote: "The only negative in my reading experience was that I struggled a bit through the "Three fragrances" chapter (the San-Xiang chapter). It seemed clear from almost the beginning in which direction would the story go and I really did not want to read that."

I completely agree. It's rather a pet peeve of mine that the female POV story is usually the rape one, and I feel like McHugh really fell down on originality in this one. It was so predictable. If she needed a rape scene to make a point, it would have been even more effective to use Zhang, who we have a strong emotional connection to, and who faces a very real threat of violence in the 'underground.' I come away feeling the primary emotion of pity-tragedy for San-Xiang's storyline, which really, is far less creative than the emotional complexity of Zhang's or the Martian settlers.

Although rape descriptions are a sore point with me also, I did feel like that scene definitely showed something...kind of a 'the more things change, the more they stay the same' philosophy. She couldnt get a date before her new face, and as soon as she does, her vanity makes her vulnerable to a predator...and one who thinks he did nothing wrong either!
It is perfect just because of its common reality.

Andreas wrote: "Just finished it. I expected that Zhang would develop to be a hero, start a political rebellion and save the world. But this Bildungsroman (is there a word for it in English?) stayed calm and cont..."

I, too, found the different story-parts to be imbalanced. But, like you, I think the gender investigations were so interesting, I firmly applaud the book winning the Tiptree award for gender investigations in sf/fantasy.

I've been meaning to read this for so long, I am so glad this group pushed me into finally doing it.