Rating: 
Summary: Chinese element self explanatory.
Review: I read this after reading a story of hers in one of Dozois year's best anthologies. A science fiction author who shares my interest in China hurray I thought. After all the only other one I can think of is Cordwainer Smith & he's dead. I didn't know what to make of the book once I read it though. I almost got the feeling I was reading a collection of stories. No problem Foundation, City, Canticle for leibowitz, they were all linked stories. Yet the linkages were so tenuous that I wish I'd read the Martian goat farmer bits & ignored the rest. Don't misunderstand Zhang's life has its moments, but it seemed aimless & I don't know anyone like him. If you live in a big city maybe zhang makes more sense to you. Anyway this reads more like what I expect from mainstream contemporary literary fiction than I expect from Scence Fiction. In some ways that's not a compliment because if I wanted contemporary Literature I would read contemporary Literature. Before radio & television reading wasn't seen as elite the way it is now and books were intelligent without being impenetrable or in this case pointless. Don't misunderstand she's done something I never expected from sf & showed that new directions are still possible for sf in the 90's. An impressive first novel that seemed rather pointless and meandering to me, but oh well. "Smart" people seem to prefer this kind of story, but for me the best way to get a "slice of life" is to live life not read about it. Furthermore for gay/feminist fiction (the Chinese fiction aspect I expected & it does a good job on that score as well; giving great insights into Chinese culture & having a Chinese "feel") I thought it was good because it's not polemical, angst ridden, or in your face. Only a few moment's struck me as AUTHOR MESSAGE, although the part about the woman being raped the instant she became attractive struck me that way. The book had some great moments though even if it seemed pointless by the time I finished. Nevertheless this does deserve to be considered as one of the best first novels in sf & one of the most unusual approaches to sf ever.
Rating: 
Summary: Great world, great characters, no plot.
Review: I really wanted to love this book. The premise of a near-future world dominated by China is plausible, intriguing, and extraordinarily well-executed by the author. The characters are also believable, deep, and emotionally engaging. The settings they find themselves in, from a goat farm on Mars to death-defying hang-gliding tournaments over New York City, are imaginative and interesting. I quickly grew to care about them and their world, and was really disappointed that the disjointed, almost random plot sequence gave them so little opportunity to do anything of real consequence. The ending (was there an ending?) has a twist, but so many threads are left unravelled and so many characters left hanging in limbo that I ended up mad at the author for botching up what should have been one of the best books I ever read. If this author learns to craft a plot and pull together a satisfying conclusion, she may be one of the great SF writers of our time
Rating:
Summary: China Mountain Zhang
Review: I was wowed by the narrative voice. First person present tense gives it immediacy, while the style has a Zen-like quality, as though directly translated from Chinese -- very effective, adds tons to the book's tone. Quirky, interesting characters are superbly developed, involving the reader in their stories with graceful insight. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and am looking forward to Mission Child.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting and enjoyable
Review: I'm relatively new to reading science fiction, so I haven't read a lot that I can compare this novel with. But I do know that when a novel has interesting characters, an engrossing storyline, and leaves you wishing it hadn't ended, you've got the ingredients for a great read. China Mountain Zhang has the right ingredients. I loved the out-of-box thinking about what the future could be like. The charactors were real and flawed and refreshing. I looked forward to reading what would would happen next to each. And I look forward to reading McHugh's other novels.
Rating: 
Summary: Interesting but flawed
Review: In the future-as-awful-but-technologically-advanced tradition of William Gibson, Maureen McHugh offers us a glimpse of life following a takeover of the earth -- and Mars too -- by the communist Chinese. New York City is a pit (this is science fiction?), yet people commute from as far away as Virginia. The best place a person can live is in China; the worst, the south pole on Mars. Plastic surgery is very common. Doctors can do miracles with custom-made viruses. People have jacks built into their wrists for accessing, and being accessed by, big-brotherish computers. The techie parts and the visons of life on Earth and Mars under Chinese rule are interesting and rewarding; without suffering through the extreme negativity and hyperobjectivity of Gibson, the reader gets that juicy taste of what the future might feel like. What's weak is the guts/emotions/human aspect. In particular, the ending fails. Good for science fiction addicts, not so good for general readers.
Rating:
Summary: Chinese Futures
Review: It's no surprise that most science fiction, at least that consumed in the West, features futures that are projections of American or European society, and sometimes very simple projections. This book by McHugh certainly breaks new ground by giving us a sci-fi future that is a projection of Chinese culture, after that nation's brand of Socialism has overtaken most of the Earth and has even colonized Mars with communes. This is an outstanding bit of creativity that could potentially open new doors in exciting storyline construction. Unfortunately, that is not the case here except for a few interesting examinations of human rights and cultural identity under worldwide totalitarianism. Otherwise. McHugh merely uses the interesting premise as a backdrop for occasionally moving but mostly predictable character sketches. Some reviewers have complained that the book has no plot, while others have praised it as a ruminative literary composition. Actually neither of these is completely true, because the book is simply a collection of tangentially related short stories (incorrectly presented by the publishers as a novel) that once again are mostly character sketches of people going about their lives in this strange new world. But other than the tragic and forlorn San-xiang, the characters are mostly flat and lifeless, and many of their travails and struggles are dropped inconclusively. This goes especially for the unexciting lifecycles of the central character Zhang. This book is a telling example of a great premise brought up short by unfocused writing. [~doomsdayer520~]
Rating:
Summary: A Splendid First Novel By One of SF's Best Young Writers
Review: Maureen McHugh's "China Mountain Zhang", is a stunningly original view of the future. It's also a fine cyberpunk tale, but I wouldn't say that it neatly falls within that genre of writing; indeed her writing owes more to Samuel Delany's influence than it does to Gibson's. Many may be stunned by her credible depiction of a future United States subservient to the People's Republic of China. They may also be surprised by her sympathetic portrayal of Raphael "China Mountain" Zhang, who is gay; truly one of the most unique characters I've read in all of science fiction. Those interested in taking a look at one of science fiction's most original new writers won't be disappointed with this fine novel.
Rating: 
Summary: There's nothing engaging or original here
Review: Maureen McHugh's novels had been highly recommended to me before, so I was looking forward to reading this novel for a book discussion group. I was bitterly disappointed: Like the old joke about Oakland, there's no "there" there in China Mountain Zhang. I was happy to forgive the novel its premise: That Chinese socialism would win sway over the world economically. And I even saw that the novel was about protagonist Zhang growing from a meek and trapped man in downtrodden New York to a confident and unique individual carving his own space in the city. But in working with its broad premise and following through on its character's development, the novel falls apart at nearly every turn. McHugh uses a supremely distant writing style: First-person present tense, with Zhang seemingly sleepwalking through his life. Even as he comes out of his shell it still seems he's always viewing his life from a great distance. The style underscores the essential tedium of Zhang's character, as he seems disengaged from life, barely interested in anything around him, and not a person you'd want to know, much less befriend. Even after he starts standing up for himself, he's still simply dull and disengaged. McHugh employs a virtually plot-free structure, as Zhang confronts various shifts in his life (losing his job in New York, travelling to a remote part of the continent, dealing with the loss of a lover), but McHugh always cuts away just at the moment when the story might get interesting, never letting us get inside Zhang's head (despite the fact that he's the narrator), not letting us see his personal development. Instead, she provides asides to other characters elsewhere in her universe - some of whom have a remote connection to Zhang at best - and then jumping back after all of Zhang's growing has occurred! She never actually grapples with her character to show us what he's all about. What little character development there is mostly occurs off-stage. The background is idea-poor. It's a post-economic-collapse novel with the vaguely novel idea of classist socialism thrown over it, but it's the class prejudice, not the socialism, which matters in the novel, and that's hardly new. The asides about colonies on Mars are the sorts of things which have been portrayed many times before (if you've read Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress then you've read pretty much what this novel has to present on the subject). The only moment that the ideas engage you intellectually are a lengthy diatribe near the end in which Zhang contrasts economic and scientific developments, but that treaties - though far and away the most lively writing in the book - ultimately doesn't go anywhere. Unless you can't get enough of run-of-the-mill near-future post-calamity SF, or you enjoy novels about gay protagonists regardless of their other merits, you should give China Mountain Zhang a wide berth.
Rating:
Summary: There's nothing engaging or original here
Review: Maureen McHugh's novels had been highly recommended to me before, so I was looking forward to reading this novel for a book discussion group. I was bitterly disappointed: Like the old joke about Oakland, there's no "there" there in China Mountain Zhang. I was happy to forgive the novel its premise: That Chinese socialism would win sway over the world economically. And I even saw that the novel was about protagonist Zhang growing from a meek and trapped man in downtrodden New York to a confident and unique individual carving his own space in the city. But in working with its broad premise and following through on its character's development, the novel falls apart at nearly every turn. McHugh uses a supremely distant writing style: First-person present tense, with Zhang seemingly sleepwalking through his life. Even as he comes out of his shell it still seems he's always viewing his life from a great distance. The style underscores the essential tedium of Zhang's character, as he seems disengaged from life, barely interested in anything around him, and not a person you'd want to know, much less befriend. Even after he starts standing up for himself, he's still simply dull and disengaged. McHugh employs a virtually plot-free structure, as Zhang confronts various shifts in his life (losing his job in New York, travelling to a remote part of the continent, dealing with the loss of a lover), but McHugh always cuts away just at the moment when the story might get interesting, never letting us get inside Zhang's head (despite the fact that he's the narrator), not letting us see his personal development. Instead, she provides asides to other characters elsewhere in her universe - some of whom have a remote connection to Zhang at best - and then jumping back after all of Zhang's growing has occurred! She never actually grapples with her character to show us what he's all about. What little character development there is mostly occurs off-stage. The background is idea-poor. It's a post-economic-collapse novel with the vaguely novel idea of classist socialism thrown over it, but it's the class prejudice, not the socialism, which matters in the novel, and that's hardly new. The asides about colonies on Mars are the sorts of things which have been portrayed many times before (if you've read Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress then you've read pretty much what this novel has to present on the subject). The only moment that the ideas engage you intellectually are a lengthy diatribe near the end in which Zhang contrasts economic and scientific developments, but that treaties - though far and away the most lively writing in the book - ultimately doesn't go anywhere. Unless you can't get enough of run-of-the-mill near-future post-calamity SF, or you enjoy novels about gay protagonists regardless of their other merits, you should give China Mountain Zhang a wide berth.
Rating:
Summary: Slice of Life Science Fiction
Review: Set in a future where Maoism (Chinese Marxism) has taken over as the dominant political force, "China Mountain Zhang" is science fiction extrapolation at its highest. The book follows the eponymous hero as he tries to find peace in this fascinating, if flawed future. Born of an illegal procedure -- (his DNA was mixed so that he will look more Asian in a world of prejugdice), an out of work architech, and a homosexual, Zhang has much to contend with. The story also follows other people -- in first-person narratives -- and their struggles in this society. McHugh's prose is beautiful, and she manages to convey both a sense of wonder (with her almost magical, but scientifically sound technology), and a plausible, thought-out future. There's a hint of sadness, but also a ray of hope, about the strength of the human will. Her characters are real, and will haunt you after the book is over. Slice-of-life sci fi at its best
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