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Originally published in 1987, two years before the Tiananmen Square protests, Zhang Wei's novel is the story of three generations of the Sui, Zhao, and Li families living in the fictional northern town of Wali during China's troubled post-liberation years.
Spanning four decades following the creation of the People's Republic in 1949, The Ancient Ship is a bold examination of a society in turmoil, the struggle of oppressed people to control their own fate, and the clash between tradition and modernization. In the course of the narrative, the townspeople of Wali face the moments that have defined China's history during the latter part of the twentieth century: the land reform programs, the famine of 1959-1961, the Great Leap Forward, the Anti-Rightist Campaign, and the Cultural Revolution. Translated into English for the very first time, The Ancient Ship is a revolutionary work of Chinese fiction that speaks to people across the globe.
"[T]his multilayered historical tale of remembrance, accountability and the role stories play in people's lives is a powerful one. " - Publishers Weekly.
"Wei Zhang's numerous characters appearing throughout are difficult to track without taking notes...it is both puzzling and disappointing to find the story line so disjointed. [T]his is not a work that typical readers of fiction or historical fiction will simply pick up and immediately appreciate." - Library Journal.
This information about The Ancient Ship was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Zhang Wei is a member of the Chinese Writers Association, an organization for which he has served as the vice-chairman of the Shandong branch. He is one of the most widely respected fiction writers of the post-Mao era, and he lives in Beijing.
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