China Mountain Zhang

McHugh's China Mountain Zhang was more entertaining than I thought it would be. Although set in a dystopian future in which a Second Civil War has led to a socialist revolution in the US and mainland China dominates the world, this novel is not about a glorious resistance to status quo or a revolutionary movement to overthrow an unequal system. Here, "resistance" lies in the cracks of the system and the wills of the main characters to eke out an existence. The central protagonist, a gay Chinese-Hispanic who, due to gene-splicing, can 'pass' for an ABC (American-Born Chinese), is hardly heroic but seeks to find a community and space for him to express himself (although his deviance is unacceptable in China). The other characters also search for a space to call their own, their own bit of freedom, even if it takes them to Mars (where communes struggle to stay afloat, as the case of Alexi and Martine illustrates). 

At first one might think the novel to be almost a right-wing attack on the Far Left, but its far too sophisticated for anything so simple-minded. It's certainly a critique of ideological purity and devotion, and the excesses of Marxism that can become rather dogmatic. But the main character's lifestyle, the rape of the foreman's daughter after her facial surgery, and the concerns of Martine and Alexi indicate a concern for human freedom, self-expression and dignity that eschew any simplistic rejection of left-wing politics. In a sense, the novel presents a feminist ethics of care. And lest one think there is no action at all, some intense action-packed sequences involving kite racers, running from a state raid on an illegal club in Nanjing and dramatic exchanges enliven the narrative. 

Furthermore, since so much of the book consists of the intersecting slice of life segments of its cast, the reader comes to appreciate the world-building of this China-dominated futurism. "Daoist" engineering, Martian agricultural communes, jacking on to systems, and a variety of new technologies is quite entertaining and intriguing, particularly as the characters don't live too far in time from our 20th century. This dystopian future seems plausible, and perhaps more accurate every day given the changing power relations of the 21st century.