[Cwgrad-announcements] Vanessa Hua's review of Zhang Wei's 'The Ancient Ship' on SFGate!

[Ching-In Chen]

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This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SFGate.
The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/09/19/RVO412E88N.DTL
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Friday, September 19, 2008 (SF Chronicle)
'The Ancient Ship' by Zhang Wei
Vanessa Hua

The Ancient Ship By Zhang Wei; translated by Howard Goldblatt
HarperPerennial; 451 pages; $14.95 paperback
  A country-boy entrepreneur fetes Communist party officials to win their
backing. Authorities investigate impurities tainting noodles. An old woman
scavenges in the garbage while her hometown prospers.
  Though Zhang Wei's novel "The Ancient Ship" was first published in 1987,
the challenges that its characters - and China - face remain much the same
two decades later. Translated for the first time into English, the novel
is witty and poignant, an epic spanning half a century of life in the
fictional town of Wali. The story tracks the fate of the Sui, Li and Zhao
clans, who embody the tumultuous modern chapter of China's history. With
their homeland rapidly transforming, the characters choose whether they
will seek a different life from what was handed down to them.
  The narrative jumps back and forth through time, circling around events:
the day an ancient ship was raised from the river, the night a mother ate
poison and lit her house on fire rather than turn it over to militiamen,
and many other horrors.
  Zhang shows that much of this history exists in no official record, only
in the anecdotal, fragmentary stories the people of Wali tell each other.
  "What's most terrifying is not the sky falling in, or the earth opening
up, or the mountains topping; it's ourselves. It's true. Just look at the
town's chronicles if you don't believe me. Whatever is left out of the
chronicles remains in people's minds," one of the characters tells his
younger brother.
  Zhang seems to be cataloguing a way of life, to preserve what is rapidly
being lost. He describes in great detail how to make noodles, how to make
dishes called Melons on the Vine, Monkey Pouch and Muddle-Fuddle Eggs and
how to make soy sauce. On fermenting soy beans: "When touched, it is warm
as a child's head; two more days of waiting are required, when it no
longer feels warm."
  Readers who are not versed in the intricacies of Chinese history may find
themselves seeking outside sources for clues and dates about the Great
Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, the Sino-Vietnamese War and the
stirrings of a market economy. Though it's not the job of the author to
explain history to an international audience, footnotes would have been
appreciated.
  The cast is sprawling, and the narrator dips in and out of the
perspectives of different characters, including the evil Zhao Duoduo, a
former orphan who gained power during class struggle and goes on to run
the noodle factory; the saucy, bootlegging widow Zhang-Wang, who ensures
that the old traditions and rituals live on; and the Sui brothers Baopu
and Jiansu, who struggle against their clan's reputation of cowardice and
bad luck. Out of the many threads, the narrative most closely follows
Jiansu as he tries to strike it rich in the city - and the minutiae of his
machinations and failures are fascinating. To attract business to his
shop, Jiansu places three-legged stools in the corner, offers instant
coffee and paints a sign with the words "Gentleman" and "Lady" in artsy
purple characters, which attracts throngs of customers.
  At times, the novel's multitude of characters can be distracting, with
some stories touched upon for a couple of pages and revisited chapters
later. A thread involving the rape of Jiansu's sister Hanzhang by Fourth
Master - and her attempt at revenge decades later - is underdeveloped.
It's perhaps a symbol of larger events, but it could have had a stronger
emotional resonance. And in this novel of ideas, sometimes characters
engage in dueling monologues. Though the speeches are compelling, some of
the material might have been more effective presented in scene or
narrative.
  International interest in China is stronger than ever, and readers will
find "The Ancient Ship" reveals the human stories behind the newspaper
headlines, past and present.
  "[W]e have no reason to brag about how wonderful our country and our lives
are if we can stand by and watch an old woman live like that, even if
there's only one like her," Sui Baopu tells his brother. In this beautiful
and vivid novel, Zhang ensures that the stories of the "only one" are not
forgotten. {sbox}

Vanessa Hua is a writer in Southern California. E-mail her at
books at sfchronicle.com.
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Copyright 2008 SF Chronicle





-- 
~~~~~
Ching-In Chen
THE HEART'S TRAFFIC (Arktoi Books/Red Hen Press forthcoming 2009)
www.redhen.org/arktoi.asp
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