I missed a large part of this story by not understanding the various movements and revolutions and counter-revolution. Yes, this is a love story, but it is in the context of Chinese "movements" and, at times, is overpowered by them. ( )

Very illuminating semi-autobiographical tale of the authors experience throughout revolutionary China. ( )

A Thoughtful Look at Life in Prison Labor Camp

Zhang Xianliang's semi-autobiographical "Half of Man Is Woman" is a sentimental, pensive look at Zhang's journey through labor camps during the Cultural Revolution.

The bulk of the story occurs between Lin Biao's death and the fall of the Gang of Four, a time when change was hopeful but uncertain. That shows in the writing, which is well-translated by Martha Avery.

Starting in 1957, the author spent 22 years moving through prisons and labor camps. He has every reason to write bitterly and aggressively about the political situation in China, but he does not. Instead, this book is introspective and pensive, giving wonderful environmental and geographic clues about his life on the labor farm.

It has been difficult for me to find books about life in China from the end of the Cultural Revolution through the '90s, so this book filled a good hole.

Unfortunately, because he spent 22 years locked away, we have been deprived of a writer who was, literary, prohibited from writing. ( )

Zhang, a worker on a collective farm, lusts for a woman he has spied on, meets her, marries her, suffers erectile dysfunction, becomes a hero for plugging a dyke, is miraculously cured of EDF, becomes mentally ill with a bizarre martyrdom complex, ceases to love his wife, divorces her, convinces a higher up friend to sign carte blanche documentation, and wanders away to fulfill his desire to rebel against the state. This book is a mishmash of maudlin sentimentality. ( )

This is a semi-autobiographical novel about an intellectual sent to a work camp. At the time it was released in China, the book was considered shocking, since it raised sexual issues (impotence), which it tacitly linked to the emasculation of the intelligensia during the Cultural Revolution. The position of the intelligensia is illustrated by this description:

'At the beginning, the nickname people gave him was 'stupid.' Unfortunately, at that time, the adjective 'stupid' had taken on a complimentary character, and was used as a term of commendation. For example, the person who came daily to clean the Headquarter's toilets--this person was encouraged and praised as being 'stupid.' He had previously been a hydraulic engineer, and had with some difficulty overcome the appellation 'intellectual.' Now after much work, he had obtained the glorious status of 'stupid,' and been allowed to enter the Party.

The story is the simple depiction of day-to-day life on the labor farm. Most of the inhabitants feel themselves lucky to be beyond the notice of the excesses of the Cultural Revolution. With few exceptions (the loudspeaker announcing communal meals, the broken-down tractor), the laborers could be living and working in the 19th century. As a former member of the intelligensia, the protagonist feels alone and isolated. He discusses political issues and his personal problems with a talking horse.

The book is poetically written, and I recommend it. However, I have yet to read any work about China as lyrical and as informative as Wild Swans by Jung Chang. ( )