Jie Zhang (1) (1937–2022)

Many Characters and Few Descriptions

Zhang Jie's "Leaden Wings" (sometimes translated as "Heavy Wings") is a difficult read because of the numerous characters and the lack of traditional narrative. It makes up for it by being the first novel I read that was written contemporaneously with the end of the Cultural Revolution.

Virago's copy of the book, with a beautiful painting of a factory on the cover, includes a list of characters before the novel begins. This is a helpful resource, but sometimes I found myself looking up two or three characters on a page. Several names were similar and I became confused. The author or the translator also mixed given names with westernized translations of the names. I love Chinese literature and am accustomed to the names, but this was just a bit too much for me.

There is no traditional western narrative with an exposition, climax, and resolution. Instead, each chapter looks at how different characters interact with each other. This threw me off because I expected to hear from characters introduced in earlier chapters, such as the orphaned young man who lived with a journalist, but they appeared only sparingly in later chapters.

Instead of a typical plot structure, we have an ongoing conflict: reformers versus Maoists. Both groups are cliquish and disagreements flow from those groups. Tension is shown by one clique speaking to a members of the same clique, such as the young factory workers celebrating a bonus who reveal their thoughts to an older reformer who they don't know is actually a minister in charge of the factory. Zhang Jie's descriptions and personal thoughts about this are very transparent. There are several criticisms of the party structure in China, with non-party members being overlooked or scorned by party-members. There is no subtlety here. While that might make for poor literature, it was no doubt refreshing and insightful for many readers at the time.

There are several positives to this book, however. It is one of only a handful of novels written in the late '70's and early '80's that have been translated. That alone makes the book truly valuable. In addition, the not-so-subtle jabs at the old-liners certainly were brave moves by Zhang Jie. The book also features prominent female characters, including a muckraking but quiet journalist, a poorly-treated widow, and a vacuous wife of an official. All of these characters deserve further treatment, however.

Although I only give this book two stars on account of its' literary merits, I recognize that the book is very important. Students of Chinese reformist history and fans of Chinese literature will find that this book fills a very empty hole.… (más)