ANCIENT BOAT

Zhang Wei spent five years of concentrated work on this, his first novel. The story unfolds around Wali Township, a strategically located town on the Shandong peninsula. Set against the backdrop of forty years of history the novel creates a panoramic, multi-layered description of the reality of China and its historical development. From the era of the land reform on the Mainland to the years of famine, from the "Cultural Revolution" to the turmoil resulting from recent liberalizing reforms, all is recreated with exceptionally vivid description. The story is soul-stirring and the characters life-like. The use of language is effective and powerful while the structure is daringly original.

The novel was first published in the most influential large-scale Mainland literary magazine "Today." It immediately produced tumultuous response. There followed three editions inside and outside Mainland China, and in recent years there have been five other editions. It is approaching ten printings with a total run of over 1,000,000 copies. This novel has won a number of literary awards, among which are the "Golden Stone Hall Survey Award for Most Popular Book," the "People's Literature Award," and the "Young Creativity Award." It was reputed to be "the greatest novel since the May Fourth Movement (1919)," and "the magnum of opus" with the most artistic beauty." Ancient Boat is definitely the most influential Chinese novel since the renaissance of Chinese literature in 1976. It is a masterpiece created from the author's blood and tears. Today, its reputation has increased rather than decreased. When one considers the fact that there are five to six hundred novels published on the Chinese Mainland every year, the growing success ofancient Boat is truly remarkable. The novel could be called the representative Mainland Chinese literary work of the last several decades.