Master storyteller continues to delight

Major works by Zhang Ling

Aftershock

Like the lachrymatory film directed by Feng Xiaogang, the story tells of choices people make when major catastrophes arrive, as well as how the choices affect lives after everything returns to normal or as normal as it can be.

Wang Xiaodeng's mother chose her brother over her to save when the Tangshan earthquake struck in the summer of 1976, but Wang somehow manages to survive and lives on with the pain. She returns to her mother 30 years later, trying to heal the wounds.

Gold Mountain Blues

A Fa left his home village in Guangdong province in the late 19th century to join Chinese laborers working in gold mines or rail projects in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. Decades later, his fifth generation descendant went back to China upon her mother's dying wish. The novel focuses on the identification of early Chinese immigrants in the West.

Birth Throes

The novel, which is about the "independent and courageous" Chinese mothers, has a highly internationalized setting. The background shifts from China to the United States and to France, while the major male characters have varied nationalities.

Zhang Ling believes the four generations reveal a transformation of female self-awareness and identification of the Chinese society.