ABSTRACT
Zhang Xianliang’s rapid rise to prominence on the post-Mao literary scene If I were to choose someone to represent significant development in mainland Chinese fiction in the 1980s, I would have to pick Zhang Xianliang, even though I have not yet read all his works and make no claim to having read all the younger writers of the 1980s meriting critical attention. I feel justified in my choice strictly for subjective reasons, since an unmistakable quality about his writing had struck me from the first when I happened to read his novel Half of Man Is Woman [Nanren de yiban shi nüren, 1985] and was elated by the experience. I thought then that, of the few writers of the 1980s I had read, none, not even the highly acclaimed (Zhong) Acheng, was his equal in literary and intellectual exuberance.
