The Ancient Ship by Zhang Wei; posted by Jack Jones

The book I read was The Ancient Ship By Zhang Wei. This is a Historical Fiction novel following the lives of the people of the small fictional village of Wali, China. More specifically, the novel follows the stories of the Sui, Zhao, and Li families that occupy the village. The story takes place right after the creation of the Peoples republic of China and Mao's rise to power. Mao's actions are illistrated through the eyes of the people of Wali, uncovering an interesting point of view on early communism in China and the cold war. The people of Wali receive only bits of news from the Western world. The hear about U.S. and Russian Space travel and all about the U.S. side in the cold war, but all through an extreme communist filter of which they do not know about nor understand. The townspeople are oppressed and their story shows the history of China and their communist regime.
The book demonstrates the cluelessness of the people of the more rural parts of China and their suseptability to manipulation. The people are forced to beleive rumors about the U.S. which causes them to side with their communist leader and further allow for the spread of communism which the U.S. so diligently tried to stop. The author uses anecdotes to relate the people back to the actual history of China and the cold war era. He also tries to demonstrate the tension between China and the western Nations, and even the U.S. presedents.