Cowboy on the Steppes
- Book Review,
by Song Nan Zhang
From School Library Journal
Grade 3-8?Song Nan Zhang, who chronicled his own life in postwar China in two previous books, now illustrates a journal written by his brother. In 1968, Yi Nan Zhang, 18, was sent from Beijing to work on a commune in the vast open grassland steppes of Inner Mongolia, where he was assigned to cutting hay. Bored, he requested to work as a cowboy. The book follows a year in his life among the Mongolian cattle herders. Given a precious horse, the teen was slowly accepted by his fellow herdsmen as he mastered difficult skills. His adventures, told through evocative, brief journal entries, may seem exciting to younger children, while older children will understand the emotional context of the events described with such economy and restraint: the death of an infant, encounters with unpredictable weather, the threat of hungry wolves. Living in several yurts, the young man came to understand the complex working relationships of the nomads. The illustrations, drawn in gentle colors on pages facing the text with occasional double page spreads, are carefully composed, conveying the narrator's shifting emotions and the vast sweep of the steppes. Both art and text depict a way of life that has not changed much in hundreds of years, portraying these distant cowboys with respect and affection.?Margaret A. Chang, North Adams State College, MACopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Gr. 4^-7. Song Nan Zhang, whose autobiographical book Little Tiger in the Chinese Night (1993) describes his years growing up in China, now illustrates the story of his brother's first eight months herding sheep on the steppes of Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution. Sent away from his family and his Beijing high school at the age of 18, Yi Nan kept diaries detailing his thoughts and experiences living in a land where the homes, customs, and language were unfamiliar. The diary-format text here, evidently excerpted and translated as well as illustrated by Song Nan Zhang, reveals an episodic tale of births and deaths, respect and generosity, horsemanship and pride. Little by little, Yi Nan learns the ways of his Mongolian hosts and begins to feel at home in their land. Each spread includes a full-page illustration, sensitively drawn and beautifully colored, dramatizing the first-person text. A good choice for parents and teachers seeking ways to introduce cultural differences, because it shows the wide variation possible even within a single country. Carolyn Phelan
Review
“Zhang’s paintings [are] extraordinary. Delicate yet robust; funny as well as poignant…a perfect complement for the story.”
–Globe and Mail
Review
?Zhang?s paintings [are] extraordinary. Delicate yet robust; funny as well as poignant?a perfect complement for the story.?
?Globe and Mail
Book Description
In 1968, as part of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, thousands of teenagers were “relocated.” The artist’s brother was sent to a place that could not have been more different from his crowded, noisy Beijing home. He was sent to the steppes to live with Mongolian herdsmen.
The studious, gentle, city boy had much to learn: he had to memorize the faces of his cattle; he had to learn to ride with the greatest horsemen in the world; he had to adjust to food, clothing, and scenery wildly different from anything he had ever known.
Despite the hard life, he grew to love Mongolia. His respect for the people who befriended him and his admiration for them were recorded in his diaries.
Song Nan Zhang’s gorgeous paintings are the perfect complement to an unforgettable true story.
From the Inside Flap
In 1968, as part of Mao’s Cultural Revolution, thousands of teenagers were “relocated.” The artist’s brother was sent to a place that could not have been more different from his crowded, noisy Beijing home. He was sent to the steppes to live with Mongolian herdsmen.
The studious, gentle, city boy had much to learn: he had to memorize the faces of his cattle; he had to learn to ride with the greatest horsemen in the world; he had to adjust to food, clothing, and scenery wildly different from anything he had ever known.
Despite the hard life, he grew to love Mongolia. His respect for the people who befriended him and his admiration for them were recorded in his diaries.
Song Nan Zhang’s gorgeous paintings are the perfect complement to an unforgettable true story.
About the Author
Song Nan Zhang was born in Shanghai. He received a Masters degree from the Beijing Central Institute of Fine Arts, and his paintings have been exhibited in galleries around the world. Song Nan Zhang lives in Montreal. His son, Hao Yu, was born in Beijing and arrived in Montreal with his parents in 1990. He has a journalism degree from Concordia University and has written for the Montreal Gazette. He now lives in London, England, and works for the BBC.
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