Metà dell'uomo è donna

[Autom. eng. transl.] Half of the man is a woman appeared in the May issue of the magazine Shouhuo in 1985 and immediately obtained a great success: in the following months it was republished by several publishing houses, while the most authoritative literature magazines dedicated ample space to the debate on the work. The novel caused a stir due to the fact that at the time it contained the most explicit sex descriptions of the official literature and the idea of the link between the sexual impotence of the protagonist and the political repression to which he was subjected. When the novel came out, Zhang Xianliang was in America for a conference. Then he received several proposals for "help" for obtaining political asylum in the United States, a fact that testifies to the strong impact of Mid-man and woman.