The action of Zhang Wei's novel "The Old Ship" covers the first forty years of the PRC. Three generations of the Sui, Zhao and Li families go through numerous campaigns of those years, from land reform to the Cultural Revolution. Using their example, the author makes an attempt to take a different look at the history of his country, tries to identify the properties of the national character that the writers of that time hid or left aside. In China and Taiwan, the book went through 20 editions, with a total circulation of 1.2 million copies.< /p>