China’s Best Modern Author? (Yu Hua)
Is Yu Hua China’s Best Modern Author?
Yu Hua is a very interesting Chinese author. He writes in a style that could best be described as a form of magical realism, and his books are usually very sad. His book, 活着 (To Live), was the first book I read in Chinese, two years ago. In it, the main character suffers through a life of almost unbelievable sorrow and suffering (and living) through the changing vicissitudes of Chinese modern history, after starting out in life as a terrible husband who gambles his family’s wealth away. It was also made into a movie by Zhang Yimou, although the book is much sadder than the movie if you have a chance to read it.
The following article was translated from Modern Weekly:
China’s “Crazy” Social Phenomena
Among the books that are being talked about the most in China is Brothers, by Chinese author Yu Hua. This book uses magical realism to describe the story of two non-blood related brothers between the Cultural Revolution and the lift-off of the Chinese economy of the ‘90s. Brothers has already sold over one million copies, which in China is a remarkable achievement.
Yu Hua describes a society in which everyone’s dream is to get rich. The younger brother in the novel, Li Guangtou, got famous by organizing a beauty pageant for virgins, while his brother performed breast augmentation surgeries and sold a kind of breast-enhancing product. Many reviews violently attacked Yu Hua for depicting Chinese society in such a Hollywood-esque, depraved manner. But some praised this work for outstandingly pointing out to others this type of materialist, selfish, and spiritless phenomenon in Chinese society today.
Duke University professor Liu Kang, a scholar of Chinese culture, commented: “This is an extraordinary book. Yu Hua is one of China’s most outstanding modern authors.” Editor Sun Kai from Oriental Outlook had this to say: “I really don’t understand how such a famous author could publish such an absurd novel. It is just like a soap opera that profits from other’s tears.” 46 year old Yu Hua doesn’t seem like a rebel from looking at him, and said the following when being interviewed in Beijing: “My story might be fairly extreme, but you can find all of the details described in it in today’s China.”
