Yu Hua facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Yu Hua
Yu Hua speaks at the 2023 Hong Kong Book Fair
Native name	余华
Born	(1960-04-03) 3 April 1960 (age 65) Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
Occupation	Novelist, essayist
Language	Chinese
Nationality	Chinese
Alma mater	Lu Xun Literature School
Period	1984 – present
Genre	Novel, prose
Literary movement	Avant-garde
Notable works	To Live (1993) Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (1995) Brothers (2005–2006) Cries in the Drizzle
Notable awards	5th Zhuang Zhongwen Literary Prize 1992 James Joyce Award 2002 Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 2004
Relatives	Father: Hua Zizhi (华自治) Mother: Yu Peiwen (余佩文)

Yu Hua (simplified Chinese: 余华; traditional Chinese: 余華; pinyin: Yú Huá; born on April 3, 1960) is a famous Chinese novelist, essayist, and short story writer. Many people think he is one of the best living authors in China.

He started writing fiction in 1983. His big break came in 1987 with his short story "On the Road at Age Eighteen". Yu Hua became known as a new and exciting writer. His novels like To Live (1993) and Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (1995) were very popular. Other books, such as Brothers (2005–06), were liked by readers outside China.

Yu Hua has written five novels, six collections of short stories, and three collections of essays. His books have sold over nine million copies and have been translated into more than 20 languages.

About Yu Hua's Life

Yu Hua was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China, on April 3, 1960. His parents were doctors, and his family lived near a hospital. This meant he grew up close to where people who passed away were taken. This experience later influenced his stories.

He worked as a dentist for five years. He decided to become a writer in 1983 because he didn't enjoy "looking into people’s mouths the whole day." Yu Hua was between seven and seventeen years old during the Cultural Revolution in China. This time of big changes and challenges often appears in his books. He once said that a "calm, orderly society cannot produce such great works."

Yu Hua is interested in how imagination and real life connect. His own life experiences, especially the challenges he faced growing up, are often seen in his writing. He is part of the "generation of the 60s," which includes writers who grew up during the Cultural Revolution.

He was born in Hangzhou but spent his early years in Haiyan, a small town. Many of his stories are set in Haiyan. Yu Hua feels like he is going back to Haiyan when he writes. After not getting into university, he studied to become a dentist for a year. He was a dentist for six years before he started writing more seriously.

Yu Hua has said that writers like Franz Kafka and Yasunari Kawabata have greatly influenced him. Reading Kawabata's work helped him understand that writing is about showing human feelings. He also feels a strong connection to China's history. He explained that his writing changes as his country changes, which affects his thoughts and feelings.

Yu Hua at the 2005 Singapore Writers Festival

Yu Hua's early stories often show a world that feels tough and difficult. This reflects the many changes China went through during his childhood. He mentioned growing up during the Cultural Revolution, then seeing China's economy grow quickly in the 1990s. He said that these changes turned people's ideas and values upside down. He believes that childhood experiences are very important for a writer.

In recent years, Yu Hua has written many works about China itself. He also writes a monthly column for The New York Times about issues in China. While some of his writings are known for showing difficult situations, he also has more gentle stories. For example, he said that "To Live" talks about the challenges of the Cultural Revolution, but he also has "milder stories" like "The Boy in Twilight."

A key part of his writing is dealing with things that seem strange or unbelievable. He said, "I am a realistic writer, and if my stories are often absurd, that’s simply because they are a projection of absurd realities." As China has changed, he has started writing about the strange things that come with these changes. When people say his writing is too difficult, he explains that he is showing what he sees in real life.

Yu Hua's Writing Style and Themes

Common Themes in His Books

Yu Hua's stories often explore modern Chinese history, especially the Cultural Revolution. His works look at the challenges of cultural changes and losing one's identity. His stories are often set in small towns during important historical times, like China under Chairman Mao's rule, the Civil War, and the Cultural Revolution. Childhood is also a common theme, but it doesn't always make the stories lighter. Yu Hua is known for describing difficult situations and themes about the struggles of ordinary people in China, as seen in Chronicle of a Blood Merchant.

When he started writing about more challenging themes in Brothers, Yu Hua felt that writing should help you express yourself freely. He also likes to mix sad and funny moments in his stories. Yu Hua often uses new and modern ideas in his works, which has made him a leader in Chinese literature.

How Yu Hua Writes

Yu Hua's writing has been influenced by magic realism, a style where magical elements appear in a realistic setting. He also uses elements from older Chinese stories. He often uses dark humor and unique ways of describing things. The humor in his novels often comes from the situation, the time period, and Chinese culture.

Music has also influenced Yu Hua. He is especially interested in classical music and how stories are structured like music. For example, Chronicle of a Blood Merchant uses techniques from Yue opera, a type of Chinese opera. He uses musical ideas to make his writing more rhythmic and rich. He also gets ideas for his stories from music. For instance, he often repeats words in his stories. This helps him show what his characters are like and how they feel.

Yu Hua's books create interesting and detailed worlds, both in his fiction and non-fiction. He has said, "Inevitably the novel involves China's history, but I don't intend to present history. My responsibility and interest as a writer lie in creating real people in my work, real Chinese people."

Early in his career, his books were complex, and it was hard for readers to understand them. He wanted to show the difficult side of human feelings and society in a new way. He changed his style later to make his work easier to understand. After these changes, he focused on adding modern ideas to his stories, which are mostly about "realistic societies."

Yu Hua focuses on writing quality stories. His unique writing style often breaks everyday language rules to create its own system. This complex style helps him build rich and mysterious worlds in his books.

Yu Hua as a Pioneer Writer

Yu Hua is considered a pioneer writer in modern Chinese literature. He became known with his short story "On the Road at Eighteen." This story focuses on what the narrator sees, thinks, and feels during confusing and difficult times. It shows a world where traditional ideas of reality are broken.

Among pioneer novelists, Yu Hua is special because he combines strange situations with powerful descriptions to explore ideas about what it means to be human. He is known for his careful and sharp writing. As a pioneer, Yu Hua doesn't just show happy situations. Instead, he looks deeper into the human spirit to question life's true state. His novels challenge traditional writing styles and ideas.

Yu Hua's novels make people think deeply about their lives. This has gained a lot of attention in the literary world. Because of this, he is a leading example of pioneer novels in China. In the late 1980s, many critics thought he was one of the most promising new writers. In the late 1990s, his style seemed to shift slightly towards a more traditional way of telling stories.

Yu Hua's novels from this time carefully explore human challenges, desires, and history. They often show difficult events caused by human nature. His early works, like "1986" and "One Kind of Reality," describe difficult situations in a calm, almost detached way. This helps to show the deeper aspects of human nature.

Yu Hua's Works

Note: Titles have been translated into English from the original Mandarin Chinese.

Short Story Collections

Yu Hua's short stories were first published in literary magazines. Later, they were collected into different books in Taiwan and mainland China. The most complete collection is I Don't Have My Own Name (2017), which has 21 stories. It includes famous stories like "Leaving Home at Eighteen", "Classical Love", "World Like Mist", "The Past and the Punishments", "1986", "Blood and Plum Blossoms", "The Death of a Landlord", and "Boy in the Twilight". Other collections with these stories include The April 3rd Incident (2018), The Past and the Punishments (1996), and Boy in the Twilight (2014).

Novels

• Cries in the Drizzle (1992): This was Yu Hua's first published novel. It tells the story from the point of view of a teenager named Sun Guanglin during Mao's rule in China. Sun Guanglin feels like an outsider in his family and society. He sees the effects of Communist rule from his unique perspective. The book helps readers think about family, friendship, and life through a child's eyes. The story is told through many small events and memories from that time.

• To Live (1993): This popular novel tells the story of Xu Fugui, who faces many difficulties in his life. Yu Hua's breakthrough novel shows how a spoiled son of a landlord changes as he experiences the challenges of the Civil War and Cultural Revolution. The story is told by Fugui himself, who shares his life story with a listener in the 1980s. The events in the book happen from the Second Sino-Japanese War until the death of his last family member. His family members, including his parents, wife, children, and grandchild, all face poverty, illness, and other hardships during China's historical changes under Mao Zedong. This novel was first not allowed in China because of its realistic style, but it later became one of the country's most important books.

• Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (1995): This novel follows Xu Sanguan, a struggling cart-pusher, and shows the difficulties of life in Mao's China. Xu Sanguan sells his blood to support his family during a time of food shortages caused by the Cultural Revolution. As the story goes on, Xu Sanguan has to put aside his feelings about his wife and her son, Yile, who he thought was his own child. The title refers to China's Plasma Economy, a time when people sometimes sold their blood.

• Brothers (2005): This book is described as a "wildly funny story" about modern Chinese society. Brothers has two parts and follows the lives of two step-brothers during the Cultural Revolution and later in capitalist China. Baldy Li starts as a mischievous boy and becomes a very successful businessman. His story is different from his step-brother Song Gang, who faces many challenges during the Cultural Revolution. Song Gang struggles as a wandering man and gets involved in unlicensed cosmetic procedures. These procedures later influence Baldy Li's new beauty pageant, which only allows young women who meet certain criteria to participate. Over many years, Baldy Li starts a relationship with Song Gang's wife, Lin Hong, whom he had admired for a long time. Later, the brothers come together to resolve their differences. Yu Hua was inspired to write this book after seeing China prepare to host the Miss World 2004 competition.

• The Seventh Day (2015): Yu Hua's most recent novel tells the story from the perspective of a person who has passed away. It describes what this person saw and heard during seven days after death. Yu Hua shows a difficult real world and a different kind of afterlife. The main character, Yang Fei, passed away at 41 without enough money for a burial. He wanders the afterlife as a ghost. Over seven days, he meets the spirits of friends and family who passed away before him. Through his journey, the novel highlights difficult realities, such as unfair treatment of people and the challenges faced by those living in poverty. Yu Hua got the idea that "death is not the end of life but just a turning point" from living near a place where people who passed away were taken as a child. The Seventh Day criticizes the differences between rich and poor in China, showing how these differences can even exist in the afterlife.

Essays

• China in Ten Words (2011): This book is a collection of ten essays, each named after a word that Yu Hua believes represents modern Chinese culture and politics. Yu Hua describes a nation facing moral challenges, comparing the Cultural Revolution to China's fast growth after Mao. He also discusses the origins of current events and the 1989 pro-democracy protest. Yu Hua did not publish the Chinese version of these essays in China. The ten words are "People", "Leader", "Reading", "Writing", "Lu Xun", "Revolution", "Disparity", "Grassroots", "Copycat", and "Bamboozle". Using these words, Yu Hua looks back at historical and cultural events that shaped China, mixed with his own memories of growing up during the Cultural Revolution. Each essay explains why its title word is important for understanding China. Yu Hua said this work aims to combine "observation, analysis, and personal anecdote" to understand modern China.

Yu Hua's Political Views

The Cultural Revolution's Impact

Many of Yu Hua's novels are set during the Cultural Revolution, or they refer to it. Yu Hua was born in 1960, so his childhood memories are from this time. He said, "My novel creation is closely related to childhood and juveniles." Yu Hua describes the Cultural Revolution in a calm way, even when talking about difficult events. For example, the novel To Live uses an objective style to describe the challenges of the Cultural Revolution. In Brothers, Yu Hua directly talks about what happened to a family during this period. Through these books, we can understand the impact of the Cultural Revolution on people and learn about the mistakes made during that time.

Awards and Recognition

Yu Hua received his first award, the Grinzane Cavour Prize, in 1998 for his novel To Live. Four years later, in 2002, Yu Hua became the first Chinese writer to receive the James Joyce Award. To Live, originally published in 1993, was published in English in 2003. This led to him receiving the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France in 2004. In the same year, he won the Barnes & Noble Discovery Great New Writers Award. In 2005, he received the Special Book Award of China. Since then, he has also won the Prix Courrier International (2008) for his novel Brothers. This book was also considered for the Man Asian Literary Prize and won the Best Foreign Language Works Award at the 2022 Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award.

Books Adapted for TV and Film

Four of Yu Hua's works have been made into movies or TV shows.

• To Live (1994) was directed by the famous Zhang Yimou. Yu Hua himself helped write the screenplay. Even though the movie's story was changed quite a bit, it was initially not allowed to be shown. However, To Live won many awards at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Some big changes in the movie include Fugui's job being shadow puppetry instead of farming. Also, his son Youqing passes away in a car accident involving the Magistrate Chunsheng. The same novel was made into a television drama in 2003, named "Fu Gui" after the main character. Both the movie and the novel explore what it means to "live" by showing difficult realities and thinking about the importance of existence. The TV show followed the original story's sad events more closely. It avoided using big-name actors to better show the simple lives of people during the revolution era in China. Both versions are good, but many people prefer the movie.
• In 2015, Chronicles of a Blood Merchant was made into a Korean film. It was directed by and starred actor Ha Jung-woo.
• A film based on Yu Hua's Mistakes by the River, directed by Wei Shujun, called Only the River Flows, was released in 2023.

See also

In Spanish: Yu Hua para niños