Yu Hua facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Yu Hua
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Yu Hua speaks at the 2023 Hong Kong Book Fair
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| Native name |
余华
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| Born | 3 April 1960 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 April 3, 1960) is a very famous writer from China. Many people think he is one of the best living authors in his country.
He started writing fiction in 1983. His first big success was the short story "On the Road at Age Eighteen" in 1987. Yu Hua became known as an avant-garde writer. This means he used new and experimental ways of writing. Critics also saw him as a leader in Chinese postmodern writing.
His novels like To Live (1993) and Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (1995) were very popular. Another book, Brothers (2005–06), got mixed reviews in China but was liked by readers in other countries.
Yu Hua has written five novels, six collections of short stories, and three collections of essays. His books have sold about nine million copies. They have been translated into more than 20 languages around the world.
Contents
Yu Hua's Early Life and Influences
Yu Hua was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, on April 3, 1960. His parents were doctors. His family lived in a hospital building, right across from the place where bodies were kept (the mortuary). Being so close to death as a child gave him many ideas for his later stories.
Before becoming a writer, he worked as a dentist for five years. He decided to start writing fiction in 1983 because he didn't like "looking into people’s mouths the whole day."
The Cultural Revolution in China happened when Yu Hua was between seven and seventeen years old. This period was full of big changes and sometimes violence. Because of this, many of his stories show the chaos and challenges of that time.
Yu Hua is interested in how imagination and reality mix together. His own life experiences, especially the social and economic changes in China when he was young, greatly influenced his writing. He is part of the "generation of the 60s." This group of writers grew up during the Cultural Revolution.
He was born in Hangzhou but spent his important growing-up years in Haiyan. This small town is often the setting for his characters' stories. Yu Hua has said that writing makes him feel like he is going back to Haiyan.
After not getting into university, Yu Hua studied to become a dentist for a year. He worked as a dentist for six years. But he found it boring and started writing more seriously.
Yu Hua says that writers like Franz Kafka and Yasunari Kawabata have greatly influenced him. Reading Kawabata's work helped him understand that writing should show human feelings. He also feels a strong connection to China's history. He once said, "My writing is always changing, because my country is always changing, and this inevitably affects my views and feelings about things."
His early stories often show a world that seems cold and tough. This is because China went through many fast changes during his childhood. He explained, "I grew up during the Cultural Revolution. Then came Reform and Opening and the economy’s explosive takeoff in the 90s, and then came the fantastic wildness of the new century." He believes that childhood experiences have a big impact on a writer's life.
In recent years, Yu Hua has written many works about China itself. These are for readers in China, East Asia, and the Western world. He also writes a monthly column for The New York Times. In this column, he shares his thoughts on issues happening in China.
Yu Hua's Writing Style and Themes
Exploring Themes in Yu Hua's Works
Modern Chinese history is a common theme in Yu Hua's writing. This is because the Cultural Revolution deeply affected him. His stories often take place in small towns during important historical times. These include China under Chairman Mao, the Civil War, the Cultural Revolution, and China after Mao.
Yu Hua's stories explore the difficulties of cultural changes and losing one's identity. Childhood is also a theme that appears often. However, it doesn't make the stories less serious. Yu Hua is known for his strong descriptions of cruelty. He also writes about "the struggles of China's poorer people," as seen in Chronicle of a Blood Merchant.
In his novel Brothers, Yu Hua started focusing on more chaotic themes. He said that even though he used to follow writers like Franz Kafka, he now believes "the essential nature of writing was to free yourself." In this book, he is proud of showing both sad and funny parts at the same time.
Yu Hua's Unique Writing Style
Yu Hua's writing style has been influenced by magic realism. He also uses elements from older Chinese fiction. He often uses dark humor and unusual ways of seeing and describing things. His humor comes from the situation, the time period, and Chinese culture.
Music has also influenced him, especially classical music. He uses musical structures in his stories. For example, Chronicle of a Blood Merchant uses techniques from Yue opera. He often uses musical ideas to make his writing richer and more rhythmic.
One technique Yu Hua likes is repeating words. This helps him show his characters' personalities and how their feelings change. It makes his language clear and focused.
Yu Hua's works create mysterious and rich story worlds in both fiction and non-fiction. He once 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."
When he first started writing, his complex style made it hard for readers to understand him. He wanted to show the dark side of human feelings and society in a new way. He changed his style to be less complex after he became more known. He then focused on adding modern ideas into his stories, which are mostly about "realistic societies."
Yu Hua's writing style focuses on quality, not just writing a lot. His unique language style breaks everyday rules to create its own system. This complex style has helped his works create deep and interesting literary worlds.
Yu Hua as an Avant-Garde Writer
Yu Hua is a modern avant-garde writer. He became known in the literary world with his short story "On the Road at Eighteen." This story shows what the narrator sees, thinks, and feels during confusing and harsh moments. It describes a world where traditional reality seems broken, using a surreal style.
Yu Hua is known for his delicate and sharp writing. His novels challenge traditional writing styles and beauty standards. He has made readers think deeply about human life through his novels. This has brought him a lot of attention in the literary world. Because of this, he is a leading example of avant-garde novels in China.
In the late 1980s, many critics saw him as one of the most promising avant-garde writers. They thought he was perhaps the best example of Chinese postmodern writing. In the late 1990s, his style seemed to shift a bit towards a more traditional storytelling approach.
Yu Hua's early novels, like "1986," "One Kind of Reality," and "The Inevitable," explore human evil, violence, instincts, and desires. They show the dark side of human nature and the cruel, violent, and bloody events it can cause. He uses a very calm, almost brutal, tone to describe violence, blood, and death. This helps to show the violence and desires within human nature.
Yu Hua's Major Works
Note: The titles below have been translated into English from their 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 ones 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)
- To Live (1993): This novel was first banned in China because of its very realistic style. But later, it became known as one of China's most important books.
- Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (1995)
- Brothers (2005): Yu Hua got the idea for this book after a trip to the United States in 2003. He saw China getting ready to host the Miss World competition from far away.
- The Seventh Day (2015)
Essays
- China in Ten Words (2011): In this book, Yu Hua writes ten essays. Each essay is named after a word he thinks represents China's culture and politics. He describes the challenges China faced, comparing the Cultural Revolution to China's fast growth after Mao. He also talks about the origins of current events, including the 1989 pro-democracy protest. The Chinese version of this book was not published 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 modern China. He also shares stories from his own life growing up during the Cultural Revolution. Each essay explains why its title word is special for understanding China. Yu Hua says this book brings together "observation, analysis, and personal anecdote" to look at modern China.
Yu Hua's Political Views
The Cultural Revolution's Impact
Most of Yu Hua's novels are about the Cultural Revolution. It is either the setting, a background detail, or a way to tell the story. 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, almost detached way. This is true whether he is writing about violence or death. For example, his novel To Live uses an objective style to show the suffering during the Cultural Revolution. In Brothers, Yu Hua directly talks about what happened to a family during this period. Through these books, readers can understand the harm the Cultural Revolution caused and 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, he became the first Chinese writer to win the James Joyce Award. To Live, first published in 1993, was translated into English in 2003. This led to him receiving the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France in 2004.
In the same year, Yu Hua won the Barnes & Noble Discovery Great New Writers Award (2004). 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 of the 2022 Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award.
TV and Film Adaptations of Yu Hua's Works
Four of Yu Hua's books have been made into movies or TV shows.
- To Live (1994) was directed by the famous Zhang Yimou. Yu Hua himself helped write the movie script. Even though the script was changed a lot, the movie was banned when it first came out. However, To Live won many awards at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.
- There are some big differences between the movie and the book. For example, the main character Fugui is a shadow puppeteer in the movie, not a farmer. Also, the death of Youqing happens in a car accident with the Magistrate Chunsheng in the movie.
- The same novel, To Live, was made into a television drama in 2003. It was called "Fu Gui" after the main character. Both the movie and the novel show different ways of "living" by revealing the tough realities of life. The TV show followed the sad events of the original story more closely. It avoided using big stars to better show the simple life of people during the revolution in China. Both versions are good, but many people seem to prefer the movie.
- In 2015, Chronicles of a Blood Merchant was made into a Korean movie. It was directed by and starred actor Ha Jung-woo.
- A film based on Yu Hua's Mistakes by the River, called Only the River Flows, was released in 2023. It was directed by Wei Shujun.
See also
In Spanish: Yu Hua para niños
