Hua Yu

Spanning some forty years, from the Communist Civil War through the Cultural Revolution, this acclaimed Chinese novel follows the life of Fugui, the spoiled son of a wealthy landlord, as he squanders his family's fortune, takes up a career as a puppeteer, loses his wife and children to the ravages of famine, and is transformed into a simple peasant. Original. 17,500 first printing.

A Novel

To Live

Set against the backdrop of a modern-day China caught in the midst of a growing capitalism, Baldy Li, a teenage ne'er-do-well, and Song Gang, his bookish stepbrother, vow to preserve their close relationship despite their personal differences, a vow that is tested by their mutual love for Lin Hong, the most beautiful girl in their village. 25,000 first printing.

Brothers

Struggling to support his family on his meager salary amid the cruelty and hardships of Mao's China, Xu Sanguan is haunted by his love for Yile, his wife's bastard son, over his own children, until a series of devastating events forces Xu to risk his own life to save Yile. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

People, Leader, Reading, Writing, Lu Xun, Disparity, Revolution, Grassroots, Copycat, Bamboozle Framed by ten phrases common in the Chinese vernacular China in Ten Words reveals as never before the world's most populous yet most often misunderstood nation. In 'Disparity' Yu Hua illustrates the mind-boggling economic gaps that separate citizens of the country. In 'Copycat' he depicts the escalating trend of piracy and imitation as a creative new form of revolutionary action. And in 'Bamboozle' he describes the increasingly brazen practices of trickery, fraud and chicanery that are, he suggests, becoming a way of life at every level of society. With Yu Hua's characteristic wit, insight and courage, China in Ten Words is a refreshingly candid vision of the 'Chinese miracle' and all its consequences, from the singularly invaluable perspective of a writer living in China today.

China in Ten Words

نهر الزمن

Chiny w dziesieciu slowach

Huo zhe

To travel through these stories is to cross a landscape of stunning beauty and terrific cruelty, where expectations are subverted, where moral certainties are shattered, where gorgeously wrought surfaces beguile at the same time that acts of incredible brutality horrify. It is no wonder that Yu Hua’s stories caused a sensation when they first appeared in the 1980s. His work represents a sophisticated and often disturbing revolution in the Chinese literary tradition, reminiscent of the fiction of modernists like Kafka, Kawabata, Borges, and Robbe-Grillet, but drawing inspiration from several strains of traditional Chinese narrative as well. This is the first collection of short fiction by Yu Hua to appear in English. It takes us on a haunting and harrowing journey from classical China through the Cultural Revolution and into the new era of economic reform, exploding along the way our preconceived notions of what Chinese literature and culture are all about in the 1990s.

Eight Stories

The Past and the Punishments

Zoran Skrobanović

Živeti

Sedmi dan

L'eco della pioggia

Cronache di un venditore di sangue

La Cina in dieci parole

Mao Zedong è arrabbiato. Verità e menzogne dal pianeta Cina

Vivere

An award-winning, internationally acclaimed Chinese bestseller, originally banned in China but recently named one of the last decade's ten most influential books there," "To Live tells the epic story of one man's transformation from the spoiled son of a rich landlord to an honorable and kindhearted peasant. After squandering his family's fortune in gambling dens and brothels, the young, deeply penitent Fugui settles down to do the honest work of a farmer. Forced by the Nationalist Army to leave behind his family, he witnesses the horrors and privations of the Civil War, only to return years later to face a string of hardships brought on by the ravages of the Cultural Revolution. Left with an ox as the companion of his final years, Fugui stands as a model of flinty authenticity, buoyed by his appreciation for life in this narrative of humbling power.

Korean edition of "Brothers," Chinese contemporary novelist Yu Hua ingeniously illustrates the fantastic tales of two step brothers' lives through modern China!]s most turbulent years of the Cultural Revolution with dark humor, intensive social satire. Korean translation by Choi Yong Man. Vol. 3 of 3. Distributed by Tsai Fong Books, Inc.

Brother 3

Uses a framework of ten common phrases in the Chinese vernacular to offer insight into China's modern ecomonic gaps, cultural transformation, and ubiquitous practices of deception.

A soaring literary achievement from internationally acclaimed writer Yu Hua, whose novels are now appearing in English for the first time, Chronicle of a Blood Merchant provides an unflinching portrait of China under Chairman Mao, as a factory worke must sell his blood to overcome every crisis. Xu Sanguan is a Chinese everyman—a cart-pusher in a silk mill struggling under the cruelty and hardships of Mao’s leadership. His meager salary is not enough to sustain his family, so he pays regular visits to the local blood chief, followed by stops at the Victory Restaurant, where he pounds on the table and demands his ritual meal: “A plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine. And warm the wine up for me.” But fried pork livers and yellow rice wine are not enough to restore Xu Sanguan. With the country in the throes of the Cultural Revolution, his visits to the blood chief become lethally frequent and his obligations to his family press against him mercilessly. At the height of famine, the Xu family lies motionless in bed, rising twice a day to consume increasingly watery rations of corn gruel. Xu Sanguan’s wife is forced to stand on a stool in the center of town wearing a sandwich board that reads “prostitute.” Yile, his wife’s bastard son, forever haunts Xu Sanguan’s sense of honor. And when Xu Sanguan sells his blood so he can take his family out to a proper meal, he does not invite Yile, who paces the town, famished and in tears, offering himself as a son to any man who will buy him a bowl of noodles. In a series of heartbreaking reversals, Xu Sanguan decides to risk his own life to save Yile and comes to understand that in a society ravaged by suspicion, hostility, and poverty, blood money not only pays debts, but forgives them as well. With rare emotional intensity, grippingly raw descriptions of place and time, and clear-eyed compassion, Yu Hua gives us a stunning tapestry of human life in the grave particulars of one man’s days. From the Hardcover edition.

Hua Yu

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