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Speaker info
Yu Hua
Why Does China Struggle with Football and Produce so Many Knockoffs?
Uncontested luminary of modern Chinese literature- Lecture Info
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Inside China: Culture
Yu Hua, an author who views his country through an objective and occasionally critical lens, shows us the real China and its people!
Yu Hua, whose teenage years were during the Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, speaks from his own experiences and presents the lives of Chinese people as he witnessed during these times. Drawing from his novel "To Live," which is set during this period, he explains to his viewers what "to live" signifies for Chinese people. For the Chinese people, "to live" means to accept and endure any adversity that comes their way as a matter of fate, their exceptional vitality enabling them to withstand any destiny.
Yu Hua introduces the last 50 years of Chinese history, spanning the Cultural Revolution, the Reform and Opening-up, to the present day. Focusing particularly on three historical instances when a tempest of death swept the country, he discusses the shadows of Chinese society. He also sharply criticizes the corruption among China's high-ranking officials and bureaucrats, providing examples to illustrate how corruption operates in a socialist state like China, and how it's perceived as a problem within Chinese society.
However, Yu Hua's perspective isn't entirely cold and cutting. He also sheds light on the lives of China's working class, who, unlike the corrupt establishment, must often work weekends, take side jobs or part-time work after their regular jobs just to make ends meet. He describes the reality of impoverished individuals who, out of necessity, consume counterfeit food and the flexible workers who have been hardest hit by COVID-19. He also introduces how ordinary Chinese people love and what dreams they have for the future.
Through Yu Hua's seven lectures, viewers will gain an understanding of the lives of ordinary Chinese people, discover similarities between them and us, and ultimately, feel a step closer to China.
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Multilingual
Yu Hua
Graduate of Lu Xun Literature School Professor of Literature at Beijing Normal University 1998 Grinzane Cavour Prize 2002 James Joyce Award (the first Chinese writer to receive the award) 2004 French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 2005 Special Book Award of China 2014 Giuseppe Acerbi International Literary Prize 2017 Ivo Andric Grand Prize
Yu Hua is one of the most widely-read novelists in the world today, with six of his novels having been translated and published in 45 countries worldwide. His 1993 novel "To Live" holds the record as the most sold Chinese novel in the decade following its publication, while his 2002 novel "Brothers" sold two million copies in China alone upon its release. Having spent his adolescence during China's Cultural Revolution, Yu Hua offers a satirical and unbiased portrayal of China's modern history based on his own experiences. He is also well-known for his realistic portrayal of the lives of the Chinese people. In 2002, he made history as the first Chinese author to win the James Joyce Award. In 2021, he published his first novel in eight years, "Wen Cheng" (The Lost City), which sold 1.5 million copies within a year of its release in China alone, and was translated and published in 20 countries. International critics liken his style to that of Hemingway and Stendhal, and some even call him "the world’s window into China."
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