To Live
Yu Hua, translated by Michael Berry
To Live by Chinese novelist Yu Hua is a beautiful book that traces 20th-century Chinese history through the life of Fugui, the son of a wealthy landowner, and his family. It’s a real tearjerker of a book, which really brings alive what people went through as China went from civil war, to Communist-ruled country, through the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. If you enjoy the book, it was also also turned into a brilliant movie in 1994 by Chinese director Zhang Yimou.
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“To Live, first published in 1992, is one of the most quietly devastating novels I’ve ever read. It traces the life of Fugui, a spoiled son of a wealthy landowner who squanders everything and is forced to survive decades of political upheaval as a destitute peasant. His transformation from a feckless gambler to a stoic survivor is heartbreaking and deeply human.” Read more...
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“It’s a story of the personal experience of the chaos of revolutionary political and economic change in China.” Read more...
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“I normally only read non-fiction books but, as you can see, this novel is exceptional…It is all about family life in a Chinese village before and after the 1949 revolution. These are ordinary people and the book looks at how they survive this very difficult period in Chinese history. This was the time of endless political war between the 1940s to the 1980s.” Read more...
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Xinran, Nonprofit Leaders & Activist
