One of China’s most renowned novelists, Yu Hua speaks exclusively with macau closer in the lead up to his visit to The Script Road
Yu Hua is regarded as one of China’s best contemporary novelists and most internationally influential writer. Born in 1960, he grew up in a hospital where his parents were both doctors, and his education was encompassed almost entirely by the Cultural Revolution. This experience deeply marked most of his later literary works .
Publishing his first short story in 1983, Yu Hua is considered as one of China’s earliest avand-garde writers, reinvigorating modern Chinese literature in the 1980s. However entering the 1990s, he changed his writing style and began to adopt a more realist narrative style, objectively and calmly describing the human condition without passing judgement.
The turning point of the change in his writing style came with the novel To Live. The book has remained a bestseller for the past 20 years with over six million copies printed. It was even adapted for the big screen by director Zhang Yimou. Released in 1994, the film received two important awards at Festival de Cannes, while at the same time being banned in mainland China – both these factors gave both the book and its author international prominence.
Shortly after, Yu published a string of books such as Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, Brothers, and China in Ten Words which were all very well received. His works have been translated into over 30 languages, and have won him numerous international awards and honors, including the Premio Grinzane Cavour, Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Prix Courrier International and Giuseppe Acerbi Literary International Prize.
Next month, invited by The Script Road, Yu will return to this “clean and beautiful” city, which he visited 20 years ago. CLOSER spoke with the author in the lead up to his visit, to better understand him in ten questions.

TO LIVE
The novel To Live is your most representative work and your best seller. What does it mean to you?
This one is my lucky book. When writing the first 10,000 words of it, I was still trying to use my avant-garde writing style but got stuck. Then I changed, and began to let the protagonist Xu Fugui tell the story by himself and I soon finished writing. However, given that Xu is a farmer with little education, he can only use the most straightforward and simple words to tell the story, therefore, although the novel is heavy in content, it’s actually quite easy for everyone to read. Among all my books, published or to be published in the future, To Live is the most influential one for sure. The novel sold 1.2 million copies last year in the mainland alone, even though it was originally published over 20 years ago. I was quite surprised.
MAGNUM OPUS
In that case, would you choose to live as your magnum opus?
Actually, I would go for Brothers, because this book reflects better the two historical periods that I’ve experienced – the Cultural Revolution and our current era. I was born in 1960, my entire childhood and adolescence were encompassed with the Cultural Revolution. Song Gang and Baldy Li, the two protagonists of the novel, they both have a little bit of me in them.
LU XUN
In your book 'China in Ten Words', you wrote one article about Chinese author Lu Xun. How did Lu Xun influence you?
During the Cultural Revolution, the only literary books that I could find to read were Lu Xun’s. However, no matter how good the books are, kids will always have negative emotions when they are forced to read. My Norwegian translator Prof. Harald Beckman once told me that he used to dislike Ibsen when he was young, in just the same way as I disliked Lu Xun. So it’s quite a universal phenomenon. The moment I actually re-encountered Lu Xun is when I re-read his books after growing up, and surprisingly I found he wrote words and sentences as though they came straight from the bottom of my heart. Lu Xun was the only writer who accompanied me when was I growing up. Therefore, though haven’t yet figured out how, I believe he has had some impact on me.
THE BIBLE
What is your favorite book?
My favorite book is the Bible. I read it as literary work, and I think it is the greatest literary work in the world. The Bible is a synthesis of fiction, prose, poetry and philosophy, but using an approachable way to tell the stories. It never tries to scare you. I read lots of philosophical works when I was young, and later found that they were trying to scare me. There are some writers who also like to do that. When you read the Bible, you actually feel that you’re sitting just next to it. All the greatest literary works, like Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, are approachable.
WRITING
As an internationally well-known writer, you must often receive many invitations to literary events. Does that affect your writing?
Certainly yes, especially because you need more time to sit down to write. But that’s only an excuse I use for being lazy. There are writers who don’t get affected at all. When I was writing Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, we had just installed our first telephone at home. I expected to receive phone calls at that time, but every week, I only received one phone call, from Mo Yan who was also writing novels. But now is completely different. I always have events to participate in and I’m aware that peaceful time like that period won’t come back. I’m trying to adapt myself to this fast tempo nowadays.

INSPIRATION
Do you think that good literary works can only be written during troubled times?
From a literary point of view, good writers will come out at any time. But truly turbulent times will provide more source material to writers. Relatively speaking, a cautious and smooth life can also be the soil for great works to grow; the most important thing is how you write.
AWARDS
You have received numerous literary awards in the international arena, but have never won any important literary awards in Mainland China. Have you ever wondered why?
When I write, I can decide what kind of novel I’d like to write and what kind of writing style to use. But once it is published, there is not point in worrying about things like “will the book be well-received by the audience?” or “will the book receive awards?” There are no absolutely fair literature awards, therefore I don’t even bother to think about this. As long as my books, apart from China in Ten Words, are allowed to be published in the mainland, I’m satisfied.
PORTUGAL
Which of your books has been most popular with foreign readers?
It’s different in each country. The most popular book in France and Germany is Brothers, but in Korean it’s Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, in American it is To Live. My works have also been published in Portuguese in Brazil. And in January, the Portuguese verion of To Live and Chronicle of a Blood Merchant were published in Portugal by my Portuguese publisher Relógio D'Água Editores. And China in Ten Words will come out soon in Autumn. It’s good that the books are finally getting published in Portugal. I haven’t been there yet, but I’ve heard it is very beautiful. I would love to go there one day.
HOBBIES
Could you share with us some of your hobbies, apart from reading ?
I like watching films, especially American western films. Sergio Leone is my favorite director, all his films are classics. I like to watch sports as well. These days I have basketball games in the morning, and football games in the afternoon. And the Australian Open is starting, so my schedule is quite full (laughs).
MACAU
Have you been to Macau before? What’s your impression of this city?
I visited Macau once in 1996 or 1997, together with Ge Fei and Su Tong (both famous Chinese writers). We took a taxi to drive along the seaside, and felt Macau was so tidy and beautiful. At that time in Mainland China, people were building constructions everywhere, and it was dusty and dirty everywhere, but Macau was still very quiet, beautiful and clean. We went to casinos as well, but didn’t gamble because we didn’t have money. Regarding Macau literature, I don’t know very much about it, but I believe I’ll learn more after joining the Macau Literary Festival this time.