Yu Hua (author)

This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yu.
Yu Hua
余华

Yu Hua at the 2005 Singapore Writers Festival
Born April 3, 1960
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China[1]
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
Chronicle of a Blood Merchant
Brothers
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)
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yu.

Yu Hua (simplified Chinese: 余华; traditional Chinese: 余華; pinyin: Yú Huá) is a Chinese author, born April 3, 1960 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. He practiced dentistry for five years and later turned to fiction writing in 1983 because he didn't like "looking into people’s mouths the whole day."[2] Writing allowed him to be more creative and flexible. He grew up during the Cultural Revolution and many of his stories and novels are marked by this experience. One of the distinctive characteristics of his work is his penchant for detailed descriptions of brutal violence.[3]

Yu Hua has written four novels, six collections of stories, and three collections of essays. His most important novels are Chronicle of a Blood Merchant and To Live. The latter novel was adapted for film by Zhang Yimou. Because the film was banned in China, it instantly made the novel a bestseller and Yu Hua a worldwide celebrity. His novels have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Persian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, Hungarian, Serbian, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean and Malayalam.

Awards

Works

Note: cited works are those translated into English from the original Chinese.

Short story collections

Novels

Further reading

References

  1. Johnson, Ian (11 October 2012). "An Honest Writer Survives in China". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  2. Yu, Hua (30 August 2003). Interview with Yu Hua. Interview with Michael Standaert. University of Iowa International Writing Program. Retrieved 15 November 2011.
  3. Zhao, Yiheng (Summer 1991). "Yu Hua: Fiction as Subversion". World Literature Today 65 (1). Retrieved 15 March 2015.
  4. "Yu Hua: Brothers, 2008 Shortlist". Man Asian Literary Prize. 2011. Retrieved 19 June 2009.
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 "Yu Hua". The New York Times. 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2015.

External links