Yu Hua

Yu Hua (余华) is a Chinese author, born in 1960 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. He studied dentistry but soon decided to write fiction in 1983 because it allowed him to be more creative and flexible. He grew up during the Cultural Revolution so many of his stories and novels are marked by this experience. His early work can be compared with the experience of a patient at a dentist's: Sadistic and brutal. Yu Hua has so far written three novels, six collections of stories, and three collections of essays. His most important novels are called Chronicle of a Blood Merchant and To Live. The latter novel was adapted for a movie by Zhang Yimou. Because the film was banned in China, it instantly made the novel a bestseller and Yu Hua an worldwide celebrity. His novels have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean.

Works

• Leaving Home at Eighteen (Shibasui Chumen Yuanxing)
  
• The Past and the Punishments
  
• To Live (1992) (活着, Huozhe)
  
• Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (许三观卖血记, Xu Sanguan Mai Xue Ji) (1995)

External Links

• An interview with Yu Hua at Ohio State University
• A conversation with Yu Hua at UCLA