Context of "To Live" by Yu Hua by Joshua Coenraads

When?

24joshuac3 — 2023-11-02 07:10:22 UTC

"To live" takes place from the 1940s after the second world war to the early 1970's in communist china during the chinese revolution

(Wikipedia contributors. "Mao Zedong." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 31 Oct. 2023. Web. 2 Nov. 2023.).

24joshuac3 — 2023-11-02 07:10:42 UTC

Wikipedia contributors. "To Live (novel)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 10 Oct. 2023. Web. 2 Nov. 2023.

24joshuac3 — 2023-11-02 07:21:10 UTC

Piper, Andrew. “The History of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in Pictures.” Old Pictures, 20 July 2020, oldpics.net/the-history-of-the-chinese-cultural-revolution-in-pictures/.

24joshuac3 — 2023-11-02 07:25:16 UTC

Wikipedia contributors. "Mao Zedong." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 31 Oct. 2023. Web. 2 Nov. 2023.

Government

24joshuac3 — 2023-11-02 07:34:50 UTC

During his reign of power in china, Mao Implemented a series of large reforms aimed at developing china's economy often at the expense of it's citizens.

2 examples of this are:

The great leap forward in 1958, aiming to rapidly industrialise china's economy. This led to the Great Chinese famine which is estimated to have killed between 15-55 million people from 1958 to 1962.
1957: Launched the anti rightist campaign in which 550,000 people were prosecuted for supposed crimes against the government.

All information originated from: Wikipedia contributors. "Mao Zedong." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 31 Oct. 2023. Web. 2 Nov. 2023.

Video about the Chinese Communist revolution

24joshuac3 — 2023-11-02 07:38:16 UTC

Jackson, Peter. “Mao Zedong and China’s Communist Revolution 1949-1976.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Mar. 2023, www.youtube.com/watch?v=f60G9hHTL9A.

Non-lit text 1

24joshuac3 — 2023-11-02 07:42:18 UTC

Lovell, Julia. “Maoism Marches on: The Revolutionary Idea That Still Shapes the World.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 16 Mar. 2019, www.theguardian.com/books/2019/mar/16/onward-march-maoism-julia-lovell.

Non-lit text 2

24joshuac3 — 2023-11-02 07:44:34 UTC

Badkar, Mamta. “26 Tremendous Propaganda Posters from Chinese Communists.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 11 Nov. 2012, www.businessinsider.com/chinese-propaganda-posters-2012-9?op=1.

Non-Lit text 3

24joshuac3 — 2023-11-02 07:47:14 UTC

Badkar, Mamta. “26 Tremendous Propaganda Posters from Chinese Communists.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 11 Nov. 2012, www.businessinsider.com/chinese-propaganda-posters-2012-9?op=1.

Who?

24saleha3 — 2023-11-07 06:35:27 UTC

Yu Hua is a Chinese author. His fiction debut was in 1983, however his first breakthrough was 1987 for the short story "On the Road at Age Eighteen". He is regarded as a promising avant-garde wave writer.

24saleha3 — 2023-11-07 06:35:43 UTC

Wikipedia Contributors. “Yu Hua.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Oct. 2023, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Hua. Accessed 7 Nov. 2023.

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About him

24saleha3 — 2023-11-07 06:36:40 UTC

Yu was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang on April 3, 1960. Yu Hua's parents worked as doctors, so his family lived in a hospital compound across from the mortuary. His childhood proximity to death shaped his later works.^[7] He practiced dentistry for five years before turning to fiction writing in 1983 because he didn't like "looking into people’s mouths the whole day."^[8] For Yu Hua, the Cultural Revolution took place from the ages of seven to seventeen.^[5] It is for this reason that many of his works include the violence and chaos that were prevalent at the time. In his own words, “a calm, orderly society cannot produce such great works,”^[5] which is why one of the distinctive characteristics of his work is his penchant for detailed descriptions of brutal violence.^[9]

Where

2023-11-07 06:38:32 UTC

"To Live" is a Chinese novel written by Yu Hua and was published in 1992. The story is set in China and spans several decades, covering the mid-20th century through the early 1980s. The novel primarily takes place in rural China, following the lives of a couple, Fugui and Jiazhen, as they endure significant political and social changes, including the Chinese Civil War, the Cultural Revolution, and the early years of economic reforms. "To Live" provides a poignant portrayal of the challenges faced by ordinary people in China during these turbulent times. It was later adapted into a film by director Zhang Yimou in 1994

Themes he uses?

24saleha3 — 2023-11-07 06:38:40 UTC

Heavily inspired and affected by the Cultural Revolution,^[5] the theme of modern Chinese history is prevalent in Yu Hua's writing. Yu Hua's work is very traditional, with psychologized storylines that investigate and illustrate the challenges of cultural disintegration and identity loss^[3] and his stories are often set in small towns during historical periods that he experienced including China under Chairman Mao's rule,^[16]^[17] the Civil War and Cultural Revolution,^[18]^[6] and post Mao capitalist China.^[6] Childhood is also a theme which appears often in his stories, but does not consequently lighten the subject matter. Yu Hua is known for his brutal descriptions of violence, cruelty and death^[5] as well as themes surrounding “the plight of China’s underclasses” as seen in Chronicle of a Blood Merchant.^[19] When he began focusing on more chaotic themes in Brothers, Yu Hua admitted his belief that despite his past modeling after Kafka's novels, "the essential nature of writing was to free yourself. If the great masters can unfetter themselves, why can’t we?”^[5] In this same work, he prides himself on his simultaneous expression of tragedy and comedy.^[5] Yu Hua also frequently engages in diverse attitudes of aesthetic modernity in his works, earning him the reputation of being a catalyst.^[3]