Life! (Novel)
| novel | |
|---|---|
| title | Life! |
| Original title | 活着 |
| author | Yu Hua |
| First publication | 1992 |
Life! ( Chinese活着, Pinyin Huózhe ) is a Chinese novel by Yu Hua from 1992. Live! Retrospectively tells the story of a respected Chinese man who, throughout history, has lost both his wealth and his family. Despite all the strokes of fate, the protagonist does not give up his hope for better times. This motif also forms the core of the plot. Yu Hua paints an impressive picture of the changeable conditions in China in the 20th century. The Chinese Civil War , the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution are described, among other significant events .
construction
Life! is divided into two narrative strands. First, an unknown narrator reports on his trip through China. When he meets Xu Fugui, he talks about his past from a first-person perspective , which is divided into five sections. The previous narrator does not comment on the whole thing. However, there are always short interruptions between the individual stages in Fugui's life story, in which the actual narrator reports from the present. The novel begins and ends in the present.
action
Present (beginning)
The novel begins with an unnamed narrator who travels through China to collect folk songs in the country. He meets all kinds of strange people. Ultimately, an old man wins his attention. He works alone with an ox in a field, but calls out a whole series of names, which increasingly confuses the narrator. The man introduces himself and the ox as Xu Fugui, the happy and noble one, and then reports on his life.
Republic of China under the Guomindang
Xu Fugui leads a prosperous life. His family owns 7 hectares of land, a large house, and is highly regarded among the urban population. Although his father lost another 7 hectares of his family land while gambling, the Xu family can still live without worries. His father hopes that one day Fugui will honor the family and his ancestors. However, Fugui quickly turns out to be a condescending young man who cares little about the family future and his ancestors.
He is married to Chen Jiazhen, the daughter of a wealthy rice trader. They already have a four-year-old daughter named Xu Fengxia together, and Jiazhen is also heavily pregnant. Nevertheless, Fugui only has mockery and mockery for his wife and prefers to pass his time gambling in the city's brothel. One day he also loses the remaining 7 hectares of his family's land to the Long'er, who then moves into the Xus house, so that the family has to move into a hut in the neighboring village. Fugui's father cannot cope with the decline of his family and dies before he even reaches his new home.
Disappointed by his son-in-law, rice trader Chen demands the divorce and homecoming of his pregnant daughter. With a heavy heart, she has to leave her husband, daughter and mother-in-law behind to move to her father in town. A few months later, however, she returned to Fugui with their son, Youqing.
Chinese civil war
After his mother becomes seriously ill, Fugui rushes to town with the last of Jiazhen's savings to fetch a doctor. In the city, however, he is forced to do military service by the Guomindang under Chiang Kai-shek and thus experiences the horrors of the civil war. Several men are killed, as well as Fugui's friend Quan. Another friend by the name of Chunsheng disappears when Fugui is taken prisoner of war.
After two years, he finally returns home. Apparently nothing has changed. When he reunites with his family, however, he finds that Fengxia has become deaf and dumb after a severe fever and that his mother has died. Youqing does not recognize Fugui as his father as he could not bond with him in the first years of his life. After Long'er is expropriated and shot by the people's government , Jiazhen notes that fate must have been kind to her family, after all, as a former landowner, they could have been executed in Long'er's place if Fugui had not had his lands beforehand lost in this. Through the hardship, he and his wife finally find each other, he learns to appreciate her and increasingly worries about her.
Big leap forward
In order to be able to pay the school fees for Youqing, Fugui and Jiazhen give the now seventeen year old Fengxia to another family. The parents and especially their brother suffer a lot from the loss. For this reason, Fengxia returns to her family after a short time, who cannot have the heart to let the daughter go again. In addition, Jiazhen is getting worse and worse, which she tries to hide from the family because she doesn't want to be a burden to anyone. Fugui, too, has increasing feelings of guilt because he cannot offer his wife, who comes from a wealthy family, a decent life.
As part of the great leap forward, the government of the newly proclaimed People's Republic of China is collecting all the pots and metal objects from Chinese households in order to boil steel from them. All citizens are now catered for in people's canteens, where there is always good and plentiful food. The families now take turns guarding the steel furnace. When the Xus were the first family to successfully cook steel, Fugui was celebrated by the population. Jiazhen's condition progressively worsens until a doctor finally diagnoses her with bone softening . From then on she is almost exclusively tied to her bed.
When the supply of the population became more and more sluggish, the canteens were closed. All citizens are classified according to their ability to work, according to which they earn points that give them food. Fugui receives the highest possible number of points, but Jiazhen can hardly contribute to the family's care due to her terminal illness, which worries her greatly. Only Fugui and Fengxia now ensure the well-being of the family. Meanwhile, Youqing lovingly takes care of his new sheep, hardly sleeps and runs ten kilometers to class every day, which soon makes him the best athlete at school. But the sheep too will soon have to be sold and slaughtered, as the famine and poverty that broke out are driving the Xus into complete ruin. Jiazhen even got her father to visit so that she could cook some rice for the family for weeks.
One day, Youqing and his classmates learned that the principal of their elementary school and the wife of the district head had lost a lot of blood when their child was born. Students are encouraged to donate blood in the hospital. Full of zest for action and a sense of honor, Youqing and the other fifth graders also set out on their way. In the hospital, doctors only determine the correct blood type for Youqing. They proudly have their blood drawn, although the doctor does not notice that the boy is getting paler. When Fugui arrives at the hospital, his son is already dead. When he tries to take Youqing with him, he suddenly meets the district chief, who turns out to be Chunsheng. This protests his concern and from now on owes Fugui a human life.
Fugui carries Youqing back to the village and buries him in tears. When he comes home, however, he does not tell Jiazhen what happened. Instead, he claims her son passed out at school and has been in the hospital ever since. For this reason, he runs into town every day after work in the field to convince his wife of this story. However, one evening Jiazhen holds him back and admits that he already knows her son is. Together they visit the boy's grave, which is next to the graves of Fugui's parents, and Fugui regrets not having told Jiazhen beforehand and thus given her one last look at her son.
Cultural Revolution I.
After initially it seems as if Jiazhen won't live long either, she surprisingly recovers and can even do simple work again. Chunsheng, now called Jiefang, appears to offer his condolences to the entire family. He tries to give money to the Fugui, but Jiazhen gets angry and sends him away.
With the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, more and more people are gathering in the city. Fengxia watches what is happening with great interest and seems to be particularly taken with a wedding. She mingles with the celebrating guests and is mocked for her behavior, which she cannot hear due to her deafness. Fugui intervenes in the mockery and decides to look for a man for Fengxia. After initial difficulties, they find Wan Erxi, a transport worker from the city with a crooked neck. He brings his friends with him at the second meeting and renovates the ailing roof of the Xus. Then he asks to be allowed to marry Fengxia. The parents are immediately enthusiastic, Erxi not only seems to love Fengxia sincerely, he also gives her the largest and most expensive wedding in the whole city, which the residents longingly remembered years later. Through this festival Erxi even got into debt.
Contrary to the tradition that the bride is not allowed to meet her parents for a month after the wedding, Fengxia and Erxi pay the Xus a visit after ten days. Fengxia is highly regarded by the townspeople for her care and diligence, which her parents are very proud of.
In the course of the cultural revolution, many high-ranking citizens are abducted, tortured and killed. Chunsheng was also beaten on the street so that he could not stand up. But he does not want to be helped by Fugui. A month later he appears with the Xus. Since Jiazhen still forbids him to enter their house, Chunsheng and Fugui talk in the yard. Chunsheng declares that he no longer wants to live. He is determined to commit suicide. Fugui therefore reminds him of his wife and child. Jiazhen, who overheard the conversation through her bedroom window, also points out to him that he owes the Xus a human life and therefore must not take his own life. On the way back to the city, Chunsheng Fugui promises to go on living. He breaks this promise after a month. Fugui learns from the county chief that Chunsheng has hanged himself.
On another visit, Erxi proudly announces Fengxia's pregnancy. The four of them celebrate, laugh and cry, because they remember that Youqing, who was raised by Fengxia and was therefore particularly close to her, cannot experience happiness. The child is born in winter. Full of excitement and anticipation, Erxi and Fugui wait in the hospital, as the birth is unusually protracted. Ultimately, you ask Erxi whether he wants his wife or the child. Without hesitation, he chooses Fengxia. However, this does not survive the birth due to excessive blood loss. Fugui notes that his two children each died giving birth in the same hospital. Sadly, he and Erxi take the child home and bury Fengxia next to Youqing. Jiazhen chooses Kugen, of sorrowful origin, as the name for her son. Jiazhen also dies barely three months after their daughter. In contrast to her children, she is aware of her approaching death and dies peacefully in her sleep, she is buried next to Youqing. With her last words she says goodbye to her husband, thanks them and hopes to be his wife again in the next life.
Cultural Revolution II
Erxi, who cannot get over the death of his beloved wife, takes care of Kugen with the help of Fugui. He always carries it with him in a bag because he cannot be without it. For this reason, he rarely gives the boy to his grandfather in the village. Instead, Fugui often visits the two of them in town and stays with them for a few days. The boy is becoming increasingly similar to Fengxia, which is very depressing for Erxi and Fugui. While loading concrete slabs, Erxi is crushed by four concrete slabs and dies in the same hospital as his wife.
Fugui then takes his grandson to his house in the country. Although he is pitied by everyone, he does not understand the situation at a young age and waits for his father. His grandfather finally explains to him that Erxi will not be returning. Together they visit his tomb, which is next to Fengxia's. From now on, Kugen Fugui accompanies Fugui on the field every day and supports him in his work. The two dream of buying an ox, for which they have to work hard.
One morning, the now five-year-old Kugen claims that he is dizzy. Nevertheless, he accompanies Fugui to work. After a while he takes him home and finds that the boy has a high fever. To recover, he lays the child in his bed, cooks him rice porridge and picks him a few broad beans, which are special for the poor conditions. Fugui goes back to the field to finish his work. When he comes home in the evening, the boy has suffocated from the many broad beans.
Confident of his approaching death, Fugui bought an ox that was also about to die two years after Kugens, thus saving him from the butcher. He decides to name the ox Fugui because he sees a resemblance between himself and the animal. Even after ten years together, the two are still together and work in the field.
Present (end)
Fugui goes back to work. Man and ox leave the narrator, who now also realizes that the two old friends are similar. Fugui drives the ox on again and again by showing him what the others have already achieved. The others are Jiazhen, Fengxia, Youqing, Erxi, and Kugen. These are not really present, but they drive Fugui not to give up and to keep going.
filming
The novel was filmed in 1994 under the direction of Zhang Yimou . In the film of the same name , Ge You embodies the Xu Fugui. His wife Xu Jiazhen is portrayed by Gong Li . The director and the leading actors have received numerous awards and were also nominated for a prize in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Golden Globes in 1995 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Winners & Nominees 1995 goldenglobes.com. November 24, 2018.