China Book Club: 'Life' by Lu Yao

During his sadly short life, Lu Yao became a literary sensation due to his novels that captured the zeitgeist of a rapidly urbanising China. In a country used to vague and verbose writing (often in the form of political propaganda), Lu’s stripped-down and lyrical prose made him nationally popular by his mid-30s.

The characters in his award-winning debut novella Life published in 1982, just six years after the end of The Cultural Revolution, represented different facets of the new China. This dark and fatalistic story captured the struggles and aspirations of a nation whose people were now encouraged to ‘jump into the sea’ of entrepreneurship.

The plot centres on Gao Jialin who, due to political manoeuvring above his station, loses his job in education and is forced to become a labourer, rendering him unable to apply all his hard-won bookish knowledge. Under a government that has recently ceased to crush its people’s entrepreneurial genius, the aspirational Gao manages to escape to the city and a higher status in society.

He is subsequently torn between two women. There is the sweet unintellectual provincial Liu Qiaozhen, whose beauty and devotion captivate Gao in early life. And there is the elegant and well-spoken Huang Yaping, who has committed to marry another man.