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Yu Hua
Author
Yu Hua was born in 1960 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China. He grew up during the Cultural Revolution and graduated from high school in 1976, the same year the Revolution ended. For five years after he turned 18, Yu worked as a dentist, a job assigned to him by the government. This didn’t stop him from submitting manuscripts to literary magazines and finally in 1983, Beijing Literature published a short piece he wrote, The First Dormitory, which essentially started off his writing career.
His Things Like Smoke and a series of other experimental short stories and novellas first earned him a name in the Chinese literary scene as a third generation writer. Yu introduced a different style of writing with his first novel, Cries in the Drizzle, and his second novel, To Live, further established his position as a writer. Film director Zhang Yumou made To Live into a movie winning the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. This sparked international interest and acclaim for Yu. Rave reviews by critics around the world for Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, published in 1996, sealed Yu’s writer status. He has since written novels, Brothers, Seventh Day, and an essay, China in Ten Words. Chronicle of a Blood Merchant was made into a movie directed by and starring Korean actor, Ha Jung-woo.
Yu Hua was awarded Italy’s Premio Grinzane Cavour in 1998. He became the first Chinese writer to win the James Joyce Foundation Award in 2002. In 2004, Yu won the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Barnes & Noble Discovery Great New Writers Award, and in 2005, the Special Book Award of China. In 2008, Yu received the Prix Courier International.
His Things Like Smoke and a series of other experimental short stories and novellas first earned him a name in the Chinese literary scene as a third generation writer. Yu introduced a different style of writing with his first novel, Cries in the Drizzle, and his second novel, To Live, further established his position as a writer. Film director Zhang Yumou made To Live into a movie winning the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival. This sparked international interest and acclaim for Yu. Rave reviews by critics around the world for Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, published in 1996, sealed Yu’s writer status. He has since written novels, Brothers, Seventh Day, and an essay, China in Ten Words. Chronicle of a Blood Merchant was made into a movie directed by and starring Korean actor, Ha Jung-woo.
Yu Hua was awarded Italy’s Premio Grinzane Cavour in 1998. He became the first Chinese writer to win the James Joyce Foundation Award in 2002. In 2004, Yu won the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and the Barnes & Noble Discovery Great New Writers Award, and in 2005, the Special Book Award of China. In 2008, Yu received the Prix Courier International.
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