To Live

To Live (1992) by novelist Yu Hua traces the struggles of Fugui and his family. Told as a story within a story, an unknown narrator encounters Fugui, who proceeds to tell the story of his life. Instead of traditional chapters, the novel is broken into sections based off whether or not it’s the narrator talking or Fugui. The narrator’s sections are italicized and much shorter than Fugui’s longer, non-italicized sections. Spanning over four decades of modern Chinese history, including the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45), the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists (1945-49), the founding of the People’s Republic (1949), the land reform era (1949-52), the Great Leap Forward (1958-62), and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-76), Fugui’s story focuses on the minutiae of life amidst an expansive historical backdrop.

Plot Summary

The novel begins with an unnamed narrator recounting the days of his youth when he traveled the countryside working as a collector of folk songs. Although little is known about the narrator, it’s clear that he is nostalgic about this time in his life, particularly because this is when he met Fugui. Throughout the course of the novel, it becomes clear that To Live is really about Fugui’s story. In this way, the narrator’s presence serves as a vehicle to hear Fugui’s story.

Fugui tells the narrator that in the days of his youth, he was rich and spoiled. While his pregnant wife and young daughter were at their countryside home, Fugui was in town spending time with sex workers and gambling. This goes on until Fugui eventually loses his family’s money. As a result, his family loses the home and farmland that have been in the family for generations. Fugui goes from living in a brick house and being the landowner to living in a shack and being a farmhand.

While in town to get medicine for his dying mother, Fugui is captured by the National Army and forced to fight for them. After being gone for several years, he returns to his family a new man. The rest of the novel is about the hardships that Fugui and his wife, son, and daughter endure while living in poverty. The hardships include starvation, illness, and class division, and each difficulty reflects China’s evolving historical landscape and its effects on the common people.

Over the course of Fugui’s life, he experiences the deaths of his father, mother, son, daughter, wife, and only grandson. By the time the narrator meets Fugui, he is an old man who has outlived everyone he has ever loved, yet he still appreciates life. His ability to persevere despite witnessing so many tragedies and setbacks demonstrates China’s own perseverance.