Peasant Life in China

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

1295

Abstract

is depressed and does nothing with his life.Qiaozhen, a local girl, is in love with Jialin and she pursues him when he returns to the village. She helps pull him out of his depression and to recover his dreams. She would do anything to make him happy. She lives for his success, not her own. Since she has not been to school, she does not know how to read or write, but she has common sense and drive.Timing is everything. When the two lovers finally confess their love to each other, Jialin is offered a job in the city as a journalist for the party propaganda unit. Jialin’s uncle, an important official, is returning to the area and the local leader who fired Jialin is concerned that the uncle will be upset. He arranges behind the scenes for Jialin to be offered the job.The two lovers say goodbye with promises that they will be faithful to each other. Jialin throws himself into his new job and becomes successful. He is finally on the path to his dreams. He becomes reacquainted with Huang Yaping, a former girlfriend from high school who works at a radio station. They strike up their friendship and fall in love. In order to make their love public, they both need to break off their previous relationships.Jialin tell

Options

s Qiaozhen and she is devastated. Yaping breaks up with Zhang Ke’nan, her fiancee. Both families are hurt. Ke’nan’s mother takes matters into her own hands and complains to authorities that Jialin received his job fraudulently. There is an investigation and once again Jialin is fired and must return to his village and become a peasant farmer.What surprised me about the novel is how similar the lives of rural peasants are between the 1930s and the 1980s. Peasants have a very difficult time rising above their station in life. In many respects, they have little control over their lives. The leaders, whether they are bureaucrats under the emperor or the communist party, have the power to thwart their dreams of a better life.Lu Yao is the pen name of Wang Weiguo. Wang was born in December of 1949 and died, at a very young age, in November of 1992. He wrote only two novels, Life and Ordinary World. Life was made into a movie in 1984. He received the Mao Dun Literature Prize for Ordinary World.I recommend this novel to anyone who loves the work of Pearl Buck and to those who are interested in the lives of Chinese citizens in rural China.Copyright © 2020 by Harley King</article></body>

A Book Review of Life by Lu Yao

Amazon Book Cover

Reading Life, a novel by Lu Yao, I thought I was re-entering the world of Pearl Buck, except that it was China fifty years later. Life is the story of Gao Jialin, son of Gao Yude, a peasant farmer in the mountains of China. Even though the novel is set in the 1980s and the Communists have been in power for 30 years, it still feels very similar to the peasant world that Pearl Buck revealed to us in her books fifty years earlier.

As the son of a peasant farmer, Jialin has little hope for changing his future. He is destined to become a farmer like his father. Education is his only hope of escape. Jialin graduates from high school but fails to be admitted to college. He is given an opportunity to be a teacher and is able to leave his village for life in a small city.

His high hopes of moving on to better life are smashed after three years as a teacher. He is fired from his job and replaced by the son of a local leader. Returning to his home village, Jialin is depressed and does nothing with his life.

Qiaozhen, a local girl, is in love with Jialin and she pursues him when he returns to the village. She helps pull him out of his depression and to recover his dreams. She would do anything to make him happy. She lives for his success, not her own. Since she has not been to school, she does not know how to read or write, but she has common sense and drive.

Timing is everything. When the two lovers finally confess their love to each other, Jialin is offered a job in the city as a journalist for the party propaganda unit. Jialin’s uncle, an important official, is returning to the area and the local leader who fired Jialin is concerned that the uncle will be upset. He arranges behind the scenes for Jialin to be offered the job.

The two lovers say goodbye with promises that they will be faithful to each other. Jialin throws himself into his new job and becomes successful. He is finally on the path to his dreams. He becomes reacquainted with Huang Yaping, a former girlfriend from high school who works at a radio station. They strike up their friendship and fall in love. In order to make their love public, they both need to break off their previous relationships.

Jialin tells Qiaozhen and she is devastated. Yaping breaks up with Zhang Ke’nan, her fiancee. Both families are hurt. Ke’nan’s mother takes matters into her own hands and complains to authorities that Jialin received his job fraudulently. There is an investigation and once again Jialin is fired and must return to his village and become a peasant farmer.

What surprised me about the novel is how similar the lives of rural peasants are between the 1930s and the 1980s. Peasants have a very difficult time rising above their station in life. In many respects, they have little control over their lives. The leaders, whether they are bureaucrats under the emperor or the communist party, have the power to thwart their dreams of a better life.

Lu Yao is the pen name of Wang Weiguo. Wang was born in December of 1949 and died, at a very young age, in November of 1992. He wrote only two novels, Life and Ordinary World. Life was made into a movie in 1984. He received the Mao Dun Literature Prize for Ordinary World.

I recommend this novel to anyone who loves the work of Pearl Buck and to those who are interested in the lives of Chinese citizens in rural China.