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City of Fiction
In the early 20th century, China is a land undergoing a momentous social and cultural shift, with a thousand-year-old empire crumbling and the nation on the brink of modernity. Against this backdrop, a quiet man from the North embarks on a perilous journey to a Southern city in the grip of a savage snowstorm. He carries with him a newborn he is looking for the child's mother and a city that isn't there.
This is a story of two a man who finds unexpected success after having journeyed to the hometown of the woman who abandoned him; and the woman he is searching for, who mysteriously disappeared to embark on her own eventful journey. This is a story about vanished crafts and ancient customs, about violence, love, and friendship. Above all, it's a story about change and about storytelling itself, full of vivid characters and surprising twists—an epic tale, as inexorable as time itself and as gripping as a classic adventure story.
This is a story of two a man who finds unexpected success after having journeyed to the hometown of the woman who abandoned him; and the woman he is searching for, who mysteriously disappeared to embark on her own eventful journey. This is a story about vanished crafts and ancient customs, about violence, love, and friendship. Above all, it's a story about change and about storytelling itself, full of vivid characters and surprising twists—an epic tale, as inexorable as time itself and as gripping as a classic adventure story.
432 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2021
71 people are currently reading
1564 people want to read
About the author
Yu Hua
124 books1,275 followersYu Hua (simplified Chinese: 余华; traditional Chinese: 余華; pinyin: Yú Huá) is a Chinese author, born April 3, 1960 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. He practiced dentistry for five years and later turned to fiction writing in 1983 because he didn't like "looking into people’s mouths the whole day." Writing allowed him to be more creative and flexible.[citation needed] He grew up during the Cultural Revolution and many of his stories and novels are marked by this experience. One of the distinctive characteristics of his work is his penchant for detailed descriptions of brutal violence.
Yu Hua has written four novels, six collections of stories, and three collections of essays. His most important novels are Chronicle of a Blood Merchant and To Live. The latter novel was adapted for film by Zhang Yimou. Because the film was banned in China, it instantly made the novel a bestseller and Yu Hua a worldwide celebrity. His novels have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Persian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, Hungarian, Serbian, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Malayalam and Turkish.
(from Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Hua_...
Yu Hua has written four novels, six collections of stories, and three collections of essays. His most important novels are Chronicle of a Blood Merchant and To Live. The latter novel was adapted for film by Zhang Yimou. Because the film was banned in China, it instantly made the novel a bestseller and Yu Hua a worldwide celebrity. His novels have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Persian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, Hungarian, Serbian, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Malayalam and Turkish.
(from Wikipedia)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Hua_...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
April 14, 2024
Niezwykle rozbudowana i zawiła książka. Pod względem literackim ma w sobie coś intrygującego, ponieważ czułam, że cała historia wręcz mnie przesiąka, a wcale nie byłam fanką fabuły. Ciekawe doświadczenie czytelnicze, na pewno jeśli chodzi o literaturę chińską jest to pozytywne zaskoczenie.
March 28, 2026
‘—spring flowers were in bloom—in the bloom of her life, and though it was fleeting, she was still in it—she went to burn incense at the Guan Yu temple—under the moonlight—like a peaceful orchid.’
The end was so fucking ‘tragic’ (in a way that is arguably fucking ‘funny’ for reasons I can’t ‘say’ without spoiling it for readers who haven’t read the book). So well-written, I couldn’t stop reading the last quarter of it (as in no pauses/distractions) —committed until the end (to reiterate, it’s just too ‘funny’ (but in a darkly humorous way, not at all otherwise). Like did one of the characters who decided to ‘commit’ to the ‘wrong’ one just because they felt ‘obligated’ to? Like what is it (Guilt? Habitual ‘love’? Steadfastly stuck on ‘traditions’? Something to do with ‘filial piety’ (even if by proxy/distant relation)?), I don’t ‘get’ it, but I also ‘get’ why I don’t ‘get’ it. And I also love that and feel grateful that I don’t ‘get’ it). But judging simply from Yu Hua’s essays/essay collections, this was a deliberate choice — as in he probably wanted his readers to ‘question’ this, and to be disconcerted/shakened by this.
‘Twenty “eight immortals” tables were set up with eight seats each, and dozens of charcoal braziers were placed around the perimeter of the hall, aglow with deep red flames—Dozens of jugs of alcohol were lined up, containing dozens of southern wines and liquors, all with varying hues, aromas, and flavors. There was yellow rice wine from Shaoxing; “fortune and faith” from Hangzhou; “three whites” from Songjiang; “red pal” from Yixing; quince wine from Yangzhou; “hundred flowers” from Zhenjiang; xiaruo from Tiaoxi; lahuang from Huai’an; pujiu from Pukou; xunjiu from Zhexi; sharendou from Suqian; and wujiapi from Gaoyou.’
‘As they went down the creaking steps, the strong smell of fish once again assaulted Lin Xiangfu’s nostrils. He asked if her husband was a seafood trader, and she said yes, he had gone to Suzhou. Then he asked if his business as a seafood trader wasn’t enough to support her, that she still had to do this sort of work? She said he was addicted to opium, and he could barely support himself with the money he made.’
‘People—sprouted up like bamboo shoots after a spring rain—he never expected they would come to sign up. When the forest is big, you get all kinds of birds—there were the wealthy sons of elite families alongside homeless beggars, respectable young men alongside bullies and thugs—residents who had been kidnapped by the bandits—showed up to join—a mix of northern and southern accents—reached the Guanyin temple—When they wrote down their names at the ‘eight immortals’ table, they saw that there were already—names in front of theirs—‘Here, some things my mother made you—to eat on the road.’—Take good fucking care of yourself—we’ll meet again some day.’
‘The soy sauce seller Li Zhanggui knew it was difficult to maintain his balance while standing—if he let up his vigilance for even a moment his body would start leaning—the fried dough-stick seller Chen San would fry his dough-sticks while adjusting his position according to the wind, standing so that the winter wind blew against his right side and acted as a cane—One day he walked up to his door and, in front of a crowd of people, angrily pointed his finger at Mr. Zhang and said, ‘You take advantage of others’ misfortune.’’
‘Put out the order to all—that no one is permitted to disturb the townsfolk—any looting, pillaging, or raping will be punishable by immediate execution—Unable to find any women, they could only pass the time by lying around smoking opium—in the middle of the night and knocked on the doors—until they found a passably attractive young woman. He crawled on top of her trembling body—He said to the guards, ‘I clearly ordered you to shoot him in the heart, and you shoot his belly instead.’’
‘There’s just one point I’d like to emphasise: if you discover there’s been a mistake, don’t say anything and just go with it—no matter whose family the hostage is from, just bring them back. If we can get all the hostages back safely, even if everyone brings back the wrong one, we’ll have the right outcome.’
In any case, without spoiling anything I think I’m able to love this so much because (other than the fact that the setting/descriptions being so spectacular (also, the historical references/context is interesting (to me anyway); and also the fact that it’s structured/composed so well; and also the English translation was satisfying enough (I feel anyway, I read it alongside a copy of the ‘original’ text) — how shall I say this (without spoiling anything) — perhaps instead of ‘saying’ what I wanted to say which might feel like too much of a ‘spoiler’, I’ll just say this — ‘Lin Xiangfu’ is undoubtedly my favourite character out of them all.
His commitment and patience rooted from a quiet, unostentatious but deep form of ‘love(s)’ to regenerate dilapidated, impoverished fields/land (by his own hands, physically farming/turning them into fertile, sustainable ones) was kind of fucking ‘hot’ (and how other than farming, he loves ‘woodworking’ like how the fuck does he even does that, where does the ‘energy’ come from? Because other than that he also (mostly) single-handedly took care of and ‘raised’ a child; besides all that, he’s described as being extremely well-read, reads almost obsessively. Wild. He’s the only character in the book that I feel like — if he lived a ‘good’ life, he fucking deserves every minute of it. Not to say I didn’t think the others didn’t deserve ‘better’, but it’s like — it almost feels like (to me) some of them were stubbornly swimming against the tides (and the ‘tides’ being ‘better’ fates/lives or whatever). And by ‘the others’, I specifically mean one of them, but it would be spoiling too much to refer to them by their given ‘name’ and anything else in relation to them.
‘He had looked like a clumsy bear—Everyone had a hard time believing that—his accent indicated he was from much farther north. He was unwilling to say where he’d come from, and unwilling to divulge his background. Unlike the men, the women—were most interested in the baby’s mother. But when they inquired about her, Lin Xiangfu’s face would blanch, as blank as the snow covering the town, and his lips would close and remain shut. This was their first impression of Lin Xiangfu—a man covered in snow, face obscured by his hair and beard, humble as a drooping willow bough and silent as the fields.’
‘‘This fate was determined in a previous life.’’
‘The—woman asked his name and which family he came from—he replied that his name was Chen—of the woodworking shop—She proceeded to boil two eggs for him—After that he drank down a bowl of rice porridge, and the sound of his gulping was like throwing rocks into a well. When she told him the fire was too big, he would quickly grab some ashes and throw them on to tamp down the dancing flames; when she said it was too small, he would grab the blower pipe and blow until the flames were leaping high and filling the stove. Every time she was done cooking and the flames gradually died out, she would give him a sweet potato to bury in the hot coals.’
‘By the Jing’an temple, they saw a trolley car. It rumbled toward them, then sounded its bell and slowly came to a stop. Some people got off and others got on; then the bell sounded and the trolley car continued rumbling forward—some people walking by say in Shanghainese that they were going to take the electric trolley—Hunger always had a way of conquering—cowardice.’
‘From that, she had gotten an impression of Shanghai as a place so big you could never find where it ended; it had lots of tall buildings, lots of people, and lots of foreigners—the customers inside all had a wealthy, extravagant appearance, wearing either suits and leather shoes, or changshans and qipaos.’
‘They lingered for a long time in the International Settlement. The imposing buildings appearing before their eyes would often stop them in their tracks—they ate some pear candies. They watched the candy seller as he stood on a stool, holding a gong in his left hand and a stick in his right—he would bang the gong as he told vulgar, rapid-fire jokes, while the people surrounding him would burst into raucous laughter.’
‘The speech of this young woman was a mixture of Shanghainese and English—She had—lit a cigarette—said that the foreigner wanted to take him to have a look at his office. She would wait there for him to return—There was only one dim kerosene lamp lighting the hull of the ship, allowing Gu to see that most of the people seated around him were dressed in rags. After talking with them, he learned that he had been sold to work as a laborer in Australia—But no amount of shouting or crying could change his fate. He was to be forced into labor in the Australian mines, without enough clothing to cover his body or food to fill his belly.’
‘Sitting amongst the sacks of soybeans—It was their blood that now saved him, his face blending in with the—scene in the water. Remember the depth of your hatred. Defend the city wall to the death—no matter what, you can’t let them in—‘My whole life—being yours has been the greatest honor I could hope for in three lifetimes, and I can die with no regrets.’’
“Why do we need to tie them up?” asked Chen Yaowu. “Just kill those two disgusting bandits and be done with it.”
“Absolutely not,” said Chen Yongliang, shaking his head. “We save people; we don’t kill them.”
Aside from all that, I also really liked the ‘woodworking’ (more than just simple carpentry? I don't know if this 'symbolise' something/more, but even just as it is described so beautifully in the text is itself a brilliant 'wonder'/marvel of its own) bits, I thought that was really interesting and well-incorporated into the narrative. This is (I think) my second Yu Hua (but I read the other one years ago and don’t remember much of it at all), and/but definitely not the last. Needless to say, I’m immensely impressed with this one — and can only imagine how difficult it must have been to ‘write’ this (multi-layered, impressively complex) novel/book. It’s obviously so meticulously done/crafted (or at least it seems that way to me). It’s a full five stars from me (rounded off, regardless).
‘Is there a temple nearby? She wanted to go burn some incense and ask the bodhisattva Guanyin—the sky was ablaze with the setting sun, and he said there was a temple to Guan Yu fifteen li in that direction—It was as if she could see Lin Xiangfu holding her baby, enduring untold hardships over a thousand li to come find her. Her newborn daughter had come to her, wandering through wind, rain, and blistering sun—They were right beside one another—so close, separated only by a tiny distance.’
‘Wencheng meant that Lin Xiangfu—would never stop wandering and searching—The further Lin Xiangfu went the further away he got. Continuing south, he no longer asked about Wencheng. He realised that the Wencheng that they had mentioned was made up—no one knew where it was—As his body moved forward, his mind would move backward—the further he went from Xizhen, the clearer Xizhen appeared in his heart—he suddenly found he was able to understand many things he had heard in the Xizhen dialect.’
‘When green buds burst forth from the frozen scars of the trees, Lin Xiangfu put down his own roots in town.’
May 28, 2024
Che dire, io ho amato questo romanzo dall’inizio alla fine. È avvincente, pieno di storia e di sentimento. Questo romanzo offre uno spaccato degli inizi del Novecento in Cina, che guarda sì alla modernità, ma si sofferma sopratutto sulla vita dei centri rurali lontano dalle grandi città. Il periodo crudo e cupo delle lotte intestine e del feroce e disumano brigantaggio, viene accostato alla vita tranquilla e pacifica dei villaggi e delle piccole città, dove tutti si conoscono e tutti si sorridono per strada. La storia si incentra sul viaggio intrapreso dal protagonista con la sua bambina per amore, un viaggio volto a ritrovare una sposa e una madre, e abbraccia nel frattempo tutte le sfumature di cui l’animo umano si può colorare affrontando gioie e difficoltà. È una storia che parla della vita, del suo procedere inesorabile a prescindere dalle nostre scelte, è una storia che parla dei rapporti umani, di quanto possono essere duri e allo stesso tempo fragili, di come l’amore ci spinge oltre i nostri limiti. Nel corso del racconto, intorno al protagonista si srotolano le vicende di tutti quelli che incontra e con cui stringe rapporti, ognuno con la propria storia, ognuno al centro della propria vita. Il racconto, caratterizzato da una scrittura realista e profondamente descrittiva, trasporta il lettore in ogni ambientazione come se la stesse vivendo leggendola. Mi sono arrabbiata leggendolo, poi ho pianto, mi sono ritrovata a sorridere, e poi a provare sgomento. Questa è una delle più grandi caratteristiche di Yu Hua, che io personalmente ho amato da sempre in tutte le sue opere: il saper raccontare con estrema sincerità la realtà, anche quando è cruda e fa soffrire, ma riuscendo comunque a farci commuovere davanti a questa durezza, mostrandoci la bellezza che alberga ovunque se si sa guardare con attenzione. Vi consiglio dal profondo del cuore di leggerlo, e di darvi la possibilità di rivivere una storia che sembra tanto lontana da noi, ma che alla fine potrebbe essere la storia di chiunque, a prescindere dal tempo e dallo spazio. - What can I say, I loved this novel from start to finish. It's gripping, full of history and feeling. This novel offers a glimpse of the beginning of the twentieth century in China, which indeed looks to modernity, but focuses above all on the life of rural centers far from the big cities. The crude and dark period of internal strife and ferocious and inhuman brigandage is compared to the quiet and peaceful life of villages and small towns, where everyone knows each other and everyone smiles at each other in the street. The story focuses on the journey undertaken by the protagonist with his little girl for love, a journey aimed at finding a wife and a mother, and in the meantime embraces all the nuances that the human soul can be colored by when facing joys and difficulties. It is a story that talks about life, its inexorable progress regardless of our choices, it is a story that talks about human relationships, how hard and at the same time fragile they can be, how love pushes us beyond our limits. Over the course of the story, the stories of everyone he meets and with whom he forms relationships unfold around the protagonist, each with their own story, each at the center of their own life. The story, characterized by realistic and deeply descriptive writing, transports the reader to each setting as if he were experiencing it by reading it. I got angry reading it, then I cried, I found myself smiling, and then feeling dismayed. This is one of the greatest characteristics of Yu Hua, which I personally have always loved in all his works: knowing how to tell reality with extreme sincerity, even when it is raw and painful, but still managing to make us move in front of this hardness, showing us the beauty that dwells everywhere if you know how to look carefully. I recommend you from the bottom of my heart to read it, and to give yourself the chance to relive a story that seems so far away from us, but which in the end could be anyone's story, regardless of time and space.
August 1, 2022
《活着》好像是余华偶然的成功作，《文城》虽然讲述的是差不多时代的另一系列故事，但其内容没有思想，没有分量。《活着》看完像是一块石头落在心上，慢慢被时间冲击才得以消化，是一部耐人回味的好作品。《文成》像是吹起一把散沙的微风，书合了风也就散了，没有分量，没有痕迹，也没有任何打动人的地方。无厘头的故事，最后还带个越描越黑的后序，无用地形容一个无关紧要人物还有她无关紧要的经历。很多时候总觉得故事要到转折点，事情头绪总是被故事情形的转变草草了解或拿出一笔钱财来化解，情节的悬念也一笔勾销了。我可能不会再看余华的其他作品，让一本好书成为一本好书，不与作者有关联罢了。
HuoZhe seems to be an accidental success of YuHua. Even though this book, WenCheng, seems to be another story set during a similar time, the narrative lacked thought and substance. The story of HuoZhe rests on your mind like a stone, the lapping of time is the only thing slowly eroding and digesting the story. WenCheng is like a breeze that stirs up a handful of sand. The puff of wind dissipates when you close the book, leaving no trace or impression, and evokes no thoughts or feelings. The story is absurd, and part two is a weird addendum telling the inconsequential side of the story from the perspective of an inconsequential character. A lot of times in the story you feel the tension build up, only to be relieved by a set of serendipitous circumstances or solved with money, dissolving any sense of plot consequence. I'm probably never going to read another book by YuHua. Let HuoZhe remain a good standalone work in my mind, without any association to the author or tainted by his other writing.
HuoZhe seems to be an accidental success of YuHua. Even though this book, WenCheng, seems to be another story set during a similar time, the narrative lacked thought and substance. The story of HuoZhe rests on your mind like a stone, the lapping of time is the only thing slowly eroding and digesting the story. WenCheng is like a breeze that stirs up a handful of sand. The puff of wind dissipates when you close the book, leaving no trace or impression, and evokes no thoughts or feelings. The story is absurd, and part two is a weird addendum telling the inconsequential side of the story from the perspective of an inconsequential character. A lot of times in the story you feel the tension build up, only to be relieved by a set of serendipitous circumstances or solved with money, dissolving any sense of plot consequence. I'm probably never going to read another book by YuHua. Let HuoZhe remain a good standalone work in my mind, without any association to the author or tainted by his other writing.
July 11, 2025
How to condense such a thick book into this one review? As thick as this book is, I was very invested in the story, on these endearing characters in a city of fiction. A city called Xizhen, amidst the harrowing attacks from bandits, wars and rebellions, this city stands on its ground with their citizens. Yu Hua crafted a sweeping tale of a man, oprhaned since small, with a penchant for woodworking. Lin Xiangfu was a rich young master, respected in his hometown and worked to help and retain his wealth by harvest & invest in golds. Matchmakers tried to find a partner for him to continue the household's legacy but a missed opportunity for an engagement with a beautiful noble lady, there came an unexpected visit from a pair of brother & sister, Aqiang & XiaoMei. Aqiang went away to find their parents and Xiaomei ended up living in Lin Xiangfu's house & soon married him bearin his child. When one day, Xiaomei disappeared for the 2nd time leaving the young baby girl & her husband, Xiangfu determined to find the woman he loved. Thus, he sets off in a journey moving from one town to another, finally arriving at Xizhen and stayed for more than ten years building his life with his daughter, Lin Baijia
This is a story of perseverance, on love & loss, there were dark humors and sort of classical tales narrative to it as we are mostly reading on the events that happened revolving Lin Xiangfu and this city Xizhen. With epic, sweeping tale of the adventure, plights, suffering and hilarious tales of their situation, it was both enjoyable and devastating at times. I was caught up in the violence of the hostages scenes as the tortures were very brutal but this was written in such dark humor way, you are unable to decipher whether to laugh on absurdity or saddened by the tragedy. Rather than character driven, this story is more of plot driven as we see the evolved ways of relationship & trust formed between Lin Xiangfu & Chen Yongliang then Gu Yimin as the governor of the city. The second half focused on POV from Xiaomei herself & what drove her to go the way she did
As much I was engrossed in this story, there were things that I found very distressing particularly on the scenes of prostitutes being ravaged by the group of armies & how their bodies were treated like a place for lust & satisfaction till they were barely alive. The one on the young boys with weird fetish for doing it with up to 4 women at the same time turned me off & I wonder whats the purpose of putting them into a story, only for the fact to shock the readers.
Thank you Times Reads for the review copy
This is a story of perseverance, on love & loss, there were dark humors and sort of classical tales narrative to it as we are mostly reading on the events that happened revolving Lin Xiangfu and this city Xizhen. With epic, sweeping tale of the adventure, plights, suffering and hilarious tales of their situation, it was both enjoyable and devastating at times. I was caught up in the violence of the hostages scenes as the tortures were very brutal but this was written in such dark humor way, you are unable to decipher whether to laugh on absurdity or saddened by the tragedy. Rather than character driven, this story is more of plot driven as we see the evolved ways of relationship & trust formed between Lin Xiangfu & Chen Yongliang then Gu Yimin as the governor of the city. The second half focused on POV from Xiaomei herself & what drove her to go the way she did
As much I was engrossed in this story, there were things that I found very distressing particularly on the scenes of prostitutes being ravaged by the group of armies & how their bodies were treated like a place for lust & satisfaction till they were barely alive. The one on the young boys with weird fetish for doing it with up to 4 women at the same time turned me off & I wonder whats the purpose of putting them into a story, only for the fact to shock the readers.
Thank you Times Reads for the review copy
August 13, 2025
A breathtaking book about rural China at the turn of the 20th century, which offers a peak into how life was back then. The beautiful yet simplistic writing style reflects the livelihood of the characters, who are gouverned by tradition, custom, religion and hard work, as well as by love and devotion. I really enjoyed the story, and the ending was beautiful as it tied everything together.
Still, I do wonder why the book describes at length woodworking customs and other habits, while food and cooking are only scarcely mentioned? The names of various dishes are but briefly mentioned in passing, before the characters quickly gulp them down and move on. On the contrary, the book “Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee, (which to me is similar to “City of fiction” as it also follows a family from the beginning of the 20th of century and across many decades - albeit it takes place in Korea and Japan) describes at length how the women prepare food - why is it not the case here? Of course, this could be due to a different attitude in Korean and Chinese cultures towards the ritual of preparing food and eating (which, as a lowly European, I am not schooled enough about). But I can’t help but wonder - as this book is written by a man, and the other by a woman - is this not a case of patriarchal bias from Yu Hua’s side? Is that not why he spends so many words on “manly” customs such as woodworking, and only a few on the tasks that were back then reserved for women?
Still, I do wonder why the book describes at length woodworking customs and other habits, while food and cooking are only scarcely mentioned? The names of various dishes are but briefly mentioned in passing, before the characters quickly gulp them down and move on. On the contrary, the book “Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee, (which to me is similar to “City of fiction” as it also follows a family from the beginning of the 20th of century and across many decades - albeit it takes place in Korea and Japan) describes at length how the women prepare food - why is it not the case here? Of course, this could be due to a different attitude in Korean and Chinese cultures towards the ritual of preparing food and eating (which, as a lowly European, I am not schooled enough about). But I can’t help but wonder - as this book is written by a man, and the other by a woman - is this not a case of patriarchal bias from Yu Hua’s side? Is that not why he spends so many words on “manly” customs such as woodworking, and only a few on the tasks that were back then reserved for women?
July 3, 2025
This is a book that reminded me exactly why I love historical and literary fiction as a whole, it’s that relatability to realistic human characters wrapped in easy to navigate language and story-telling.
The book reminded me a lot of East of Eden, especially Lin Xiangfu’s character and how similar it was to Adam’s, both being sincere people who loved fully and trusted wholly. At times, Lin Xiangfu was so heartbreakingly naïve in his loving trust and forgiveness. And despite the troubles he endured heartache, I would say he was compensated in his found family. Some of the human relations portrayed in this book were so beautiful that they made up for some of the tragedy, loss, and gore.
The writing-style at times felt very detached, especially when recounting some particularly gory scenes. Reading some passages, I completely blacked out and had to reread to be able to absorb what was happening on the page. There wasn’t much to the plot, but I didn’t mind that much.
The book reminded me a lot of East of Eden, especially Lin Xiangfu’s character and how similar it was to Adam’s, both being sincere people who loved fully and trusted wholly. At times, Lin Xiangfu was so heartbreakingly naïve in his loving trust and forgiveness. And despite the troubles he endured heartache, I would say he was compensated in his found family. Some of the human relations portrayed in this book were so beautiful that they made up for some of the tragedy, loss, and gore.
The writing-style at times felt very detached, especially when recounting some particularly gory scenes. Reading some passages, I completely blacked out and had to reread to be able to absorb what was happening on the page. There wasn’t much to the plot, but I didn’t mind that much.
August 8, 2025
I must confess this was my first time reading this author, so I didn’t really know what to expect. But when I saw City of Fiction in a bookstore in Brussels, I knew I had to read it. Set at the end of the Qing dynasty, in the early 20th century, it portrays a chaotic and violent time in Chinese history—full of bandits, armies, death, robbery and suffering.
What struck me most was how vividly the author brings that era to life. The novel is detailed, sometimes uncomfortable, but deeply immersive. I loved how it's told in two parts, each offering a different perspective on the same events. Over the course of several decades, I grew very attached to the characters and even wished the story had gone on longer.
It’s a beautifully written (or rather, translated) book, and my only regret is that is not available in Spanish, so I can't recommend it to my dad 😢.
What struck me most was how vividly the author brings that era to life. The novel is detailed, sometimes uncomfortable, but deeply immersive. I loved how it's told in two parts, each offering a different perspective on the same events. Over the course of several decades, I grew very attached to the characters and even wished the story had gone on longer.
It’s a beautifully written (or rather, translated) book, and my only regret is that is not available in Spanish, so I can't recommend it to my dad 😢.
June 22, 2024
4.5/5 ⭐️
January 7, 2026
NGL I thought this was going to be like Italo Calvino but it ended up being more like Pachinko. It's heavy, dense, and set in the past, so it did get bleak at some points (lots of trigger warnings), but I couldn't put it down. There's no big mystery driving the plot forward but a smaller, more ordinary one, the kind of ache that comes with not knowing how someone you used to love is doing because you have parted ways.
One day, a man and a woman claiming to be siblings appear at Lin Xiangfu's house, saying they come from Wencheng. After the man leaves, Lin Xiangfu takes the woman, Xiaomei, as his wife. She leaves one day, returns to give birth to their daughter, then leaves again. Lin Xiangfu goes searching for her in the city of Wencheng, but he soon finds out that it is not a real place. Likewise, Xiaomei is not his real wife but only the idea of one. Although separated by time and circumstance, they both end up spending their lives yearning for something that cannot be. The fact of their daughter unsettles them both—for him, she's his reason to keep chasing after the fantasy of a reunion with the 'perfect' woman; for her, a symbol of comfortable, conventional domesticity that she gave up for her first love.
Maybe it's the lyricism of the translation, but I felt that the brutality of the more violent scenes was conveyed just right, neither too action movie-like nor too flat. There is historicising, especially in the many explanations of the customs (some of them are so weird or misogynistic that I was appalled), but no heroising. The characters don't defy death or physics and I enjoyed how real they felt, these ordinary men doing their best by themselves and each other. It was touching in an understated way.
One day, a man and a woman claiming to be siblings appear at Lin Xiangfu's house, saying they come from Wencheng. After the man leaves, Lin Xiangfu takes the woman, Xiaomei, as his wife. She leaves one day, returns to give birth to their daughter, then leaves again. Lin Xiangfu goes searching for her in the city of Wencheng, but he soon finds out that it is not a real place. Likewise, Xiaomei is not his real wife but only the idea of one. Although separated by time and circumstance, they both end up spending their lives yearning for something that cannot be. The fact of their daughter unsettles them both—for him, she's his reason to keep chasing after the fantasy of a reunion with the 'perfect' woman; for her, a symbol of comfortable, conventional domesticity that she gave up for her first love.
Maybe it's the lyricism of the translation, but I felt that the brutality of the more violent scenes was conveyed just right, neither too action movie-like nor too flat. There is historicising, especially in the many explanations of the customs (some of them are so weird or misogynistic that I was appalled), but no heroising. The characters don't defy death or physics and I enjoyed how real they felt, these ordinary men doing their best by themselves and each other. It was touching in an understated way.
October 5, 2025
3.5
Lin Xiangfu is a highly skilled and respected woodworker living alone in northern China, grieving his mother's death when a couple arrive at his door - Aqiang and Xiaomei, who claim to be siblings and ask for shelter during their travels. Soon, Aqiang leaves and Xiaomei remains with Lin Xiangfu, eventually bearing him a child before disappearing.
We follow Lin Xiangfu as he travels and settles in southern China where he believes Xiaomei is from, travelling with his infant daughter and settling in, searching for the child's mother while running his woodworking business.
I found the premise really interesting, and the translation was very good. A large part of the book (the middle) is about a group of bandits who come to their town to abduct people for a ransom, and I found that plotline less interesting, and hard to stomach at times - the book contains a lot of graphic violence, murder, torture, rape, etc. The last part of the book is about Xiaomei and I found that part really well written and moving.
Free ARC sent by Netgalley.
Lin Xiangfu is a highly skilled and respected woodworker living alone in northern China, grieving his mother's death when a couple arrive at his door - Aqiang and Xiaomei, who claim to be siblings and ask for shelter during their travels. Soon, Aqiang leaves and Xiaomei remains with Lin Xiangfu, eventually bearing him a child before disappearing.
We follow Lin Xiangfu as he travels and settles in southern China where he believes Xiaomei is from, travelling with his infant daughter and settling in, searching for the child's mother while running his woodworking business.
I found the premise really interesting, and the translation was very good. A large part of the book (the middle) is about a group of bandits who come to their town to abduct people for a ransom, and I found that plotline less interesting, and hard to stomach at times - the book contains a lot of graphic violence, murder, torture, rape, etc. The last part of the book is about Xiaomei and I found that part really well written and moving.
Free ARC sent by Netgalley.
April 11, 2025
Finirlo 10 minuti prima di entrare in turno al lavoro: non una brilliante idea.
December 16, 2024
Nie wiem, co i jak zaskoczyło po prawie 200 stronach, ale od połowy czyta się to jak raźną przygodówkę, która przy okazji pokazuje, jak duże postępy zrobił Yu Hua w pokazywaniu świata przedstawionego – tu jest wielki i otwarty, nawet gdy wciąż pisany prostym stylem.
April 28, 2025
Yu Hua’s City of Fiction is a remarkable feat — a novel that reads like a living memory, shaped as much by yearning and heartbreak as by history and myth. Set in early 20th-century China — an empire in decay, a nation on the cusp of modernity — it follows a quiet northern man, Lin Xiangfu, who journeys south during a brutal snowstorm, carrying a newborn and chasing the ghost of a city that might not even exist.
In the hands of a lesser writer, this could have been a simple tale of survival. But in Yu Hua’s world, the real landscape isn’t the battered villages or the forgotten cities — it’s the shifting, unreliable terrain of human emotion: hope, grief, betrayal, and resilience.
Yu Hua, known for acclaimed works like To Live and China in Ten Words, once again proves himself a master of blending personal tragedy with broader social upheaval. In City of Fiction, however, he experiments even further — leaning into a dreamlike, almost fable-like storytelling that feels both familiar and disorienting.
Plot Overview: The Story of Loss Disguised as a Story of Seeking
At its core, City of Fiction is a deceptively simple story:
- Lin Xiangfu, a widowed woodworker from the north, arrives in a southern town seeking a woman who abandoned him, with a child in tow.
- He builds a new life, finding brief joy with Xiaomei, a mysterious young woman who brings warmth and domesticity back to his barren world.
- But the happiness is fleeting; betrayal, loss, and the harsh realities of survival soon erode the fragile world he tries to construct.
Unlike traditional historical fiction, Yu Hua is less interested in political events and more invested in how ordinary lives are swept away by forces they can neither understand nor control.
Through Lin’s quest, Yu Hua paints a ghost story without ghosts, a romance without lasting love, and a hero’s journey where the destination is absence.
Main Character Analysis: Lin Xiangfu and the Portrait of a Dispossessed Man
Lin Xiangfu is a quietly devastating character — one of Yu Hua’s finest creations.
- Resilient but passive: Lin adapts to crushing loneliness and betrayal, yet rarely asserts his own desires or confronts those who wrong him.
- Deeply human: His naivety and hope are painfully relatable. When he loves, he loves completely; when he trusts, he trusts blindly.
- Shaped by memory and obligation: Haunted by the deaths of his parents, Lin clings to the rituals and traditions they taught him, even when the world around him makes them irrelevant.
Yu Hua sketches Lin not as a traditional tragic hero, but as something more fragile and realistic: an everyman swallowed by forces larger than himself, surviving not because he triumphs, but because he endures.
"Even if you have all the money in the world," his mother once told him, "it's not as good as having a skill."
This single line perfectly captures Lin’s — and the novel’s — emotional core.
Yu Hua’s Writing Style: Simplicity with Devastating Underpinnings
In City of Fiction, Yu Hua’s prose (beautifully translated by Todd Foley) is:
- Spare yet luminous: Sentences are short and straightforward, but they ripple with emotional weight.
- Dreamlike structure: Events often feel suspended in time, blending realism with mythic undertones.
- Deeply sensory: Smells, textures, and sounds (especially weaving, footsteps, and storms) saturate the text.
Despite the profound sadness threading the novel, Yu Hua’s tone remains remarkably restrained. He trusts the reader to feel the weight without being told, a signature trait shared with To Live and even the nonfiction essays of China in Ten Words.
Todd Foley’s translation deserves praise: it preserves Yu Hua’s delicate balance of sorrow and lyricism, allowing English-speaking readers to experience the novel’s quiet devastation without a single note feeling false.
Themes: Storytelling, Survival, and the Vanishing of Traditions
Yu Hua weaves multiple themes with astonishing subtlety:
1. The Fragility of Human Bonds
Lin’s relationship with Xiaomei is touching but ultimately hollow — a survival instinct mistaken for love. Trust becomes a currency as precious — and as fragile — as gold.
2. The Collapse of Traditions
Lin clings to rituals — saving gold, weaving, farming — but the world around him has moved on. His inherited customs are like fading echoes in a world of brutal modern realities.
3. Storytelling as Survival
The entire novel feels like a tapestry of half-remembered tales: some true, some invented, all essential. Storytelling is the only way Lin — and perhaps all of us — make sense of loss and chaos.
Yu Hua doesn’t just tell a story; he shows why we must keep telling stories, even when they betray us.
Strengths of City of Fiction
- Elegant simplicity: The writing carries profound emotional depth without ever feeling overwrought.
- Evocative atmosphere: Snowstorms, ruined villages, the sharp clang of wooden clogs — these details are almost cinematic in their vividness.
- Deep empathy: Even minor characters are drawn with sympathy and complexity, no matter how flawed they are.
Critiques and Limitations
While City of Fiction is an extraordinary achievement, it’s not without minor faults:
- Occasional narrative distance: Some readers might find the emotional detachment frustrating, particularly compared to Yu Hua’s more visceral novels like To Live.
- Pacing issues: Midway through, the story risks feeling repetitive, especially during Lin’s slow realization of betrayal.
- Minimal plot progression: Those seeking high drama or conventional historical fiction beats might find the story too subdued or meandering.
However, these are deliberate stylistic choices — fitting for a novel about futility, change, and forgotten dreams.
Final Verdict: A Quiet Masterpiece of Endurance and Loss
City of Fiction is not a novel that shouts. It mourns, it remembers, it dreams.
It’s a book that invites readers to sit with it — to feel the slow ache of memory, the bitter taste of trust misplaced, the faint warmth of stories told on cold nights.
If you seek a literary journey that honors the heartbreak of ordinary lives, City of Fiction is a destination worth reaching — even if, like Lin Xiangfu’s quest, it leaves you wondering whether the city was ever there at all.
In the hands of a lesser writer, this could have been a simple tale of survival. But in Yu Hua’s world, the real landscape isn’t the battered villages or the forgotten cities — it’s the shifting, unreliable terrain of human emotion: hope, grief, betrayal, and resilience.
Yu Hua, known for acclaimed works like To Live and China in Ten Words, once again proves himself a master of blending personal tragedy with broader social upheaval. In City of Fiction, however, he experiments even further — leaning into a dreamlike, almost fable-like storytelling that feels both familiar and disorienting.
Plot Overview: The Story of Loss Disguised as a Story of Seeking
At its core, City of Fiction is a deceptively simple story:
- Lin Xiangfu, a widowed woodworker from the north, arrives in a southern town seeking a woman who abandoned him, with a child in tow.
- He builds a new life, finding brief joy with Xiaomei, a mysterious young woman who brings warmth and domesticity back to his barren world.
- But the happiness is fleeting; betrayal, loss, and the harsh realities of survival soon erode the fragile world he tries to construct.
Unlike traditional historical fiction, Yu Hua is less interested in political events and more invested in how ordinary lives are swept away by forces they can neither understand nor control.
Through Lin’s quest, Yu Hua paints a ghost story without ghosts, a romance without lasting love, and a hero’s journey where the destination is absence.
Main Character Analysis: Lin Xiangfu and the Portrait of a Dispossessed Man
Lin Xiangfu is a quietly devastating character — one of Yu Hua’s finest creations.
- Resilient but passive: Lin adapts to crushing loneliness and betrayal, yet rarely asserts his own desires or confronts those who wrong him.
- Deeply human: His naivety and hope are painfully relatable. When he loves, he loves completely; when he trusts, he trusts blindly.
- Shaped by memory and obligation: Haunted by the deaths of his parents, Lin clings to the rituals and traditions they taught him, even when the world around him makes them irrelevant.
Yu Hua sketches Lin not as a traditional tragic hero, but as something more fragile and realistic: an everyman swallowed by forces larger than himself, surviving not because he triumphs, but because he endures.
"Even if you have all the money in the world," his mother once told him, "it's not as good as having a skill."
This single line perfectly captures Lin’s — and the novel’s — emotional core.
Yu Hua’s Writing Style: Simplicity with Devastating Underpinnings
In City of Fiction, Yu Hua’s prose (beautifully translated by Todd Foley) is:
- Spare yet luminous: Sentences are short and straightforward, but they ripple with emotional weight.
- Dreamlike structure: Events often feel suspended in time, blending realism with mythic undertones.
- Deeply sensory: Smells, textures, and sounds (especially weaving, footsteps, and storms) saturate the text.
Despite the profound sadness threading the novel, Yu Hua’s tone remains remarkably restrained. He trusts the reader to feel the weight without being told, a signature trait shared with To Live and even the nonfiction essays of China in Ten Words.
Todd Foley’s translation deserves praise: it preserves Yu Hua’s delicate balance of sorrow and lyricism, allowing English-speaking readers to experience the novel’s quiet devastation without a single note feeling false.
Themes: Storytelling, Survival, and the Vanishing of Traditions
Yu Hua weaves multiple themes with astonishing subtlety:
1. The Fragility of Human Bonds
Lin’s relationship with Xiaomei is touching but ultimately hollow — a survival instinct mistaken for love. Trust becomes a currency as precious — and as fragile — as gold.
2. The Collapse of Traditions
Lin clings to rituals — saving gold, weaving, farming — but the world around him has moved on. His inherited customs are like fading echoes in a world of brutal modern realities.
3. Storytelling as Survival
The entire novel feels like a tapestry of half-remembered tales: some true, some invented, all essential. Storytelling is the only way Lin — and perhaps all of us — make sense of loss and chaos.
Yu Hua doesn’t just tell a story; he shows why we must keep telling stories, even when they betray us.
Strengths of City of Fiction
- Elegant simplicity: The writing carries profound emotional depth without ever feeling overwrought.
- Evocative atmosphere: Snowstorms, ruined villages, the sharp clang of wooden clogs — these details are almost cinematic in their vividness.
- Deep empathy: Even minor characters are drawn with sympathy and complexity, no matter how flawed they are.
Critiques and Limitations
While City of Fiction is an extraordinary achievement, it’s not without minor faults:
- Occasional narrative distance: Some readers might find the emotional detachment frustrating, particularly compared to Yu Hua’s more visceral novels like To Live.
- Pacing issues: Midway through, the story risks feeling repetitive, especially during Lin’s slow realization of betrayal.
- Minimal plot progression: Those seeking high drama or conventional historical fiction beats might find the story too subdued or meandering.
However, these are deliberate stylistic choices — fitting for a novel about futility, change, and forgotten dreams.
Final Verdict: A Quiet Masterpiece of Endurance and Loss
City of Fiction is not a novel that shouts. It mourns, it remembers, it dreams.
It’s a book that invites readers to sit with it — to feel the slow ache of memory, the bitter taste of trust misplaced, the faint warmth of stories told on cold nights.
If you seek a literary journey that honors the heartbreak of ordinary lives, City of Fiction is a destination worth reaching — even if, like Lin Xiangfu’s quest, it leaves you wondering whether the city was ever there at all.
July 6, 2022
Still good and worth reading, but not as good as To Live.
October 24, 2022
စာအုပ်အမည် - ရှာတော်ပုံ
မူရင်း စာအုပ် - 文城 (Wen Cheng)
စာရေးသူ - Yu Hua ယွီဟွာ
ဘာသာပြန်သူ - တော်ကောင်းမင်း
ကံကော်ဝတ်ရည် စာအုပ်တိုက် (ပထမ အကြိမ်) သြဂုတ်လ ၂၀၂၂
အုပ်ရည် ၁၀၀၀
စာအုပ် တန်ဖိုး - ၁၂၀၀၀ ကျပ်
စာမျက်နှာ ၅၄၄
ကိုယ်မှာက အလုပ် သုံးလ လုပ်ပြီးရင် တပတ်နားခွင့်ရတယ်။ အစက တူရကီလောက် နီးနီးနားနား သွားပြီး ပြန်လာဖို့ ကြံပေမဲ့ ဗီဇာကိစ္စက တော်တော် အာရုံတွေနောက်တာနဲ့ ထိုင်းသွားမယ်ဆိုပြီး ချက်ချင်းလက်ငင်းကြီး ဆုံးဖြတ်ပစ်တာပဲ။ ဒီလိုဆိုတော့ စားစရာ၊ စာအုပ်တွေ သယ်နိုင်သမျှ သယ်လာမယ်ဆိုပြီး ဆက်စီစဥ်ပေါ့။ စာအုပ်တွေချည်း ၁၀ ကီလို သယ်လာပစ်လိုက်တယ်။
ရှာတော်ပုံထွက်ကတည်းက အသည်းအသန်ဖတ်ချင်နေခဲ့တာ။ ယွီဟွာ စာအုပ်တွေ ဆရာ တော်ကောင်းမင်း ဘာသာပြန်သမျှ ကိုယ်ကြိုက်တာချည်းပဲကို။ သက်ရှင်နေ၊ ရွှီစန်းကွမ်း သွေးရောင်းမှတ်တမ်း၊ သတ္တမနေ့ စတာတွေပေါ့။
စာအုပ်ကို ၂ရက်နဲ့ အပြီး ဖတ်ပစ်လိုက်တယ်။ စာအုပ်တအုပ်ကို ဒီလို အရသာခံ မဖတ်ရတာ ဘယ်လောက်ကြာခဲ့ပီလဲ။ ကိုယ်မှတ်တောင် မမှတ်မိတော့ဘူး။ လက်ထဲရှိတဲ့ စာအုပ်တွေကို ချွေတာ ဖတ်နေရတာနဲ့.. တခြားဘာသာစကားနဲ့ဆို မြန်မာစာနဲ့ ဖတ်သလောက် အရှေ့မရောက်နိုင်တာနဲ့ ဒီအရသာကို ကိုယ်မရတာကြာခဲ့ပေါ့။ ထိုင်းနဲ့ အီရက် လေယာဥ်ခရီးက စုစုပေါင်း ၁၅ နာရီဝင်းကျင် စာဖတ်ချိန် နည်းနည်းရနိုင်တယ်။ ပင်ပန်းလို့ အိပ်နေတဲ့ အချိန်ရယ်။ လေဆိပ်မှာ ဟိုဟိုဒီီဒီသွားဖို့ အချိန်ရယ် နှုတ်ရသေးတာကို။
တော်တော်လေး အိပ်ပြီးမှ စာအုပ်ကို ထုတ်ဖတ်ဖြစ်တာပဲ။ လက်က ချမရအောင် ဖတ်မိသွားတော့တယ်။ ဘဲကြီးတပွေ နှင်းမုန်တိုင်း ကြားထဲမှာ မြို့တမြို့ကို ရောက်ခဲ့��ယ်။ တယောက်ထဲမဟုတ်ပဲ ရင်ခွင်ပိုက် ကလေးလေး တယောက်ပါပါတယ်။ သူ့ပုံစံက အရူးလိုလို အကောင်းလိုလို၊ သူတောင်းစားလိုလို ဘာလိုလိုနဲ့။ နို့စို့ကလေးရှိတဲ့ အိမ်တိုင်းရှေ့ကို သူရောက်လာပြီး ကလေးကို နို့တိုက်ဖို့ တောင်းဆိုတယ်။ ဒင်္ဂါးတပြားပေးတယ်။ သူဘယ်ကလာတယ်ဆိုတာ ဘယ်သူမှ မသိကြဘူး။ အဝေးကြီးက လာမှန်းတော့ သိတယ်။ ဘာလို့လာလဲဆိုတာလည်း မသိကြဘူး။ သူဟာ ပုစ္ဆာတပုဒ်ဖြစ်လာတယ်။ သတင်းတခုဖြစ်လာတယ်။ ဒီလို နိဒါန်းပျိုးထားရာက သူ့ဘဝအကြောင်းကို အစကနေ ပြန်စပြထားတယ်။ သူဘာလို့ ဒီကို ရောက်လာတဲ့ အကြောင်း ဆက်သွား…
အဲဒီဒေသ နာမည်က သျှီကြန့်… သူသွားချင်တာက ဝန်းချိန်.. သို့ပေမဲ့ ဝန်းချိန် ဘယ်မှာရှိတယ်ဆိုတာ ဘယ်သူမှ မသိကြပြန်ဘူး။ ဝန်းချိန်ဆိုတာ သူဆီက ထွက်သွားတဲ့ သူ့ချစ်တဲ့ အမျိုးသမီးလေးရဲ့ မွေးရပ်မြေတဲ့။ ဘယ်ကပေါ်လာမှန်း မသိတဲ့ အမျိုးသမီးလေးဟာ သူအိမ်ကို တန်းတန်းမတ်မတ်ရောက်လာပြီး ချစ်ကျွမ်းဝင်။ ကလေးလေးတယောက် မွေးပေးခဲ့ပြီး ဘယ်အရပ်ကို ထွက်သွားမှန်းမသိ ပျောက်ဆုံးသွားခဲ့တာ။
ရှောင်မေဟာ ဘာလို့ ထွက်သွားတာလဲ…
သူရှာဖွေနေတာကို သူတွေ့မှာလား… ဘာဆက်ဖြစ်လဲ… ဆိုတဲ့ သိချင်စိတ်နဲ့ ဖတ်လိုက်တာ အချိန်တွေ ဘယ်လို ကုန်သွားမှန်းကို မသိတာ။
ရှာတော်ပုံဆိုပေမဲ့… ရှောင်မေကို ရှာရုံနဲ့ ပြီးသွားတာ မဟုတ်ပဲ လင်းသျှင်းဖူဟာ သျှီကြန့်မှာ အောင်မြင်တဲ့ လုပ်ငန်းရှင်တယောက် ဖြစ်လာတဲ့ အထိ၊ မြို့မျက်နှာဖုံးဖြစ်လာတဲ့ အထိ နေသွားတယ်။ ဒီမြို့သားတယောက် ဖြစ်လာတဲ့ အထိပေါ့… သူဘဝတခုလုံးကို မြင်ရသလို တရုပ် လူနေမှု စနစ်တွေကိုပါ တွေ့ရပြန်တာပဲ။
ဇာတ်ကောင်နာမည်တွေ မှတ်ရခက်တဲ့ ကိုယ်အတွက် တရုတ်နာမည်တွေကို မှတ်ရတာလည်း မလွယ်ဘူး။ ဇာတ်ကောင်တွေ တော်တော်များတဲ့ ဒီလိုစာအုပ်မျိုးဆို ပုံမှန်အတိုင်းဆို အကြာကြီး ဖတ်ရမှာပဲ။ ခုတော့ ဇာတ်လမ်းက ဆွဲဆောင်လွန်းတော့ ပြီးသွားတော့တာပဲ။
မှတ်မှတ်ရရ ကိုယ် ဘာသာပြန်ခဲ့တဲ့ ရွက်ကြွေထဲက စကားပုံတခုကိုလည်း တွေ့သေးတယ်။ “ရွက်ကြွေရင် အမြစ်ဆီ ပြန်သွားရတာပဲ” ဆိုတာလေး…
ကိုယ့်အမြစ်ဆီ ဘယ်တော့ ပြန်သွားခွင့်ရမလဲ….
မယ်ကျွိ
ည ၁၁ နာရီ ၁၂ မိနစ်
Erbil, Iraq
#တော်ကောင်းမင်း
#ရှာတော်ပုံ
#yuhua
#မယ်ကျွိ
မူရင်း စာအုပ် - 文城 (Wen Cheng)
စာရေးသူ - Yu Hua ယွီဟွာ
ဘာသာပြန်သူ - တော်ကောင်းမင်း
ကံကော်ဝတ်ရည် စာအုပ်တိုက် (ပထမ အကြိမ်) သြဂုတ်လ ၂၀၂၂
အုပ်ရည် ၁၀၀၀
စာအုပ် တန်ဖိုး - ၁၂၀၀၀ ကျပ်
စာမျက်နှာ ၅၄၄
ကိုယ်မှာက အလုပ် သုံးလ လုပ်ပြီးရင် တပတ်နားခွင့်ရတယ်။ အစက တူရကီလောက် နီးနီးနားနား သွားပြီး ပြန်လာဖို့ ကြံပေမဲ့ ဗီဇာကိစ္စက တော်တော် အာရုံတွေနောက်တာနဲ့ ထိုင်းသွားမယ်ဆိုပြီး ချက်ချင်းလက်ငင်းကြီး ဆုံးဖြတ်ပစ်တာပဲ။ ဒီလိုဆိုတော့ စားစရာ၊ စာအုပ်တွေ သယ်နိုင်သမျှ သယ်လာမယ်ဆိုပြီး ဆက်စီစဥ်ပေါ့။ စာအုပ်တွေချည်း ၁၀ ကီလို သယ်လာပစ်လိုက်တယ်။
ရှာတော်ပုံထွက်ကတည်းက အသည်းအသန်ဖတ်ချင်နေခဲ့တာ။ ယွီဟွာ စာအုပ်တွေ ဆရာ တော်ကောင်းမင်း ဘာသာပြန်သမျှ ကိုယ်ကြိုက်တာချည်းပဲကို။ သက်ရှင်နေ၊ ရွှီစန်းကွမ်း သွေးရောင်းမှတ်တမ်း၊ သတ္တမနေ့ စတာတွေပေါ့။
စာအုပ်ကို ၂ရက်နဲ့ အပြီး ဖတ်ပစ်လိုက်တယ်။ စာအုပ်တအုပ်ကို ဒီလို အရသာခံ မဖတ်ရတာ ဘယ်လောက်ကြာခဲ့ပီလဲ။ ကိုယ်မှတ်တောင် မမှတ်မိတော့ဘူး။ လက်ထဲရှိတဲ့ စာအုပ်တွေကို ချွေတာ ဖတ်နေရတာနဲ့.. တခြားဘာသာစကားနဲ့ဆို မြန်မာစာနဲ့ ဖတ်သလောက် အရှေ့မရောက်နိုင်တာနဲ့ ဒီအရသာကို ကိုယ်မရတာကြာခဲ့ပေါ့။ ထိုင်းနဲ့ အီရက် လေယာဥ်ခရီးက စုစုပေါင်း ၁၅ နာရီဝင်းကျင် စာဖတ်ချိန် နည်းနည်းရနိုင်တယ်။ ပင်ပန်းလို့ အိပ်နေတဲ့ အချိန်ရယ်။ လေဆိပ်မှာ ဟိုဟိုဒီီဒီသွားဖို့ အချိန်ရယ် နှုတ်ရသေးတာကို။
တော်တော်လေး အိပ်ပြီးမှ စာအုပ်ကို ထုတ်ဖတ်ဖြစ်တာပဲ။ လက်က ချမရအောင် ဖတ်မိသွားတော့တယ်။ ဘဲကြီးတပွေ နှင်းမုန်တိုင်း ကြားထဲမှာ မြို့တမြို့ကို ရောက်ခဲ့��ယ်။ တယောက်ထဲမဟုတ်ပဲ ရင်ခွင်ပိုက် ကလေးလေး တယောက်ပါပါတယ်။ သူ့ပုံစံက အရူးလိုလို အကောင်းလိုလို၊ သူတောင်းစားလိုလို ဘာလိုလိုနဲ့။ နို့စို့ကလေးရှိတဲ့ အိမ်တိုင်းရှေ့ကို သူရောက်လာပြီး ကလေးကို နို့တိုက်ဖို့ တောင်းဆိုတယ်။ ဒင်္ဂါးတပြားပေးတယ်။ သူဘယ်ကလာတယ်ဆိုတာ ဘယ်သူမှ မသိကြဘူး။ အဝေးကြီးက လာမှန်းတော့ သိတယ်။ ဘာလို့လာလဲဆိုတာလည်း မသိကြဘူး။ သူဟာ ပုစ္ဆာတပုဒ်ဖြစ်လာတယ်။ သတင်းတခုဖြစ်လာတယ်။ ဒီလို နိဒါန်းပျိုးထားရာက သူ့ဘဝအကြောင်းကို အစကနေ ပြန်စပြထားတယ်။ သူဘာလို့ ဒီကို ရောက်လာတဲ့ အကြောင်း ဆက်သွား…
အဲဒီဒေသ နာမည်က သျှီကြန့်… သူသွားချင်တာက ဝန်းချိန်.. သို့ပေမဲ့ ဝန်းချိန် ဘယ်မှာရှိတယ်ဆိုတာ ဘယ်သူမှ မသိကြပြန်ဘူး။ ဝန်းချိန်ဆိုတာ သူဆီက ထွက်သွားတဲ့ သူ့ချစ်တဲ့ အမျိုးသမီးလေးရဲ့ မွေးရပ်မြေတဲ့။ ဘယ်ကပေါ်လာမှန်း မသိတဲ့ အမျိုးသမီးလေးဟာ သူအိမ်ကို တန်းတန်းမတ်မတ်ရောက်လာပြီး ချစ်ကျွမ်းဝင်။ ကလေးလေးတယောက် မွေးပေးခဲ့ပြီး ဘယ်အရပ်ကို ထွက်သွားမှန်းမသိ ပျောက်ဆုံးသွားခဲ့တာ။
ရှောင်မေဟာ ဘာလို့ ထွက်သွားတာလဲ…
သူရှာဖွေနေတာကို သူတွေ့မှာလား… ဘာဆက်ဖြစ်လဲ… ဆိုတဲ့ သိချင်စိတ်နဲ့ ဖတ်လိုက်တာ အချိန်တွေ ဘယ်လို ကုန်သွားမှန်းကို မသိတာ။
ရှာတော်ပုံဆိုပေမဲ့… ရှောင်မေကို ရှာရုံနဲ့ ပြီးသွားတာ မဟုတ်ပဲ လင်းသျှင်းဖူဟာ သျှီကြန့်မှာ အောင်မြင်တဲ့ လုပ်ငန်းရှင်တယောက် ဖြစ်လာတဲ့ အထိ၊ မြို့မျက်နှာဖုံးဖြစ်လာတဲ့ အထိ နေသွားတယ်။ ဒီမြို့သားတယောက် ဖြစ်လာတဲ့ အထိပေါ့… သူဘဝတခုလုံးကို မြင်ရသလို တရုပ် လူနေမှု စနစ်တွေကိုပါ တွေ့ရပြန်တာပဲ။
ဇာတ်ကောင်နာမည်တွေ မှတ်ရခက်တဲ့ ကိုယ်အတွက် တရုတ်နာမည်တွေကို မှတ်ရတာလည်း မလွယ်ဘူး။ ဇာတ်ကောင်တွေ တော်တော်များတဲ့ ဒီလိုစာအုပ်မျိုးဆို ပုံမှန်အတိုင်းဆို အကြာကြီး ဖတ်ရမှာပဲ။ ခုတော့ ဇာတ်လမ်းက ဆွဲဆောင်လွန်းတော့ ပြီးသွားတော့တာပဲ။
မှတ်မှတ်ရရ ကိုယ် ဘာသာပြန်ခဲ့တဲ့ ရွက်ကြွေထဲက စကားပုံတခုကိုလည်း တွေ့သေးတယ်။ “ရွက်ကြွေရင် အမြစ်ဆီ ပြန်သွားရတာပဲ” ဆိုတာလေး…
ကိုယ့်အမြစ်ဆီ ဘယ်တော့ ပြန်သွားခွင့်ရမလဲ….
မယ်ကျွိ
ည ၁၁ နာရီ ၁၂ မိနစ်
Erbil, Iraq
#တော်ကောင်းမင်း
#ရှာတော်ပုံ
#yuhua
#မယ်ကျွိ
March 22, 2023
Үй хуа ч хүний амьдралын түүхийг харагдтал бичих юмаа. Өмнө уншсан "цусаа худалдсан тэмдэглэл" ч мөн нэгэн гэр бүлийн амьдралыг хүүрнэхдээ ойр тойрны нийгэм, гэр бүлийн харилцааны талаар ч нүдэнд харагдтал, сэтгэлд мэдрэгдтэл бичсэн санагдсан. "Вэн хот" ч мөн ялгаагүй маш таалагдлаа.
Орчуулга монгол хэлээр нэн сайн орчуулагдан буулгасан санагдлаа. Редактор хянан тохиолдуулагч нарын багахан алдаа 9-г ёс гэхчилэн үсгийн алдаа, эгшиг гээгдэх дүрэм гэхчилэн жижиг алдааг анзааралгүй өнгөрөөсөн үг шивэгчээс ч гарсан алдаа болохыг мэдэхгүй жижигхэн алдаанууд байсныг эс тооцвол найруулга маш сайн байлаа. Маш таалагдсан зүрх оргилуулам өгүүлэхүйн ганц өгүүлбэр орчуулгыг энд хуулбал
..."Уйтай шаналан түүний зүрхэн дундуур горхины ус адил урсаж үл мэдэг бүдэгхэн дуу цуурайлах шиг болох нь зүрхэн гүндээ түүний уйлсан чимээ байлаа."
Үнэхээр таалагдаад утсаа гарган ирээд зургийг нь авснаа хуваалцвал энэ байна. Би хэт догдлом үедээ бичвэл бараг тэр тэгсэн, ингэсэн гм хамаг зүйлийг спойлердож магад хүн тул бага зэрэг намдсаны дараа энэ номноос би үүнийг харлаа гэж бичих нь хааяа миний тоймыг сонирхон унших хүнд үлдээх сонирхох бяцхан оч, эргэн хааяа энэ номноос надад юу үлдэж би ямархан сэтгэгдэлтэй үлдсэн билээ гээд эргэн харах миний дурсамж, тайвшрал тайтгаралын баясалтай мөч билээ.
Хүний амьдрал гэдэг дахин давтагдахгүй бөгөөд өөр өөрийн замаар явсаар огтлолцож, зөрөн өнгөрөх, огт тааралдахгүй ч нэгэн цаг үед амьдрах мөч бүрийн хэлхээс бас миний таны түүх билээ. Би хэрхэн амьдран буй хүн юм бол доо... Миний амьдрал бас ном болон уншигдвал уншигч нэгэнд хэрхэн сонирхол татах, эсвэл хэзээ ч сонирхохгүй дарагдах түүх байх байсан ч юм билүү дээ ... ай амьдрал аа гэж...
Орчуулга монгол хэлээр нэн сайн орчуулагдан буулгасан санагдлаа. Редактор хянан тохиолдуулагч нарын багахан алдаа 9-г ёс гэхчилэн үсгийн алдаа, эгшиг гээгдэх дүрэм гэхчилэн жижиг алдааг анзааралгүй өнгөрөөсөн үг шивэгчээс ч гарсан алдаа болохыг мэдэхгүй жижигхэн алдаанууд байсныг эс тооцвол найруулга маш сайн байлаа. Маш таалагдсан зүрх оргилуулам өгүүлэхүйн ганц өгүүлбэр орчуулгыг энд хуулбал
..."Уйтай шаналан түүний зүрхэн дундуур горхины ус адил урсаж үл мэдэг бүдэгхэн дуу цуурайлах шиг болох нь зүрхэн гүндээ түүний уйлсан чимээ байлаа."
Үнэхээр таалагдаад утсаа гарган ирээд зургийг нь авснаа хуваалцвал энэ байна. Би хэт догдлом үедээ бичвэл бараг тэр тэгсэн, ингэсэн гм хамаг зүйлийг спойлердож магад хүн тул бага зэрэг намдсаны дараа энэ номноос би үүнийг харлаа гэж бичих нь хааяа миний тоймыг сонирхон унших хүнд үлдээх сонирхох бяцхан оч, эргэн хааяа энэ номноос надад юу үлдэж би ямархан сэтгэгдэлтэй үлдсэн билээ гээд эргэн харах миний дурсамж, тайвшрал тайтгаралын баясалтай мөч билээ.
Хүний амьдрал гэдэг дахин давтагдахгүй бөгөөд өөр өөрийн замаар явсаар огтлолцож, зөрөн өнгөрөх, огт тааралдахгүй ч нэгэн цаг үед амьдрах мөч бүрийн хэлхээс бас миний таны түүх билээ. Би хэрхэн амьдран буй хүн юм бол доо... Миний амьдрал бас ном болон уншигдвал уншигч нэгэнд хэрхэн сонирхол татах, эсвэл хэзээ ч сонирхохгүй дарагдах түүх байх байсан ч юм билүү дээ ... ай амьдрал аа гэж...
September 18, 2025
4.25 stars
This one is full of emotions, just wow. I love Lin Xiangfu's story and his close friendship with Chen Yongliang 🥺 There were a lotttt of graphic scenes which took me by surprise and I do think some of them can be excluded as they did not contribute anything to the plot.
I do wish, however, the author would expand the story a bit to include what happened to Lin Baijia, but I understood his intention to aim the spotlight to Lin Xiangfu and Xiaomei.
Nevertheless I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to reading other books by Yu Hua.
This one is full of emotions, just wow. I love Lin Xiangfu's story and his close friendship with Chen Yongliang 🥺 There were a lotttt of graphic scenes which took me by surprise and I do think some of them can be excluded as they did not contribute anything to the plot.
I do wish, however, the author would expand the story a bit to include what happened to Lin Baijia, but I understood his intention to aim the spotlight to Lin Xiangfu and Xiaomei.
Nevertheless I enjoyed this book very much and look forward to reading other books by Yu Hua.
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December 31, 2024
Questa è stata una lettura estremamente piacevole, che mi ha suscitato una varietà di sensazioni in un ampio spettro.
Alcuni passaggi nella prima parte sono stati particolarmente ripetitivi e lenti, ma nel complesso del racconto sono riuscita ad apprezzarli lo stesso.
Ogni volta che veniva descritto il rapporto padre figlia mi si inumidivano gli occhi; sono parole che raccontano una dolcezza infinita.
Alcuni passaggi nella prima parte sono stati particolarmente ripetitivi e lenti, ma nel complesso del racconto sono riuscita ad apprezzarli lo stesso.
Ogni volta che veniva descritto il rapporto padre figlia mi si inumidivano gli occhi; sono parole che raccontano una dolcezza infinita.
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September 25, 2024woah omg
January 29, 2026
La città che non c'è è un romanzo ambientato nella Cina pre moderna, dopo la caduta della dinastia Qing e la presa di potere di vari Signori della guerra. Il protagonista è Lin Xiangfu che arriva, dopo un lungo viaggio atto alla ricerca di sua moglie Xiao Mei, in una cittadina al sud del Fiume Azzurro di nome Xizhen insieme alla sua bambina ancora in fasce. In questa città si stabilizzerà e metterà le sue radici.
Yu Hua utilizza in questo romanzo uno stile semplice e realistico, utile per descrivere una popolazione atipica, che non appare spesso nei romanzi, quella della Cina rurale, dove si evince un forte senso di fratellanza soprattutto tra gli uomini abitanti dello stesso villaggio, che lottano per sopravvivere in quest'epoca di puro caos, segnata soprattutto dalla piaga del brigantaggio.
Più sfortunata è invece la condizione delle donne, cosa che non stupisce visto che la tradizione confuciana nei villaggi rurali è molto forte: se si è poveri si è un peso, e si ha come destino quello di essere una sposa bambina, ed è quello che è stato riservato a Xiao Mei, che viene trattata con crudeltà dalla sua stessa suocera, e viene reclusa in casa dopo essere stata ripudiata, perché rappresentava una vergogna per la sua stessa famiglia.
Il romanzo non nasconde la brutalità del tempo: torture e massacri sono descritti con grande realismo (a volte si arriva addirittura a fermare per un momento la lettura) sottolineando la sofferenza collettiva e la vulnerabilità dell'esser umano di fronte alla violenza.
È un romanzo che dà voce alla Cina di cui si sa poco, di mestieri quasi estinti e il legame profondo che c'è tra gli abitanti rende la lettura molto bella seppur molto triste.
Yu Hua utilizza in questo romanzo uno stile semplice e realistico, utile per descrivere una popolazione atipica, che non appare spesso nei romanzi, quella della Cina rurale, dove si evince un forte senso di fratellanza soprattutto tra gli uomini abitanti dello stesso villaggio, che lottano per sopravvivere in quest'epoca di puro caos, segnata soprattutto dalla piaga del brigantaggio.
Più sfortunata è invece la condizione delle donne, cosa che non stupisce visto che la tradizione confuciana nei villaggi rurali è molto forte: se si è poveri si è un peso, e si ha come destino quello di essere una sposa bambina, ed è quello che è stato riservato a Xiao Mei, che viene trattata con crudeltà dalla sua stessa suocera, e viene reclusa in casa dopo essere stata ripudiata, perché rappresentava una vergogna per la sua stessa famiglia.
Il romanzo non nasconde la brutalità del tempo: torture e massacri sono descritti con grande realismo (a volte si arriva addirittura a fermare per un momento la lettura) sottolineando la sofferenza collettiva e la vulnerabilità dell'esser umano di fronte alla violenza.
È un romanzo che dà voce alla Cina di cui si sa poco, di mestieri quasi estinti e il legame profondo che c'è tra gli abitanti rende la lettura molto bella seppur molto triste.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 30, 2026
很一般 极其失望
文城的某些文字和段落当然是优美的
抛开作者的文字给人带来的一种“精虫上脑”的感觉的话
还勉强看得下去
但是这玩意儿真的抛不开
所以
真的看不下去
跟直接吃苍蝇没什么区别
文城的某些文字和段落当然是优美的
抛开作者的文字给人带来的一种“精虫上脑”的感觉的话
还勉强看得下去
但是这玩意儿真的抛不开
所以
真的看不下去
跟直接吃苍蝇没什么区别
September 27, 2024
Je ne m’attendais pas à ce que la partie sur la violence et le brigandage prennent autant de place au milieu du livre. Ça a fortement ralenti ma lecture.
Mais heureusement le destin croisé et tragique des personnages relève le niveau !
Mais heureusement le destin croisé et tragique des personnages relève le niveau !
June 24, 2024
Una storia di amori di altri tempi che non smetterei mai di leggere.
January 18, 2026
3,5/5
Es un libro interesante que retrata la sociedad de China en el siglo XX justo antes de la caída de los Qing, un periodo de caos, básicamente.
Encuentro cosas interesantes como las supersticiones a las que están atados, los oficios que tienen y la manera de ver el mundo.
En cuanto a Yu Hua, trata a los personajes de manera muy efímera, pero siempre tienen un final que cierran su propia existencia y su propia meta en vida.
La trama de "La ciudad perdida", es la ciudad perdida en sí misma, la búsqueda y el hallazgo.
Es un libro interesante que retrata la sociedad de China en el siglo XX justo antes de la caída de los Qing, un periodo de caos, básicamente.
Encuentro cosas interesantes como las supersticiones a las que están atados, los oficios que tienen y la manera de ver el mundo.
En cuanto a Yu Hua, trata a los personajes de manera muy efímera, pero siempre tienen un final que cierran su propia existencia y su propia meta en vida.
La trama de "La ciudad perdida", es la ciudad perdida en sí misma, la búsqueda y el hallazgo.
December 9, 2025
➳ four stars
yu hua’s writing is phenomenal and silvia pozzi’s translation is impeccable. this novel is full of characters, so many things are happening at the same time, but it’s never confusing or boring - i was in for the ride until the very last page! i felt so many emotions while reading this, yu hua captures the harsh reality without sugar-coating it (at times it was a heavy read). the historical background was well done. definitely would recommend if you’re a fan of stories centered around families and people trying to find each-other.
yu hua’s writing is phenomenal and silvia pozzi’s translation is impeccable. this novel is full of characters, so many things are happening at the same time, but it’s never confusing or boring - i was in for the ride until the very last page! i felt so many emotions while reading this, yu hua captures the harsh reality without sugar-coating it (at times it was a heavy read). the historical background was well done. definitely would recommend if you’re a fan of stories centered around families and people trying to find each-other.
December 7, 2021
小美和阿强是在雪天城隍阁祭拜苍天冻死的。这个结局太粗糙我不能接受，就像稳重的林祥福被激怒而去刺杀土匪头领一样粗糙。
总体来说故事有点假，或者说剧情很突兀。
总体来说故事有点假，或者说剧情很突兀。
September 17, 2023
Encore un grand roman de Yu Hua !
July 24, 2024
So deep, subtle and humble. Reality of a past era. Authenticity of timeless friendship and love, culture and values.
August 30, 2024
Subtle sorrow
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