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An Author As Good As His Word

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An Author As Good As His Word 16 | Friday, June 4, 2021 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY LIFE Tibet bond still strong An author as for pioneering official BEIJING — In 1979, Li Chunmin to Tianjin for treatment. Fortu- spent six days on bumpy, muddy nately, with treatment, his health roads suffering from severe head- recovered. aches before reaching Southwest After almost five years of work- China’s Tibet autonomous region, ing and living in Tibet, Li felt a good as his word about 3,000 kilometers away from strong attachment to the region. his hometown in North China’s In 1993, he took a trip to Riwoqe. Tianjin municipality. “I saw a classroom with no win- Since then, he has visited Tibet dows. The wind was blowing right Yu Hua seems to relish criticism but his stories appeal to 20 times as a part of government through the room, and the stu- efforts to bring officials to Tibet to dents were shivering,” he says. Li a growing readership, Liu Yongliang reports. help with local development. This was heartbroken. He gave some year marks the 70th anniversary of money to the school and asked China’s peaceful liberation of the them to repair the windows. uthors expect, and indeed escape, seek revenge, which is region. Since then, Li started paying sometimes thrive on, crit- served cold, and scores are settled. Now 70, the retired Li has wit- more attention to education in icism. Critics are well Everyone in the story has dangerous nessed decades of huge changes in Riwoqe and tried his best to help armed; they can, after all, moments, but they also keep a sense Tibet. “In the remainder of my life, improve the education conditions throwA the book at authors. Yu Hua of purpose, and, indeed, one of opti- I hope to visit all of the places in there. In 2006, he visited Riwoqe seems almost to prove the point. His mism that better times will soon Tibet and to see the amazing again and, with help from friends, sixth full-length novel Wencheng arrive. region,” says Li. donated 350,000 yuan ($54,635) has just been published, as if to feed Wencheng was written during the Li, an official of Tianjin Dredg- to upgrade local student dorms the critics’ appetite. “I hope every- pandemic and allows readers the ing Co Ltd, part of the State-owned and teaching facilities. He also one comes to criticize me,” the well- escapism of “a realistic story that company China Communications launched a foundation to raise known writer says. “Criticism has something softhearted in it”. Construction, was one of more money to help impoverished stu- means attention. If there is no criti- To Live was written in the first- than 3,000 officials from across dents. The foundation has raised cism that means nobody focuses on person. For his other novel, Broth- the country who traveled there in over 9 million yuan, of which 1 mil- you.” ers, Yu divided it into two books, and 1979 to aid local development. He lion came from Li himself. Yu is well-known for To Live, his told two distinct stories: In the first applied to go to the county of Despite having heart surgery signature award-winning novel, book, you can see the shadow of To Riwoqe, meaning “mountains” in last year, this April Li made his released in 1993, but his last full- Live and Chronicle of a Blood Mer- the Tibetan language, which is 20th visit to Riwoqe. This time, he length novel Seventh Day, pub- chant (1998), and readers often read located in northeastern Tibet. met with experts to find a way to lished eight years ago, may have it with tears, but in the second book, “I needed to work there for five ensure a consistent water supply prepared him for such attention, as the style was absurd and bizarre. years, but my baby was only 4 for local solar water heaters. the critics targeted the latter. In 2018, Yu said: “No matter how months old at that time,” Li says. “Li is a hero for us,” says Dong Some commented: “This book hard I write, I cannot write a book as “My wife and my parents were Jianhua from Shanghai, who is (Seventh Day) is just a collection of fantastic as To Live.” That novel won quite supportive, especially my currently aiding Tibet and has news!” The protagonist of that book several awards and honors, both at father. He said we should go wher- joined Li in the solar water heater is a deceased man, Yang Fei, and it home and abroad, including the ever the motherland needs us.” project. “Over the years, he has self- tells of the social problems that his Grinzane Cavour Prize in Italy in Li boarded a train from Beijing lessly dedicated himself to helping ghost witnesses. Compared with 1998, and Ordre des Arts et des Let- to Chengdu, Sichuan province, Tibet, and he has never changed.” that last book, Yu was expecting tres in France in 2004. It was also before transferring via a bus, Li’s efforts are part of a broader that “there would be more criti- listed as “one of the most influential which ran for six days on muddy picture, as the government has cism” for his latest literary effort, novels since China’s reform and roads. made a great effort to help with Wencheng, but “in fact, the criticism opening-up” in 2018. Almost immediately, Li had to Tibet’s development. was less”. “Literature is looking for some- learn to ride horses, speak the Over the past 70 years, the cen- The creation process for Wencheng thing interesting, while philosophy is Tibetan language and adapt to tral government has introduced was complicated. “The writers of our looking for something meaningful,” conditions in Riwoqe, which sits many favorable policies for the generation have an aspiration to says Professor Yang Qingxiang from about 4,500 meters above sea level. region, covering tax and finance, write a story across 100 years. There- the Renmin University of China. In “I had to ride a horse to rural infrastructure, industrial develop- fore, I wanted to write a story that Yu’s book, readers not only find vivid areas to promote government poli- ment, education, health, cultural happened before To Live,” Yu says. content but also realize meaningful cies and conduct surveys about preservation and environmental After publishing To Live, Yu began to thoughts, as these stories come from people’s lives,” Li says. “Some protection. create this story. But after writing real lives, and Yu is “a good storyteller countryside roads were so difficult Last year, Tibet’s GDP exceeded more than 200,000 characters, he Author Yu Hua meets readers and talks about his new novel and sharp observer”. that I had to ride on the horse for 190 billion yuan. Since its peaceful succumbed to writer’s block. After Wencheng (pictured top right) at a recent promotional event in a “The meaning of reading is to three to four days.” liberation, the region has gradual- publishing Brothers in 2005, he con- Beijing bookstore. PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY broaden your life, and make your During this time, Li bonded with ly established a comprehensive tinued the story; after publishing psychological status healthier,” Yu his one-eyed horse. To help him transport network of highways, Seventh Day in 2013, he moved it says. To that end, he suggests that learn the Tibetan language, he railways, air routes and pipelines. further again. Last year, amid the When you read a novel and don’t find you young readers stop reading a book if explains: “I prepared a small note- Highways totaling 118,800 km in COVID-19 pandemic, Yu finally com- it doesn’t impress them. He says: book. I used the pinyin phonetic length have been built in Tibet. pleted the novel. have something to say about it, although “When you read a novel and don’t alphabet to mark the Tibetan pro- The region has also made coor- “I chose Wencheng as the title of everyone says that the book is good — you can find you have something to say nunciation, and I used every sec- dinated progress in improving its this book for no other reason than about it, although everyone says ond I had to recite sentences.” environment, investing a total of because this city does not exist, and put it away, because you don’t have your own that the book is good — you can put He gradually became close with 81.4 billion yuan in the area by the all stories are related to Wencheng,” feelings and thoughts.” it away, because you don’t have your locals after eating, living and end of last year. In 2020, the forest Yu explains. In Chinese, wen means own feelings and thoughts.” laboring in the fields with them. coverage reached 12.3 percent, and literature, while cheng means city. Yu Hua, author Yu, in his early 60s, is not behind He helped them mow the grass, the comprehensive vegetation Wencheng is not just a city where the times. The dentist-turned-author carry fertilizer and taught them coverage of natural grassland the story happens, but a space in from Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, scientific knowledge. grew to 47 percent. which the readers can let their imag- per, China Arts, said that there is which depicts the lives of grassroots knows the language of the internet One thing that caused Li issues In the new era, Tibet is enjoying inations roam free. both variability and invariability in people since the 1920s, the wretched and can communicate with video was not being able to get enough rapid and sustained growth thanks The protagonist Lin Xiangfu Yu’s literature.
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