Global EditionASIA 中文雙語Fran?ais
    Culture
    Home / Culture / Books

    Hard lives, big dreams

    By Yang Yang | China Daily | Updated: 2017-09-01 07:38
    Share
    Share - WeChat

    Writer Jia Pingwa attends the launch ceremony of the English-language version of his novel, Happy Dreams. The book tells the story of migrant workers in cities. [Photo provided to China Daily]

    An English-language version of Jia Pingwa's work, Happy Dreams, has just been published in both print and electronic formats. It looks at the lives of scrappers against the backdrop of big social changes. Yang Yang reports.

    One afternoon in 2004, Chinese writer Jia Pingwa received his primary school classmate Liu Shuzhen at his home in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi province. Liu, a farmer from a poor village in Shaanxi, had tried to visit Jia before, but Jia was out then.

    This time, Liu told the writer that he came to Xi'an to join his son, who delivered briquettes. But the father left the son and became a scrapper after a fight.

    Liu had changed his name from Shuzhen to Gaoxing, which means happy, because he was so delighted to come to Xi'an.

    Like tens of thousands of scrappers living in Xi'an at the turn of the century, Liu lived a hard life, sleeping in a shack built with plastic boards.

    In summer, it was so hot that he had to pour water on the ground and spread a husk mat on it to be able to fall asleep. However, Jia found Liu was extremely humorous and optimistic when telling him stories about scrappers that day.

    Jia, a well-know writer, who has lived in Xi'an for more than 30 years, had seen many scrappers around the city, but he did not know anything about their lives.

    These people were in general invisible.

    His classmate's stories inspired him to write a novel about this group, who usually come from the countryside, try to make some money and dream of a better life.

    It was a generation of migrant workers against the backdrop of big social changes.

    "I wanted to record with my novel how this generation of migrant workers like Liu entered the city, how they made a living, how they felt about the city and their destinies. I am happy if readers learn more about them and their lives through my novel," says Jia.

    Jia did a lot of interviews with the workers. And from October 2005 to February 2007, Jia rewrote his draft four times until he was satisfied. Happy Dreams had a print run of 300,000 copies when it was published in 2007.

    Now an English version, published on Aug 23, is available in 183 countries, in both print and electronic formats.

    The novel tells the story of the protagonist, Liu Gaoxing, or Happy Liu, and his friends in the city.

    1 2 3 Next   >>|
    Most Popular
    Top
    BACK TO THE TOP
    English
    Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
    License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

    Registration Number: 130349
    FOLLOW US
    日韩亚洲AV无码一区二区不卡| 乱人伦中文无码视频在线观看| 中文成人久久久久影院免费观看 | 久久亚洲春色中文字幕久久久| 无码国产精品一区二区免费16| 亚洲激情中文字幕| 无码人妻精品一区二| 亚洲AV无码成人专区片在线观看| 亚洲欧美日韩中文字幕一区二区| 97无码免费人妻超| 无码午夜成人1000部免费视频| 免费无码国产在线观国内自拍中文字幕 | 最近中文字幕完整免费视频ww| 乱人伦人妻中文字幕无码| 无码国内精品久久人妻| 国产成人无码AV一区二区在线观看| 中文人妻无码一区二区三区| 成 人无码在线视频高清不卡| 亚洲av无码片在线播放| 最近更新免费中文字幕大全 | 中文字幕手机在线视频| AV色欲无码人妻中文字幕| av潮喷大喷水系列无码| 人妻无码第一区二区三区| 亚洲av无码一区二区三区网站| 欧美日韩中文国产va另类| 日韩精品无码一区二区中文字幕| 91嫩草国产在线无码观看| 国产∨亚洲V天堂无码久久久| 日韩乱码人妻无码中文字幕 | 乱色精品无码一区二区国产盗| 国产AV无码专区亚洲AV手机麻豆| 最近的2019免费中文字幕| 亚洲国产午夜中文字幕精品黄网站| 爆操夜夜操天天操中文| 天堂√在线中文资源网| 成人精品一区二区三区中文字幕| 最近的中文字幕大全免费8| 最新中文字幕在线| 中文无码一区二区不卡αv| 成人麻豆日韩在无码视频|