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About the speaker
Yu Hua was born in 1960 in Hangzhou, China’s most beautiful city. When he was three, his father took a job in Wuyuanzhen, sixty miles away. Misled by her husband, who told her this little town was even more attractive than Hangzhou, Yu Hua’s mother moved there with Yu Hua and his brother, only to discover how sorely she had been deceived. In 1978, on completion of his primary and secondary education, Yu Hua became a dentist. He plied this trade for five years but never liked the job, for it involved gazing every day into other people’s mouths – the world’s least scenic spots. In 1983 he began writing stories, and in time became an author and acquired the freedom to sleep late – a job he likes. To date Yu Hua has published five novels, six collections of stories, and five collections of essays. His books include The Seventh Day, Brothers, To Live, Chronicle of a Blood Merchant, Cries in the Drizzle, Boy in the Twilight, and China in Ten Words. His works have been translated into over twenty languages and published in the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Greece, Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia, Poland, Brazil, Israel, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Indonesia. He has been awarded Italy’s Premio Grinzane Cavour (1998), France’s Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2004), the Special Book Award of China (2005), and the Prix Courrier International (2008). Yu Hua lives in Beijing.
余華簡介:
余華於1960年4月出生在杭州,這是中國最美麗的城市。余華3歲的時候父親去了一百公里以外的武原鎮工作,父親欺騙母親那個小鎮比杭州更為美麗,母親帶著余華和他哥哥去了那裡,結果發現上了父親的當。余華在武原鎮讀完小學和中學,1978年成為牙醫,整整五年,他不喜歡這個工作,每天看著別人張開的嘴巴,那是世界上最沒有風景的地方。1983年開始寫作,然後成為作家,可以每天睡懶覺,這個工作他喜歡。余華至今已經出版長篇小說5部,中短篇小說集6部,隨筆集5部,著有《第七天》、《兄弟》、《活著》、《許三觀賣血記》、《在細雨中呼喊》、《黃昏裡的男孩》、《十個詞彙裡的中國》。其作品已被翻譯成20多種語言在美國、英國、法國、德國、意大利、西班牙、荷蘭、瑞典、挪威、希臘、俄羅斯、保加利亞、匈牙利、捷克、塞爾維亞、斯洛伐克、波蘭、巴西、以色列、日本、韓國、越南、泰國、印度和印尼等國家出版。曾獲意大利格林扎納•卡佛文學獎(1998年),法國文學和藝術騎士勳章(2004年),中華圖書特殊貢獻獎 (2005年),法國國際信使外國小說獎(2008年)等。余華現在居住在北京。