The Unrevealed Special Relationship Between Yu Hua and Mo Yan

Yu Hua was born in 1960 and began his literary career in the 1980s with many new, impressive and groundbreaking works. These include: Screaming in the Drizzle (1992), Living (1993), The Blood-Sell of Xu Sanguan (2003), Brothers (2005)...

Mo Yan and Yu Hua appeared in a reality TV show.

Meanwhile, Mo Yan became the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012. In his works, the Gaomi countryside appears very impressive.

Not only do they have in common that their works were adapted by famous director Zhang Yimou, they are also among the leading voices of the Chinese avant-garde literary movement, along with Tan Tuyet, To Dong, Ma Nguyen...

However, the closest person to Yu Hua is still Mo Yan. In the latest issue of The Paris Review - Winter 2023, the author of Brothers shared his time in college.

He said that he shared a room with Mo Yan for 2 years. At that time, studying was not considered important, so students often played mahjong because there was very little or no homework at school. Yu Hua also revealed that after 2 years of studying, Mo Yan returned to Gaomi (Shandong) to build a house. However, when he returned, no one noticed his absence.

Yu Hua also shared more about his experience sharing a room with Mo Yan. He said that when he was writing Screaming in the Drizzle, Mo Yan was also writing Country of Wine . However, “we rarely exchanged or discussed each other’s unfinished works.”

“We work side by side at two desks on opposite walls,” he added. “At first, there was only one cabinet in the room to divide our private space, then he discovered another cabinet somewhere, so we almost completely divided the room in half.”

Another humorous point that Yu Hua also recounted was when both writers were lost in thought while writing and then caught each other's eyes. He said: "There was a gap between two cabinets, and when I looked through that narrow gap, he was also looking at me. I immediately said: 'You are distracting me'. Mo Yan immediately replied: 'You are also distracting me'."

As a result, Mo Yan found an old calendar with photos of famous actors to fill the gap. But the Gaomi writer’s habit of tapping his foot while writing was still there, unchangeable. Yu Hua humorously called it a “terrible habit” when the creator is immersed in writing.

Works of 2 writers written while living together

Later, when participating in a writing program in Iowa (USA) in 2003, Yu Hua met Mo Yan again. The writer shared that in Iowa, “daily life is just... eating and drinking”. He also added that when the author of Raise the Red Lantern - Su Tong decided to move there to write a short story every day, he gradually became an alcoholic. Mo Yan was the same.

Perhaps with such long-term and close contact, Yu Hua also had words of admiration for his seniors. He said: “If Mo Yan, Can Xue and Ma Yuan had not come before me, and if Su Tong and Ge Fei had not been on my side, I probably would not have been able to publish so much. I felt like I was fighting a lone battle against dogma, but when I read their works, I knew I had comrades in arms. Together, we attracted the attention of the entire literary world .”

Recently, the copyright of the trilogy including Song, Chuyen Hua Tam Quan Ban Mau and Saturday Day has been successfully purchased by Nha Nam, preparing to translate and widely introduce once again to Vietnamese readers.

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