To live Flashcards
List of historical / cultural things
- Japanese surrender of the sino-Japanese war
- Chinese civil war
- Feet beinding (where they took wealthy women (especially wealthy) and they wore really small shoes (lotus shoes) binded to their feet to make sure they had the smallest feet. The goal was 4inches long. The culture around this was negative at the time of the story but Fugui’s mother had it and it would have been socially acceptable for that. This is why she struggled with hard labour
- liberation and land reform
- The great leap forward
- Second Taiwan Strait Crisis / 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis
- Work points
- Great Chinese Famine
- Cultural revolution
- Red guards
- Red Brigade
Text type
Novel
Format
Main characters’ names
Unnamed narrator
Xu family
(this is last name then first)
Fugui’s mom
Fugui’s Dad
Xu Fugui
Main Character
Jiazhen
Wife
Xu Fengxia
Daughter
Xu Youqing
Son
Wan Erxi
Fengxia’s husband
Kugen
Grandchild
Other
Long Er
Gambler
Took Fugui’s house
Mr. Chen
Jiazhen’s Father
Chunsheng
Kid soldier
Magistrate
Kills himself
Old Quan
Veteran soldier
Deserter who ran away 7 times but was always captured by anothe unit later
Dies by stray bullet
Team Leader
He’s the team leader-
Also matchmaked Fengxia’s and Erxi’s marriage
Fugui (OX EDITIONNNNN)
Purpose
To criticize the Chinese Government without getting killed over it
Context beginning of the story and ~1945-1950 (Including 1950)
Timeline
Narrator is telling the story 10 years after he meets Fugui ~1990s? the time is uncertain
Narrator meets Fugui sometime around the 1980’s? The time is uncertain
The story begins in the 1940’s
at this time the parents are alive, and they own over a hundred mu of land
“The wildest time” of Fugui’s misbehavior involving a town whore and particularly shaming his father-in-law Mr. Chen, comes “just after the JAPANESE SURRENDER”
this is after THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR / WW2
Sometime later in the year he loses everything to long er
His dather dies not long after
Ten days after Mr. chen takes Jiazhen and clams the unborn Youqing to be his
Time passes an we’re around early late 1945 to early 1946 and Fugui sells everything of value and goes to Long Er looking for a loan, instead he gives him 5 mu of rentable farm land. It is revealed that (or maybe it was earlier but it comes into play) that Fugui’s mother’s FEET HAD BEEN BINDED / BOUND as a child to stop them from growing, which makes it hard for her to help out, however she does despite fugui’s protests
Three months later Changgen, the aged servant returns, he was forced to beg after the Xu family could no longer afford him, and he was too old to work so he chose to leave
Fugui also hears that jiazhen has given birth, but is dissuaded by his mom to go vidit her
seven months later Jiazhen returns
A year later Fugui’s mom gets sick, and he goes in to town to find a Doctor but gets involuntarily enlisted in the NATIONAL ARMY (non-communists) During the CHINESE CIVIL WAR
He goes North, meeting Old Quan and Chungshen
Mid-winter (~early 1948) they are surrounded by the COMMUNIST LIBERATION ARMY, they don’t shoot however are running out of food
Around late 1948 the nationalist army has shrunk a lot, and so many are wounded that most are just left for dead
Old Quan dies by a stray bullet and Chungshen leaves to go grab food. By noon of that day fugui is taken prisoner with all of the other survivors, he is fed and allowed to go home or to join the fight. He is incredulous that they would let him go exclaiming that the communists even paid for his travel!!! (this is APPEASEMENT my friends)
Fugui’s rush to get home is delayed at the Yangtze River, for Mao Zetung’s communist Liberation Army had not yet “liberated” the south (80). Fugui’s progress is slow, “Keeping behind the Liberation Army as it fought its way south” (80). (woah more APPEASEMENT)
Fall 1949, two years after being conscripted he returns back home. His mother died two month after he left, and a year after Fengxia contracted a high fever lost her voice and hadn’t spoke since (~1948)
After that ~Early 1950? the LIBERATION came and Long Er was labelled a landlord and through the LAND REFORM his land was split up to his tenants and Fugui was given the same 5 mu of land that Long Er rented him
Long Er is unable to accept that he was finished and was to be executed
Fugui reflects on how if he had not lost the land it would be him getting executed not Long Er and vows “I’ve got to keep on living” (85).
Context 1950-1960
We ended the last section in 1950?
~5 YEARS LATER IN ~1955
sigh
They are wondering whether they should let their kids in live poverty or whether they shoudl send Fengxia away to give her a better life and be able to afford to send Youqing to school. They give her away to the only family interested and everyone is devastated, including Fengxia
Two months later Youqing refuses to go to school until Fugui beats him.
A few months after she was taken away she returns home in the middle of the night. Next evening after dinner Fugui takes her to the village to give her back, but in the end cannot leave his daughter again and brings her back home
Two years later ~1957, Youqing’s has to get up early before school and return during mid-day break, to cut grass and feed their two lambs - which often makes him late for classes. He runs barefoot to ease the work his mother would have to do by making him new shoes
IN 1958 MAO ZEDUNG’S “GREAT LEAP FORWARD” their 5 mu of land go to the newly establish PEOPLE’S COMMUNES. The village head is now called the Team Leader, all families work the collective fields, all cooking pots are to be turned over to “smelt iron”, everyone is fed in the “communal dining hall” and all private stores of food and livestock (including Youqing’s lambs) must get turned over to the commune
They were struggling to smelt iron and Youqing suggested to add water to the fire, which didn’t work, but they kept doing it anyways, Jiazhen gets sick and Fugui forgets to put water in the smelter and it starts to melt. This means that the iron can now be used to BOMB TAIWAN
(I did not remember that but wow ok)
These bombs would have been used during the SECOND / 1958 TAIWAN STRAIT CRISIS. They did this because the leader of the nationalist party fled there (Chiang Kai-shek / jiang jieshi) and a whole bunch of other nationalist ppl
Jiazhen get’s diagnosed with “soft bone disease” (Osteomalacia) which is incurable. They celebrate by eating all of the lambs, including Youqing’s and then they have no food left. The team leader tells everyone that they have to go back to making their own food now, and should buy pots and pans again. They are only given three days of food but luckily the harvest would be in a month.
They started to count WORK POINTS, Fugui was given ten and Jiazhen would have been given 8, but since she was sick and couldn’t do as much as she used to she only got 4. She argued that she should get more and that she’d do heavier work but she just ended up hurting herself.
Work points were used by villagers and while it seemed to mostly equate to the same meaning no matter where you were there wasn’t an organized system in the 1990’s it was organized, but that won’t take place in this novel. Basically it was like “I spent 8 points on your farm, you’re only 4 points so u gotta do souble the time I did” and stuff like that
its ~1959 and Youqing wants to quit school to help his family. Fugui scolded him but felt bad, and decided to go sell firewood and buy him cady while he was at school, but he was furious when he saw that he wasn’t studying and beat him in front of his classmates. And he didn’t really talk to him for a month. Fugui buys him a lamb to make him happy, and Youqing was so happy it was as if he forgot that he was upset.
Youqing is running back and forth now again, and wins (DESTROS ACTUALLYYYYY) a city-wide race. and Fugui is proud of him
Then before the rice “can open” it rains hard for a month, then there’s a heat wave and the hearvest is ruined. They must then sell Youqing’s lamb, which youqing is more emotionally mature and accepting for, however they get less than they had hoped for, which lasts for less than three months of rice.
This is the GREAT CHINESE FAMINE, which took place from 1959-1961 (3 years), they only really mentioned this but oh well.
Everyone is starving, and things are so bad that Jiazhen goes into town to ask her father for food, and she brings back a smal bag of rice. But the smell of the rice attracts the villagers but the team leader wards them off for a price. This continues until the next harvest, when everyone gets grain again. (Let’s get grain great again)
Jiazhen then becomes bedridden, and spends her time unravelling her clothes to make ones for her children. Jiazhen talks to fugui about her funeral and says she would want jiazhen to get a husband.
~1960
Jiazhen then starts to do better, but then Youqing dies after the doctors took all of his blood while donating too much blood to the Magistrate’s wife. And Chungshen (soldier boy) is revealed to be the magistrate. Fugui hides it, worrying what it will do to Jiazhen’s health, but Jiazhen knows without being told and fugui carries her to see his grave
After his death it looks like Jiazhen would die, but she does not, and makes a miraculous recovery. Fugui then gets sick, and seems to have “grows old overnight”.
Chengshun visists a month after Youqings death, but Jiazhen kicks him out and refuses his money, Fugui recalls that after a few more attempts from Chengshun he wouldn’t see him again until the CULTURAL REVOLUTION
Context 1960-Jiazhen’s death (Time is less important now)
We last left off in 1960….
6 YEARS LATER (1966) DURING THE CUTURAL REVOLUTION
the streets were crawling with people and there were fights everyday. people in the courtyside didn’t go into the town as it was a lot more peaceful there. however Chairman Mao’s supreme directives would be issued in the middle of the night. The team leader would blow a whistle and everyone would rush out to hear the announcements.
“All it took was one word from the higher-ups and we’d all think and do whatever they wanted”
They start to worry about Fengxia and her not getting to marry, and the team leader sets up Fengxia with Erxi Wan. He is a rich town porter with a crooked head. He doesn’t speak much and at first they thought he didn’t like her but he brought people over to hepl fix their home, and buys them an expensive meal.
Their wedding is the best the village had ever experienced.
Instead of the month long wait you’re supposed to have before seeing your parents again Fengxia dn Erxi came back after 10 days and Fugui starts to go to town almost every other day. Fugui is happy to see how much Erxi loves her, and Jiazhen makes Fugui tell him what happened as she is too weak to join him in going to town
BACK TO THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION
there’s a lot of big character posters or Da zi bao, “are large posters featuring handwritten slogans, announcements, or protests, and are one of they key forms of political expression and often political dissent, in modern china. They played an important role during the cultural revolution” To live, page 192
There becomes so many poster’s there’s literally some on Erxi’s and Fengxia’s door, “printed on Fengxia’s pillowcase was “Never Forget Class Struggle” […] Every night Erxi and Fengxia literally slpet on the words of Chairman Mao.” (Page 192)
The city becomes much more dangerous, and people are beat until they can’t get up. The Team Leader doesn’t go into town anymore and one day group of RED GUARDS come to get him
Red guards were students btw, the girl who the team leader was talking to was no older than 16-17. Despite the villager’s testimonies saying he was not, she denounces him as a “capitalist roader” and he is taken away. Three days later he limps back into the village after being badly beaten.
RED GUARDS was a student-led paramilitary social movement mobilized my Mao in 1966 until they absolved in 1968. This was during the first phase of the cultural revolution. (wikipedia quote) “Moreover, the government was very permissive of the Red Guards, and even allowed the Red Guards to inflict bodily harm on people viewed as dissidents.” However it grew out of control as they somehow became too leftest for a commmunist society and there was in fighting and they broke off into factions and it was just a mess.
Chengshun was also labelled as a “capitalist roader” but he lived in the city and couldn’t avoid the beatings. He ends up killing himself.
Fengzia soon announces that she’s pregnant.
Fengxia gives birth in the winter, and it is complicated and they ask Erxi whether he would rather keep Jiazhen alive or her son and Erxi says Jiazhen but Jiazhen dies and Kugen is born. Jiazhen is the one who named him. Less than three months after that Jiazhen dies.
IN THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION THERE WAS A “RED BRIGADE” of student “doctors” that replaced the “intellectuals” actual doctors. however the real reason this was done was the new ones were very loyal to Mao. This was an example of this, The younger ones did not know how to stop Fengxia from bleeding.
Jiazhen’s death to end of the novel
Fugui visits Kugen and Erxi when he can.
Erxi dies when Kugen is 4,he is crushed between two slabs of cement, Fugui brings Kugen to the countryside to take care of him.
Kugen doens’t understand death and Fugui has a hardtime conveying that he will never see his dad again
Six months later Kugen helps Fugui as he has had a hard time managing the farm.
Fugui says that “When these chickens grow up they’ll become geese, and when the geese grow up they’ll become lambs. When the lambs grow up they’ll turn into oxen. And us, we’ll get richer and richer.”
When Kugen is 7 he dies by choking on beans. He was sick and overworked and Fugui made it for him to make him feel better.
Two years after his death Fugui buys an old ox instead of a new one. He names it Fugui. The town people thought the ox had three years left but it has outlived that at the time the narration is taking place.
Audience
Was written in Mandarin, so those who were “more educated” in China (not farmers like Fugui is)
Tone
optimistic yet critical and pained
Author and publication info
Published in Cantonese in 1993
Translated in 2003
Written by Yu Hua
