To Live By Yu Hua

To Live, by Yu Hua, describes the experiences of Fugui, a rich man turned peasant living through the Cultural Revolution. In the beginning of the novel, he is a despicable character, with one example of his poor moral fiber being his hobby of riding prostitutes around like horses. He loses all of his land and home after gambling it all away. However, he develops into a much more likable protagonist after a serious of misfortunes. Everyone who he loves dies, from his wife, dying of a bone disease to his daughter's husband, crushed between two cement blocks. He ends up living a lonely life with only his oxen to keep him company. His experiences teach him as he states at the end of the book: "It is better to live an ordinary life. If you go on striving for this and that, you’ll end up paying with your life.” (231) From his birth in 1960 until the publication of “To Live” in 1993, Yu Hua's personal experiences living through Mao’s dictatorship and the Cultural Revolution taught him that life for the ordinary Chinese was often safer than for those who strove to achieve more than the usual.
Mao and his loyal party members devised a plan, the 100 Flowers Campaign, which would allow the public to speak their minds without fear of persecution about how to improve the Government. The movement begins calmly but tension rises when the suggestions by the public turn into outright criticism. Mao decided to rescind his previous statements and Mao took action against those who had criticized his governing style. Many who spoke out during the movement were jailed or killed. The repercussions of Mao’s initial attempt to bring about change from the lower class level led to a devastating loss of human rights effecting all the population, but especially the Western taught