Background
Gu Hua was born on June 20, 1942, in Jiahe County, Hunan, China. He is the son of Shiqing Luo, a civil servant, and Wenzhao (Zhang) Luo.
(A Small Town Called Hibiscus is one of the best Chinese n...)
A Small Town Called Hibiscus is one of the best Chinese novels to have appeared in 1981. Its author Gu Hua was brought up in the Wuling Mountains of south Hunan. He presents the ups and downs of some families in a small mountain town there during the hard years in the early sixties, the "cultural revolution," and after the downfall of the "gang of four." He shows the horrifying impact on decent, hard-working people of the gang's ultra-Left line, and retains a sense of humor in describing the most harrowing incidents. In the end wrongs are righted, and readers are left with a deepened understanding of this abnormal period in Chinese history and the sterling qualities of the Chinese people.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0835110745/?tag=2022091-20
1981
(Virgin Widows is a poignant and disquieting novel that un...)
Virgin Widows is a poignant and disquieting novel that unfolds the stories of two women whose lives, despite being separated by nearly a century, reveal a disturbing similarity. First published in China in 1985, it appears now in English for the first time.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0824818024/?tag=2022091-20
1997
Gu Hua was born on June 20, 1942, in Jiahe County, Hunan, China. He is the son of Shiqing Luo, a civil servant, and Wenzhao (Zhang) Luo.
Hua was educated at the Chengzhou Agricultural School. He also attended the Tertiary Agricultural Institute for 2 years from 1959.
Hua began to work at the Chengzhou Regional Agricultural Institute as a farmer, working there for 13 years from 1962. He served as a writer at the Chengzhou Regional Song and Dance Ensemble from 1975 till 1979. Hua was also a cadre member of the Chengzhou Regional Writers’ and Artists’ Association for 3 years beginning from 1979. From 1983 he held the position of a professional writer at the organization named the Hunan Provincial Writers’ Association.
Concerning his writings, Hua burst onto the Chinese literary scene in 1981 with A Small Town Called Hibiscus, a novel set in Hua’s native South Hunan that explores the effects of the Chinese Cultural Revolution on several families. Although Hua published his first short story, Sister Apricot, in 1962, he did not achieve international acclaim until the publication of Hibiscus. Widely viewed as critical of Communist Party leadership, Hibiscus quickly placed Hua in the vanguard of Chinese literature as one of several writers exercising newfound literary freedoms in China with rewarding results.
Critics have noted that Hua’s novels and stories are largely concerned with political and social issues and the lives of peasants and mountain villagers of rural inland China. An expert illustrator of local color, Hua has been praised for his ability to examine political and social changes in China through the actions of well developed fictional personalities. With a deft blend of humor and horror, political progression and regression take on absurd results as the actions of Communist Party leaders both penetrate and ricochet off Hua’s characters.
Since the groundbreaking A Small Town Called Hibiscus, Hua has continued to remark on everyday life in rural China with novels, short stories, and screenplays. A Small Town Called Hibiscus came to movie theaters in 1987 with Hua adapting his novel for the screen. Pagoda Ridge and Other Stories, a collection of short stories set in the Hunan Province, was published in English shortly after the publication of Hibiscus. Perry Link of the New York Times Book Review called one of the stories, The Log Cabin Overgrown With Creepers, “a fascinating experiment in allegory,” with an isolated log cabin representing China and the vines covering the cabin symbolizing xenophobia and superstition.
Virgin Widows, a novel written by Hua in 1985 and translated and published in English in 1997, tracks the lives of two women, one living in nineteenth century imperial China and the other living some one hundred years later in modern China. Hua delivers Virgin Widows with a split narrative that weaves a tale of sex, virtue, and societal oppression.
Although he is an avid traveler, Hua credits his interest in writing to the people of the Chinese countryside, especially those in his hometown at the foot of the Wuling Mountains in Jiahe County, Hunan. Famous for its popular songs and ballads and traditional stories, the lively culture in Hua’s hometown attracted him to art and literature at an early age.
Hua also worked as an editorial board member of literary magazines, including Wenxuebao (“Literary Monthly”) and Furong (“Hibiscus Monthly”).
(From back cover: Four stories by the celebrated author of...)
(Virgin Widows is a poignant and disquieting novel that un...)
1997(A Small Town Called Hibiscus is one of the best Chinese n...)
1981Quotations: "My hometown is famous for its popular songs and ballads. I’ve been much influenced by local ballads (minge) and traditional stories from my youth. I have always been attracted to art and literature. Over the past two or three decades the Chinese countryside has experienced numerous complex changes. This, added to my personal experiences and tragedies, has been crucial in my becoming involved in creative writing."
Hua served as a vice chair of the Hunan Writers’ Association and as a committee member of the Chinese Writers’ Association. He is a member of the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial People’s Congress and the Hunan Provincial Political Consultative Congress.
Hua married Yujuan Zheng on January 10, 1967.