"Xiaoyaoyou" is Ban Yu's second novel collection after "Winter Swimming". It includes seven short and medium-length works with different styles and a story time span spanning thirty years. In Ban Yu's works, the down-and-out novelist, the man who raises ants, the sick girl, the lover chasing the comet, the father who disappears in time... The adventurers in fate and life, inhabiting the thunder, wading into the clouds, walking at night with candlelight, illuminating the mountains, seas and wind. His works have won the No. 1 Short story ranking in the Harvest Literary List, the Annual Short Story in the Huadi Literary List, the First Prize in Novella at the Chinese Young Writers Award, the Short Story Award at the Cao Xueqin Chinese Literature Award, and the 6th "Golden Short Story" Novel Award in "Writer" magazine. The short story "Xiaoyaoyou" was adapted into a film of the same name by young director Liang Ming. It won various awards and nominations at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Beijing International Film Festival, Pingyao International Film Festival, etc. It will be released in September 2024.
Reader comments
Ban Yu's writings have the harshness and weight of the Northeastern land, like the cold wind in winter. They are straightforward but powerful. They are not deliberately sensationalistic, but they can always touch the softest corners of people's hearts in plain narratives. The characters in his works do not perform earth-shattering feats, but are all ordinary people caught up in the current of the times: Xu Lingling, who suffers from uremia and is kept alive by the hum of the dialysis machine; Xu Fuming, the father who sells vehicles to treat his daughter's disease and returns to his old career; Tan Na, who is trapped by emotion and life and is in a dilemma; and the father and spirit who have disappeared in the fog of history. The insane brother... They are trapped in the mist of poverty, illness, and estrangement. They seem to be pulled by the invisible hand of fate, involuntarily, but in the shaky light, they never stop pursuing the glimmer of light. This is the simplest and most touching annotation given by Ban Yu to "Xiaoyao" - not the freedom to escape the predicament, but the tenacity to coexist with the predicament.
Ban Yu's writings have the harshness and weight of the Northeastern land, like the cold wind in winter. They are straightforward but powerful. They are not deliberately sensationalistic, but they can always touch the softest corners of people's hearts in plain narratives. The characters in his works do not perform earth-shattering feats, but are all ordinary people caught up in the current of the times: Xu Lingling, who suffers from uremia and is kept alive by the hum of the dialysis machine; Xu Fuming, the father who sells vehicles to treat his daughter's disease and returns to his old career; Tan Na, who is trapped by emotion and life and is in a dilemma; and the father and spirit who have disappeared in the fog of history. The insane brother... They are trapped in the mist of poverty, illness, and estrangement. They seem to be pulled by the invisible hand of fate, involuntarily, but in the shaky light, they never stop pursuing the glimmer of light. This is the simplest and most touching annotation given by Ban Yu to "Xiaoyao" - not the freedom to escape the predicament, but the tenacity to coexist with the predicament.
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