I want to write an epic of our times that belongs to ordinary people.
There are no overpowered plots about defying fate, no contrived tearjerker clichés. This story simply records the struggles, growth, love and hate, passions and desires, partings and perseverance of a group of rural young people at the foot of the Dabie Mountains over the turbulent twenty years from 2001 to 2021.
The mountains bind their fates; hardship tempers their lives.
Niubei Village, on the banks of the Shuiyun River at the southern foot of the Dabie Mountains in southeastern Hubei, is a microcosm of countless ordinary people at the bottom of society. In the bitter winter of 2001, the desperately poor Ke family collapsed. Unable to bear the poverty, their mother left, and their father suddenly died after years of exhausting labor.
Thirteen-year-old Ke Shanming tearfully quit school and shouldered the burden of supporting his family. He farmed, took odd jobs, headed south to seek his fortune, and suffered defeat after defeat, gritting his teeth to survive life's ups and downs. His eight-year-old younger brother, Ke Junming, carried the hopes of the whole family, studying hard and crossing mountains and seas to escape the fate of their village through education.
Over twenty turbulent years, the brothers grew along different paths. A group of village youths, neighbors, and friends experienced education, romance, making a living, partings, and the ups and downs of life.
This is my heartfelt account of southeastern Hubei, a version of The Ordinary World.
Spanning 2001 to 2021, the novel weaves together the era's great changes, including SARS, the Wenchuan earthquake, the financial crisis, the rise of online shopping, stock market and property crashes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the campaign to eliminate poverty. With the most authentic scenes of everyday life and struggle, it records the perseverance, ups and downs, and fervent years of a generation of ordinary Chinese people.
