"Sleep Song" has a total of 370,000 words. It is a documentary novel on the theme of educated youth. The background of the story is the years of joining the queue in the countryside in the 1970s. The protagonist Santu is based on the author himself, and the entire story revolves around Wang Xiaoming, Chen Yan, Chuan Ming, Ding Meiping and other educated youth companions. The book meticulously restores the real daily life of educated youth working in the fields, sharing meals and lodging, and getting along with neighbors and companions. It depicts the ideals of passionate young people and the whole process of continuous adjustment and ups and downs in the reality of poverty. At the same time, it faithfully records the tragic past events that have a clear mark on the times, such as Ji Lin's helplessness for a living and Zhang Hangen's sentence due to hunger and stumble. It comprehensively displays the youth's survival struggle, persistence, and the pure and sincere friendship between educated youths.
The author has mediocre knowledge and is seriously ill. He persisted in writing the book despite suffering from six surgeries a year and two critical resuscitations. The text is not deliberately crafted, and every word comes from what he saw and experienced with his own eyes. His original intention is to preserve the collective youthful memory of our generation for thousands of educated youths.
