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 First edition (Chinese) | |
| Author | Mo Yan |
|---|---|
| Translator | Howard Goldblatt |
| Language | Chinese |
| Genre | novel |
| Publisher | (Eng. trans.) Arcade |
Publication date | 2006 |
| Publication place | China |
Published in English | 19 March 2008 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 552 pp (Eng. trans. edition) |
| ISBN | 1559708530 (Eng. trans. edition) |
Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out (simplified Chinese: 生死疲劳; traditional Chinese: 生死疲勞; pinyin: shēngsǐ píláo) is a 2006 novel by Chinese writer Mo Yan, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012. The book is a historical fiction exploring China's development during the latter half of the 20th century through the eyes of a noble and generous landowner who is killed and reincarnated as various farm animals in rural China.[1] It has drawn praise from critics, and was the recipient of the inaugural Newman Prize for Chinese Literature in 2009.[2] An English translation was published in 2008.
This landlord is the protagonist of this book, Ximen Nao. After he was killed, he went through a total of six reincarnations. He turns into a donkey, a cow, a pig, a dog, a monkey in turn, and finally in 2000 he is reborn as a baby with a very large head. In this novel, the big-headed baby, who is one of the narrators of the story, tells his grandfather, Lan Jiefang, how he felt when he was reincarnated as an animal in each life. The story of the landlord Ximen Haou's family and the peasant Lan Lian's family is a sad story of life and death fatigue for about fifty years. The novel talks about the story of China from 1950 to 2000 by telling the story of Ximen Tun, which develops around Ximen Nao. Through the eyes of a donkey, a cow, a pig, a dog, a monkey, and a big-headed baby, Lan Qiansui, the novel looks at and savors the history of Chinese rural society for more than fifty years. What Mo Yan writes is not only the story of rural China, but also the development process of Chinese society, and the real lives of those at the people.
The inspiration for "Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out" came from the author Mo Yan's real life. One of the protagonists of the novel, Lan Lian, is based on a single worker in Mo Yan's hometown. This single worker was the only person in the village who was different from the others at that time. At that time, China was in the midst of a people's commune movement. The whole country was calling on every family to work together. So, the only single worker became a different person in the eyes of everyone. Every day he pushed a wooden wheelbarrow and drove a donkey past the students with his wife, who was wrapped in a small foot. This man, who was different from the times, left a deep impression on Mo Yan. And the blue face in the book "Fatigue of Life and Death" is also a single-occupant household that is firm in his beliefs. He did not listen to anyone's advice, and through all the difficulties, he kept on living as a single worker. His wife, his adopted son, and daughter, and his son all left him to work in the commune. But he didn't change his mind about any of them. From his experience, can also see the development of Chinese society and the change in people's hearts
- ^ "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out: A Novel by Mo Yan - Overview". Barnes & Noble. Archived from the original on 28 March 2012. Retrieved 1 April 2021.
- ^ "Mo Yan wins Newman Prize for Chinese Literature". University of Oklahoma. 1 October 2008. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 1 April 2021.