Long er, the living character in the novel, is a crafty old scoundrel. He is very calculating, eyeing the fields and money of Fu Gui and his family. Taking advantage of Fu Gui's weakness in gambling, he designed a casino, which enabled Fu Gui to win small and lose big, and lost most of his property and land.

Dragon son lived the life of a big landlord. This is both a blessing and a curse. After liberation, Longer's land was confiscated. He refused to hand over his house and set it on fire. He was executed for counter-revolutionary crimes.

Basic information

Living is one of the representative works of writer Yu Hua. It tells the story of Xu Fugui's life and family suffering with social changes such as the Civil War, the Three Anti-five evils Movement, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Finally, all his relatives left him one after another, leaving only the old man and an old cow.

Yu Hua was awarded the Knight of French Literature and Art in March 2004 for this novel.