Yu Hua, To Live (a novel)What does Yu’s story of one (fictional) man tell you about the second half of the 20th century that Spence’s textbook does not, or cannot?

Witnesses and Historians

Professor Lipman

04/27/10

Witnesses and historians are the two distinctive groups of people in recording important historical moments. Witnesses observe hitarradiddle by living through it. Historians observe history by crowd and analyzing witnesses accounts. Yet the major discrepancy between witnesses and historians is the fuckledge of what happened afterwards. Historians know more somewhat the aftermath, and this awareness changes their view of what went before. Witnesses, on contrary, obligate a comparative advantage here: at a given historical moment, they do not know about the future. Thus their account seems less meticulous or pass judgment but more natural and realistic.

Acknowledging the difference between witnesses and historians is crucial in analyzing the books written by Yu humming and Spence. To Live, written by Yu Hua, is a fiction based on near real historical models in 20^th century China. Although fictional, the story strikes readers deeply. When reading the story, readers share the sense of worrying the future with the witness, Fu Gui. The unknowingness and fear, contrast to historians whose accounts are well structured according to the order of results and consequences, bring readers unexpected resonance in understanding humanity.



The chaos, confusion, paradox, awe and dark humor that rose up in Fu Guis animateness is portrayed by a collective account of many Chinese witnesses during the second half of 20^th century. These vivid experiences allow readers to advert to the characters. Every witness who went through this subtracticular historical peak shared memories and feelings with Fu Gui. The novel contains an unexpected first-hand account textbooks can not provide. Comparatively, the textbook written by Spence rarely achieves such resonance. At such expense, Spence avoids the partiality and bias in various accounts of witnesses, and constructs a history with order and reason.

The amazing part of To Live...

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