Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies

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Brothers, and the reception of Yu Hua in France

Isabelle Rabut & Angel Pino

To cite this article: Isabelle Rabut & Angel Pino (2019) Brothers, and the reception of
Yu Hua in France, Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies, 6:2, 99-110, DOI:
10.1080/23306343.2019.1673280

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/23306343.2019.1673280

Published online: 25 Oct 2019.

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ASIA PACIFIC TRANSLATION AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES
2019, VOL. 6, NO. 2, 99–110
https://doi.org/10.1080/23306343.2019.1673280

Brothers, and the reception of Yu Hua in France

Isabelle Rabuta and Angel Pinob
a
IFRAE, Inalco/Université de Paris/CNRS, Paris, France; bTELEM, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, Bordeaux,
France

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
After an overall presentation of the situation of Yu Hua’s work in Yu Hua; translation;
France, we shall focus on the reception of his novel Xiongdi, which reception
received an unprecedented media coverage. In less than one year,
from the end of April 2008, when the book came out, to the end of
January 2009, the book has been reviewed more than fifty times in
newspapers, radio or television programs as well as Internet sites,
either briefly, or at length, and sometimes along with an interview of
the author. A critical success, which has resulted in the author winning
the prestigious « prix Courrier international » (a prize awarded by the
weekly journal Courrier International) and was coupled with
a tremendous commercial success, the book gaining a large audience
among the general readers but also, it must be stressed, among the
economists, who acclaimed Yu Hua as « a vigilant scrutinizer of Chinese
reality ».

As of today, Yu Hua’s works have been translated into 35 languages and published in 38
countries. Among Western countries, France is probably the one in which the highest
number of translations of this author have been published (11 books altogether). His
name was heard for the first time in France at the Cannes film festival when Zhang
Yimou’s film based on his novel Huozhe (To live !) was part of the competition. It was in
1994, and the film got the Grand Prix. At the same time, a French translation had been
published in France, under the title Vivre !, in a paperback collection with a wide circula-
tion, but it didn’t take much time for Yu Hua to understand that the publisher, Librairie
générale française – a subsidiary company of Hachette, the biggest publishing company
in France –, had accepted the book only because it expected it to be a commercial hit, and
that they would not publish any other book written by him, unless it could also be
adapted for the screen. Simultaneously, Philippe Picquier, a publisher specialized in Far-
Eastern literatures, had published two short stories (zhongpian) by Yu Hua under the title
Un monde évanoui (A vanished world), but he did not keep up publishing Yu Hua’s works,
arguing, that he preferred to introduce several authors to the French public instead of
focusing on a single one. At least this is what he explained at that time to Yu Hua.1
Presumably, Picquier saw him as just one representative of this new breed of Chinese
authors practicing experimental writing: he could not suspect that Yu Hua would soon
become one of the most important writers of his time. Obviously, he changed his editorial

CONTACT Isabelle Rabut isabelle.rabut@noos.fr IFRAE, Inalco/Université de Paris/CNRS, Paris, France

© 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
100 I. RABUT AND A. PINO

strategy later, since he became the regular publisher of several Chinese writers, including
Wang Anyi, Bi Feiyu and Yan Lianke. Anyway, the publication of this little book gave Yu
Hua the opportunity to go abroad for the first time in his life: he was invited to come to
France and attend the 6th festival “Étonnants voyageurs” (Amazing travellers), at Saint-
Malo (29–30 April to 1 May 1995). For the first time also, he was invited to meet French
readers and sign his books. This is how he recalls the event:

I was sitting behind a stack of my books, and looked at the readers going back and fro.
Sometimes, one of them would pick a book and take a glance at it before putting it back on
the table. I waited, waited, until two little boys arrived. They held a blank sheet of paper in
their hand and through the interpreter, they told me they had never seen any Chinese
character, could I write a couple of characters for them ? It was the first signature I gave
abroad, but of course I did not write my name, I wrote Zhong-guo.

Thus, while two books by Yu Hua were available in France by the mid-1990’s, none of
them had aroused critical attention, and Yu Hua no longer had a publisher, which made
him feel rather despondent. He said:

At that time, I thought I was screwed in France. But suddenly, chance knocked at the door. Actes
Sud, a publisher which enjoys a very good reputation in France, was running a collection of
Chinese literature, which had just been entrusted to Isabelle Rabut, professor at National
Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations. She was familiar with my works, so that, as
soon as Xu Sanguan maixue ji was published in Shouhuo, she had Actes Sud buy the rights.

This is how Le Vendeur de sang (Xu Sanguan maixue ji), whose manuscript had been
suggested to Actes Sud by a literary agent even before it appeared in book form in China,
was published in France in 1997. The sales were not exceptional, but it was by no means
a total failure, for an author whose name was not yet familiar to French readers. It did not
get a lot of coverage either, only a few papers or bibliographical notes in French and
Belgian national or regional press.2 Most of these articles stressed the fact that Yu Hua was
the author of the book which inspired Zhang Yimou’s film, and Yu Hua was to remain
known for a long time through his association with Zhang. Nevertheless, Actes Sud was
convinced that Yu Hua’s work was definitely worth publishing, however much effort it
would take to garner recognition for him in France.
Before the French version of Xiongdi was released in 2008, three more books by Yu Hua
would be published by Actes Sud. Works which had been published in China long before,
some of them ten years old and over: in 2000, Un amour classique (Gudian aiqing), a selection
of four zhongpian; in 2003, the novel Cris dans la bruine (Zai xiyu zhong huhan, 1991); and in
2006, 1986 (Yijiubaliu nian, 1987), a zhongpian which was published as a booklet.3 Again, the
articles were scarce, but very positive. When Un amour classique was published, Le Monde
hailed Yu Hua as “a creative novelist, whose previous work, Le Vendeur de sang, had received
much attention when it was published” (Raphaelle Reyrolle, “Un amour classique”,
31 March 2000). For another journalist of Le Monde, commenting on Cris dans la bruine,
“what is most remarkable about Yu Hua [. . .], is his mastery of the narration, the way he
varies the narrative points of view, plays with memory, mixes humour and sadness, comedy
and drama” (Josyane Savigneau, “Cris dans la bruine”, 22 May 2003). As for 1986, it was,
according to the former correspondent of L’Humanité in China “a poetical and terrifying
story, much in line with the other works of Yu Hua, one of China’s best writers today”
(Laurent Ballouhey, “Lire”, Connexions, March-April 2008, p. 96).
 ASIA PACIFIC TRANSLATION AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES 101

The French version of Xiongdi was published in 2008 and Huozhe was reissued the
same year, this time by Actes Sud, who had just acquired the publishing rights. Several
books followed: in 2009, an anthology gathering eleven short stories published between
1987 and 1997, Sur la route à dix-huit ans (Shibasui chumen yuanxing); in 2010, the essay La
Chine en dix mots (Shige cihui li de Zhongguo); in 2014, the novel Le Septième Jour (Di qi
tian); and finally, in 2018, an anthology of five zhongpian written between 1988 and 1994,
published in France under the title Mort d’un propriétaire foncier (Yige dizhu de si). So that,
as of today, all the novels and zhongpian written by Yu Hua have been translated and
published in French, and most of his short stories (duanpian).
Eight of the eleven works by Yu Hua published in French have been reprinted in Actes
Sud’s own paperback collection Babel. Brothers has even been reissued in two different
paperback editions.

Brothers: an unprecedented success

Brothers holds a special place in the reception of Yu Hua in France.
For a start, it should be noted that the first Western readers of the novel were
French. The book was already available in French bookshops when the Italian version
was published in two parts, the first one in 2008 and the second one in 2009.4 The
American and Spanish versions – the latter was made after the former – were released
only in 2009,5 and the Hungarian, German and Dutch versions even later.
Secondly, the sales were exceptional, regarding a Chinese novel whose author is not
a Nobel prize winner. 5000 copies were printed initially (a print run unusually high for
a novel translated from Chinese) and eventually more than 52 000 copies (hardcover and
paperback included) were sold to this day, which means that the book had to be reprinted
several times. By mid-July 2008, three months after the book had been released, more than 12
000 copies had been sold, which amounts to weekly sales of 800 to 900 copies. When the
paperback edition was published on 6 March 2010, sales resumed at a high level of several
hundred copies per week.
Of course, the media are more or less involved in this success. While they had been
rather discreet before, Brothers sent them into a frenzy. In less than a year, from the end of
April 2008, shortly after the book came out (April 10th), to the end of January 2009, it has
been reviewed more than fifty times in newspapers, radio or television programs as well
as Internet sites, either briefly, or at length, and sometimes along with an interview of the
author. And all the media, without exception, called the book a masterpiece. For La Voix
du Luxembourg, the publication of Brothers is “a major event in contemporary Chinese
literature”, Brothers is a novel of a “breathtaking beauty”, “which contains in its story all the
hopes of a generation”. In its May 9th issue, Le Monde titled on the front page: “Yu Hua, the
writer who serves ‘China alive’”, and went on saying, that Brothers was “an editorial and
social phenomenon”. And the review published in Libération is entitled “Hip hip hip Yu
Hua”, which is a pun on “Hip Hip Hurray”. There was no lack of superlatives: “amazing”,
“enormous”, “remarkable”, “extraordinary”. For Guy Duplat (La Libre Belgique), “Yu Hua is
probably China’s greatest writer today”, and Christophe Donner (Le Monde) goes so far as
102 I. RABUT AND A. PINO

to compare Brothers, for its importance in Yu Hua’s work, with Kafka’s America, Marquez’s
One Hundred Years of Solitude and Mishima’s tetralogy The Sea of Fertility.

Newspaper articles

● Daily newpapers:
Long articles in Libération (2008/04/24), Le Monde (2008/05/09), with teasers on the
front page and long interviews of the author (Le Monde: “Yu Hua, the writer who serves
‘China alive’”).
Shorter articles in Aujourd’hui en France (2008/05/24) and La Croix (2008/05/29, with an
interview).
● Detailed review in specialized journals:
Livres Hebdo (2008/03/28), Lire (May 2008), Le Magazine littéraire (May 2008), Page des
libraires (June-July 2008), La Quinzaine littéraire (2008/07/16-31).
● Periodicals with a special focus on literary news: three weekly journals – Télérama
(2008/05/21), Le Monde 2 (2008/07/05), Le Figaro Magazine (2008/07/05) – and one
monthly, Le Monde diplomatique (January 2009).
● Main journals of the international French-speaking press: in Switzerland, Le Temps
(Geneva) (2008/05/24 and 2008/08/09), with an interview of Yu Hua (05/24); in
Belgium, La Libre Belgique (2008/05/30) and Le Soir (2008/07/11); in Canada, Le Devoir
(2008/07/12-13); in Luxemburg, La Voix du Luxembourg (2008/06/25); and even in
Marocco, L’Économiste (2008/09/16).
● Online publications: Rue89 (2008/04/17) and Évène (2008/04/28 and 2008/08/01),
with an interview of Yu Hua in both cases; Chronicart.com (2008/06/12).
● Interviews focusing on Brothers: Le Nouvel Observateur, 2008/05/08), L’Humanité
(Special Issue, June 2008) and Radio86 (009/01/30).
● Bibliographical notes: La Quinzaine littéraire (2008/04/16-30), Ouzhou shibao [Nouvelles
d’Europe] (2008/04/19-21), Métro (2008/05/16), Le Temps (Geneva, 2008/07/05),
LyonCapitale.fr (2008/07/15), La Libre Belgique (2008/07/25), Marie-France
(August 2008), Weekend Le Vif/L’Express (Bruxelles, 2008/09/05), Nuit blanche (Quebec,
October-November 2008).

Radio and television programs

● Radio: on France Inter, in “Rendez-vous avec X” (2008/05/24 and 2008/05/31), as part

of a special program about Cultural Revolution, and again in “Et pourtant elle tourne”
(2008/05/27).
● Television: interview of Yu Hua, on Canal+ (2008/04/29). – Program “Les coups de cœur
des libraires” (The Favorite of Booksellers) on LCI (2008/05/07): Gérard Collard, a literary
critic and manager of the bookshop La Griffe noire in Saint-Maur, sings Brothers’ praises,
and awards it symbolically the “Grand Prix Griffe Noire of the best foreign novel for
the year 2008”. – Program “Le Magazine de la santé” on France 5 (2008/05/16). – Canal+
daily program “Le Grand journal” (2008/05/09). – “Esprit libre”, on France 2 (2008/06/06):
the journalist Élisabeth Tchoungui introduces this “very good book”, “which is much
talked about” (according to Guillaume Durand, who runs the program).
 ASIA PACIFIC TRANSLATION AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES 103

Prix courrier international

For the sake of completeness, it should be reminded, that Brothers has received many
distinctions in France or other countries: “coup de cœur” of summer 2008 for Le Monde (11
juillet 2008), “best book of the year” according to Le Soir (23 décembre 2008) and Le Temps
(27 décembre 2008); and even “best book of the decade” for Le Temps (28 novembre
2009). But the most important of all was the “prix Courrier International du Meilleur Livre
Étranger” (“Courrier International prize of the Best Foreign Book”), awarded to Yu Hua in
October 2008 for Brothers.6 Courrier international is a weekly journal founded in november
1990, which offers, in French translation, a selection of articles published in the interna-
tional press. The prize, which had just then been created, is intended to reward an essay,
a story or a novel translated into French and published during the past year, which would
be “a testimony of human condition in a given part of the world”. Ten fictions, out of more
than 130 works, had been shortlisted (works by Chilian, Israeli, Cuban, Italian, Canadian,
Columbian, Yugoslavian and American authors).
The Xinhua news agency announced that Yu Hua had won the prize, recalling that,
while the novel “has been quite successful in China (one million copies sold)”, it has also
“stirred many controversies” there. At the beginning of the following year, Yu Hua went to
Paris to receive his prize, and a meeting with the French readers was organized at the
National Library of France. Not long before, Pierre Haski, former correspondent of the
journal Libération in China, wrote that “Yu Hua, the author of the fantastic Chinese saga
Brothers, published in France last spring” was doubly honoured, through the prize he was
about to receive, and through the portrait that the Indian writer Pankaj Mishra was
making of him at the same time in the New York Times, predicting that Brothers, whose
American version was in press, “will certainly be the biggest success in the history of
contemporary Chinese literature”(“Yu Hua primé pour le plus grand succès du roman
chinois” http://www.rue89.com/2009/January/25).

A universal success
It is a remarkable fact that Brothers found enthusastic readers in all walks of life: laymen,
but also intellectuals, and even personalities from the worlds of politics, economics and
show business. For instance, a leading figure in the Socialist Party, Mrs Martine Aubry,
when asked in an interview which book she was reading at the time, answered: “I am
reading Brothers, a novel by a Chinese writer, Yu Hua”.7 And the popular singer Julien Clerc
said in a interview, that there were two books he liked to buy for his friends, and one of
them was Brothers.8
One might be surprised by such unanimity: in China, Xiongdi was indeed a bestseller,
which sold more than one million copies, but it also received strong criticism, especially in
academic circles. Nothing of the sort happened in France: for instance, no one really
blamed the book for its coarseness. Bertrand Mialaret (Rue89) recalls, that “the novel has
been criticized in China for its crudeness and sometimes for its style, considered a bit
sloppy”. Livre Hebdo noticed, that some critics in China “have been shocked by the
extreme realism with which Yu Hua tells the story”, but the conclusion of the paper is
that this “humorous epic” is a kind of “chef-d’œuvre”. According to Marine Landrot
(Télérama), the vulgarity that permeates the narrative in the second part is “a metaphor
104 I. RABUT AND A. PINO

of the decay of a country overcome by capitalistic fever”. For most critics, Brothers is
a picaresque novel “which stops at nothing, be it melodrama, vulgarity, sentimentality,
scatology or poetry” (La Libre Belgique).
What can explain the attraction that the book produced on French readers? One of its
strong points is certainly its clear-sightedness, namely the way it succeeds in making fifty years
of Chinese history readable, understandable to foreign readers, by linking the excesses of the
present days to those of the Cultural Revolution. And this narrative is all the more persuasive, as
it is told through a simple story and a limited number of characters, who are at the same time
strongly incarnated and highly symbolic. For La Voix (Luxemburg), Yu Hua offers us “a
complete photograph of the Chinese society from the 1960’s up to the present day”. For
Evène, “Yu Hua portrays the crazy story of China from the 1960’s up to the present day” and the
more he distorts reality, the more he manages to grasp it. Since the book was published in
April 2008, it was considered as a must for the readers who want “to better understand what is
going on in the country of the Olympic Games” (La Libre Belgique). Yu Hua was also acclaimed
for his critical awareness and iconoclastic spirit, sometimes compared to that of Lu Xun,
Brothers becoming the book that disclosed what was hidden behind the brillant scenery of
the Games.
It is undoubtly this clear-mindedness which explains the fascination of politicians or
economists for the novel.

Yu Hua seen by French economists

One of the most interesting phenomena surrounding Brothers is its extraordinary popularity
among economists. The novel was read with a special attention by several French economists
interested in China, who saw in it a key to a better comprehension of the economic and social
evolution that this country, whose economy is on the way to becoming number one in the
world, has undergone during the last fifty years. To the point, that one of them, Professor Jean-
Hervé Lorenzi, president of the think tank Le Cercle des économistes, has invited Yu Hua, in
July 2018, to attend the “Rencontres économiques d’Aix-en-Provence” [Economic Encounters
of Aix-en-Provence], and to deliver a speech at the opening session on the central topic that
had been chosen for the 2018 year edition: “Age of Metamorphoses: between Continuity and
Rupture”.9 Les Rencontres économiques d’Aix-en-Provence are an economic forum organised
by Le Cercle des économistes since 2001, which brings together economists, academics,
entrepreneurs, representatives of international organisations or members of non-
governmental organisations, as well as policy makers. In addition, Yu Hua was interviewed
by the magazine Alternatives économiques, a monthly periodical dedicated to popularization
in the fields of economy and society, which exists since 1980.
In his book Homo economicus: prophète (égaré) des temps nouveaux [Homo economicus:
(Lost) Prophet of the New Times] Professor Daniel Cohen, head of the department of
economics at École normale supérieure, and founding member of the École d’économie
de Paris [Paris School of Economics], of which he was vice-chairman between 2007 and
2014, cited several times Yu Hua, “author of the fabulous novel Brothers (Cohen 2012, 114)”,
“a vigilant scrutinizer of Chinese reality (115)”, referring both to Brothers and to La Chine en
 ASIA PACIFIC TRANSLATION AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES 105

dix mots. One of the points he found particularly relevant was the way Yu Hua explains the
place taken up by economics today:

The Chinese novelist Yu Hua explained that the political repression on Tian’anmen is the event
that really kick-started the economic growth. Since the democratic process had been stifled,
the Chinese have sought in wealth an ersatz (substitute) for their forbidden passions (205).

Another historian of economics, in a study about the market, has also drawn on Yu Hua’s
work, this time on La Chine en dix mots (Fontaine 2013).
More surprisingly a blog dedicated to legal issues commented on the bankruptcy law
in China as illustrated by the case of the swindler Zhou You, a comic figure of Brothers,
who considers going to court and asking for protection against bankruptcy (Thibault de
Ravel d’Esclapon, “Brothers et la modification récente du droit chinois des faillites”
[Brothers and the recent modification of the Chinese bankruptcy law] http://blog.dalloz.
fr/blogdalloz/2008/07/brothers-et-la.html).
In Marocco too, the daily journal L’Économiste has reviewed this “saga for entering the
Chinese world” where “all ancestral or communist values seem to have disappeared”, and
where “there is only one goal left, money and the showing-off induced by it (N.S., ‘De la
Révolution culturelle à la business-culture: une saga qui va devenir très à la mode’ [From
Cultural Revolution to business culture: a saga which will become very trendy]
L’Économiste (Casablanca), September 16 2008)”.

A “total” novel10
Another strong point in Yu Hua’s novel is his description of violence and the way in which
the human world can suddenly plunge into madness and absurdity. From the very
beginning, Yu Hua has been haunted by the uncertainty of the world and he excells in
showing how, in the blink of a eye, a seemingly solid reality may be turned into its
opposite. A scholarly article published in Les Temps Modernes has stressed the ghostly
essence of reality in Yu Hua’s works (Rabut, 2005).11
Of course, there are other reasons, which make the novel so appealing, and first of all,
its emotional intensity. The bookseller Gérard Collard, an authoritative voice in cultural
media, was lyrical in his praise:

A grenade with the pin removed, amidst a rain of confetti! This is the book to read in 2008!
Don’t be afraid! It’s very easy to read, really pleasant like the best possible saga [. . .] You will
burst out laughing, smile, cry, bang your fists, feel desperate about not being able to enter
the book and help those two little boys bullied by the murderous silliness of adults. Between
comedy and tragedy, between Rabelais and Shakespeare. The absolute novel! If you don’t
read this novel, you just miss a marvel!12

Brothers is not only a vivid picture of contemporary China, it also contains thoughts
of universal value about destiny and interpersonal communication, which can easily
touch the reader to the heart. Despite his being an economist, Daniel Cohen has
praised recently on a more literary level the human truth reflected in the novel,
pointing to the fact, that the relation between two brothers is an archetype of
106 I. RABUT AND A. PINO

human experience, as exemplified by famous pairs of brothers like Caïn and Abel, or
Romulus and Remus. He said:

Today, we can easily see the importance of reviving those myths, because we want to
understand the violence which permeates our societies, and the difficulty of being brothers,
because this is exactly what it is about today.

And finally, the readers have been carried away by the epic breadth and powerful
imagination of the novelist.
Cohen goes on saying:

Yu Hua’s book is poignant, it’s a book which immediately reconnects with those great novels
that make you . . . that give you the pleasure of reading, because all the stories, all the threads
of the link between these two brothers are described in all possible psychological dimension,
and at the same time, it is set in this enormous period of transformation of China, which
makes us also understand China.

Brothers is a book that does not leave you at rest: once you’ve started reading it, you just
cannot stop. It’s a book that makes you resume confidence in the novel, I mean in the
capacity of the novel to be in one sense the relay of philosophy, inasmuch as it allows you
to understand human soul, but also of sociology and history, inasmuch as it can also lead
you to the comprehension of the mechanisms of a society and of the way human passions
are actually captured, used by society and therefore shaped by it.13

Conclusion
Some people, especially in China where the book received positive opinions, but also
harsh criticism, might be surprised by such an unanimous praise. Obviously, Chinese and
French readers had different expectations, regarding for instance the author’s language,
which has been often stigmatized in his own country for its coarseness. French readers
and critics have been enthralled by the epic sweep, shrewd construction and deep
humanism of the novel: for them, the story of Song Gang and Li Guangtou is both
a lucid portrayal of contemporary China and a moving parable of human destiny.
Through this successful combination, Brothers has secured its place among the master-
pieces of world literature.
At the beginning of his career, Yu Hua was known as the author of Huozhe. Now he has
definitely become the author of Brothers. Although his more recent books have not
gained the same success as Brothers, Yu Hua is now recognized as one of the leading
voices in contemporary literature. His recent invitation by Le Cercle des économistes, or
the fact that Daniel Cohen, asked to comment on a book he particularly liked, cited again
Brothers, ten years after the book had been published in France, shows indisputably, that
his reputation has not declined, and that perhaps this unique masterpiece opened up for
him the path to immortality. A few weeks ago – June 22d, 2019 – the national daily Le
Monde, which plays an influential role in cultural life, published a supplement entitled
“The one hundred novels of Le Monde”, namely the one hundred French and foreign
novels which have been most highly acclaimed by its critics since the foundation of the
newspaper in 1944. Only two Chinese books were listed: one was Bai Xianyong’s Niezi
(Crystal Boys), and the other was Brothers.
 ASIA PACIFIC TRANSLATION AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES 107

Notes
1. Yu Hua, “Wode shu youdang shijie de jingli” [The Odyssey of my books around the world]
(19 August 2017), trans. by Angel Pino & Isabelle Rabut, Passa Porta, Bruxelles, 2017.
2. Alain Peyraube, Le Monde, 1998/02/13, pp. III; Pascale Haubruge, “À vie et à sang” [Life and
Blood], Le Soir (Bruxelles), 1997/12/24-25, p. 30; Daniel Martin, “Les Trois plaisirs de Xun Sangang
[sic]” [Xu Sanguan’s three pleasures], La Montagne, 1997/12/28; Vers l’avenir, édition de Namur,
1997/12/10; La Nouvelle République du Centre-Ouest, 1997/12/11; Nice-Matin, 1998/01/04; Jean-
Michel Ulmann, “L’Ange de Tiananmen” [The Angel of Tian’anmen], Impact Médecin Hebdo,
1998/01/30; Technikart, février 1998; F.M., “Saga chinoise” [Chinese saga], Regards,
February 1998; Solange Fasquelle, “Misère et décadence” (à propos du Vendeur de sang de Yu
Hua et de Riz de Su Tong) [Misery and decay: About Yu Hua’s Xu Sanguan maixue ji and Su
Tong’s Mi], La Revue des deux Mondes, May 1998, pp. 68–171. Two papers were published much
later: Mireille Berkani, “Entre Keaton et Confucius” [Between Keaton and Confucius], La
Chronique d’Amnesty International, January 2004, p. 25; Nicolas Zufferey, “Les Lumières de
Hong Kong et les brumes de la traduction: à propos des éditions françaises de deux romans
chinois contemporains” [The lights of Hong Kong and the haze of translation: about the French
versions of two contemporary Chinese novels], Perspectives chinoises, No. 75, 2003, pp. 64–70 (a
paper focusing on the translation itself, and comparing the quality of the French translated text
with that of a novel by Wang Anyi, Xianggang qing yu ai).
3. An excerpt of the French translation of 1986 by Jacqueline Guyvallet was published as
a preview in Les Temps modernes, the famous journal founded by Jean-Paul Sartre, under
the title: “C’est alors que l’homme entra dans la petite ville” [Then the man entered the little
town], Les Temps Modernes, No. 630–631, March-June 2005, pp. 204–211.
4. Brothers, first part, trans. into Italian by Silvia Pozzi, Feltrinelli, “I Narratori” (Series), Milano,
2008; Arricchirsi è glorioso, Brothers, second part, trans. into Italian by Silvia Pozzi, Feltrinelli, “I
Narratori” (Series), Milano, 2009. Brothers: la saga, trans. into Italian by Silvia Pozzi, Feltrinelli,
“Universale economica” (Series), Milano, 2017.
5. Brothers, trans. into English (USA) by Eileen Cheng-yin Chow and Carlos Rojas, Pantheon
Books, New York, 2009; Brothers, trans. into Spanish after the English version by Vicente
Villacampa, Seix y Barral, “Biblioteca Formentor” (Series), Barcelone, 2009.
6. Prize endowed with 3 000 euros for the writer, and the equivalent of 20 000 euros in
advertising space for the publisher (at least 50% of this space must be devoted to the
promotion of the prize winner’s book).
7. Sabrina Champenois, “La 36e heure” [The 36th hour], Libération (2008/11/04); Élise Karlin &
Marcelo Wesfreid, “Quand Martine dîne au Marco Polo” [When Martine has dinner at the
Marco Polo], L’Express (2009/03/12).
8. Béatrice Gurrey, “Le Chef des enfants” [The children’s leader], Le Monde (2008/07/22), “Le
Choix de Julien Clerc” [Julien Clerc’s choice], Ouest France (2017/01/22).
9. Yu Hua’s speech, translated into French by Angel Pino and Isabelle Rabut, has been published
in the Proceedings of the 2018 Encounters, vol. 1, 12–18.
10. This expression has been used by Éléonore Sulser (Le Temps, Geneva) in the subtitle of her
article published on 24 May 2008.
11. A Chinese version of this text will be published in Quanqiu shiyexia de Yu Hua [Global Yu Hua],
Shanghai Jiaotong daxue chubanshe, forthcoming.
12. 7 May 2008, on channel LCI, program “Les coups de cœur des libraires” [The Favorite of
Booksellers].
13. “L’idée culture” [The cultural idea] is a very short program broadcasted by radio station
France Culture: every Saturday, a personality of the intellectual world voices his appreciation
of an artistic work which had an especially strong influence on him. On 15 September 2018,
Daniel Cohen, who had been invited on the occasion of the publication of his last book, Il faut
dire que les temps ont changé . . . chronique (fiévreuse) d’une mutation qui inquiète [We must
say, that times have changed . . . a (feverish) chronicle of an alarming mutation] (Albin Michel,
Paris, 2018), chose to speak about Yu Hua’s novel Brothers. The sequence lasted 4 minutes.
108 I. RABUT AND A. PINO

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors
Angel Pino, TELEM, Université Bordeaux Montaigne, angel.pino@u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr
Isabelle Rabut, IFRAE, Inalco/ Université de Paris/CNRS, isabelle.rabut@inalco.fr

References
Cohen, D. 2012. Daniel Cohen, Homo economicus: prophète (égaré) des temps nouveaux [homo
Economicus: (lost) Prophet of the New Times]. Paris: Albin Michel.
Fontaine, L. 2013. Le Marché: histoire et usages d’une conquête sociale [the Market: History and Uses of
a Social Conquest]. Paris: Gallimard, “Essais” (Series).

Appendix 1
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF YU HUA’S BOOKS
IN FRENCH TRANSLATION
Unmonde évanoui (preceded by: “Erreur au bord de l’eau” [Hebian de cuowu 河边的错误]),
stories, trans. by Nadine Perront, foreword by Marie Claire Huot, Philippe Picquier, Arles,
1994, 123 pp. Reprint, “Picquier poche” (Series), 2003, 144 pp. [Original title: Shishi ru yan 世
事如烟, 1988.]
Vivre !, novel, trans. by Yang Ping, Libraire générale française, “Le livre de poche” (Series), Paris, 1994,
224 pp. [Original title: Huozhe 活着, 1994.] Other edition: France Loisirs, Paris, 1994, 224 pp. An
edition in big characters is also available: Chardon bleu, “Largevision” (Series), Lyon, 1995, 2 vol.,
172 et 166 pp.
Le Vendeur de sang, novel, trans. by Nadine Perront, Actes Sud, “Lettres chinoises” (Series), Arles,
1997, 286 pp. Reprint, Actes Sud & Leméac, Arles-Montréal, “Babel” (Series), 2006, 285 pp.
[Original title: Xu Sanguan mai xue ji 许三观卖血记, 1996.]
Un amour classique, novelettes, trans. by Jacqueline Guyvallet, Actes Sud, “Lettres chinoises” (Series),
Arles, 2000, 263 pp. Reprint, Actes Sud & Leméac, Arles-Montréal, “Babel” (Series), 2009, 257 pp.
Contents: Une certaine réalité (Xianshi yi zhong 现实一种, 1988), Un amour classique (Gudian
aiqing 古典爱情, 1989), Quelques pages pour Yang Liu (Ci wen xiangei shaonü Yang Liu 此文献给
少女杨柳, 1989), Un événement fortuit (Ouran shijian 偶然事件, 1990).
Crisdans la bruine, novel, trans. by Jacqueline Guyvallet, Actes Sud, “Lettres chinoises” (Series), Arles,
2003, 325 pp. [Original title: Zai xiyu zhong huhan 在细雨中呼喊.]
1986, novelette, trans. by Jacqueline Guyvallet, Actes Sud, “Lettres chinoises” (Series), Arles, 2006, 89
pp. [Original title: Yijiubaliu nian 一九八六年, 1987.]
Brothers, novel, trans. and notes by Angel Pino & Isabelle Rabut, Actes Sud, “Lettres chinoises”
(Series), Arles, 2008, 717 pp. Reprint, Babel, n° 1003, 2010, 1021 pp. (2nd edition, 2013). [Original
title: Xiongdi 兄弟, 2005 (Livre I) and 2006 (Livre II).]
Vivre !, novel, trans. by Yang Ping, Actes Sud et Leméac, Arles et Montréal, “Babel Series”, 2008, 248
pp. [Original title: Huozhe 活着, 1994]
Sur la route à dix-huit ans, et autres nouvelles, short stories, Actes Sud, “Lettres chinoises” (Series),
Arles, 2009, 185 pp. Contents: “Sur la route à dix-huit ans” (Shiba sui chumen yuanxing 十八岁
出门远行), trans. by Jacqueline Guyvallet ; “Un midi où hurlait le vent du nord-ouest” (Xibei
feng huxiao de zhongwu 西北风呼啸的中午), trans. by Jacqueline Guyvallet ; “Récit de mort”
(Siwang xushu 死亡叙述), trans. by Jacqueline Guyvallet ; “Passé et Châtiment” (Wangshi yu
xingfa 往事与刑罚), trans. by Angel Pino & Isabelle Rabut ; “Fleurs de prunier ensanglantées”
 ASIA PACIFIC TRANSLATION AND INTERCULTURAL STUDIES 109

(Xianxie meihua 鲜血梅花), trans. by Angel Pino & Isabelle Rabut ; “Histoire de deux êtres”
(Liangge ren de lishi 两个人的历史), trans. by Angel Pino & Isabelle Rabut ; “Prédestination”
(Mingzhong zhuding 命中注定), trans. by Angel Pino & Isabelle Rabut ; “Je n’ai pas de nom à
moi” (Wo meiyou ziji de mingzi 我没有自己的名字), trans. by Jacqueline Guyvallet ; “Un Jeu
plein d’entrain” (Bengbeng tiaotiao de youxi 蹦蹦跳跳的游戏), trans. by Jacqueline Guyvallet ;
“J’ai un sang de navet” (Wo danxiao rushu 我胆小如鼠), trans. by Angel Pino & Isabelle Rabut ;
“L’Enfant dans le crépuscule” (Huanghun li de nanhai 黄昏里的男孩), trans. by Jacqueline
Guyvallet.
La Chine en dix mots, essay, trans. and notes by Angel Pino & Isabelle Rabut, Actes Sud, “Lettres
chinoises” (Series), Arles, 2010, 335 pp. Reprint, Babel, n° 1217, 2013, 335 pp. [Original title: Shige
cihui li de Zhongguo 十个词汇里的中国.]
Le Septième Jour, novel, trans. by Angel Pino & Isabelle Rabut, Actes Sud, “Lettres chinoises” (Series),
Arles, 2014, 272 pp. Reprint, Babel, n° 1537, 2018, 272 pp. [Original title: Di qi tian 第七天.]
Mort d’un propriétaire foncier, novelettes, trans. by Angel Pino & Isabelle Rabut, Actes Sud, “Lettres
chinoises” (Series), Arles, 2018, 353 pp. Contents: Mort d’un propriétaire foncier (Yige dizhu de si
一个地主的死, 1992), Typhon estival (Xiaji taifeng 夏季台风, 1991), Difficile d’échapper à son
destin (Nan tao jieshu 难逃劫数, 1988), L’Affaire du 3 avril (Si yue san ri shijian 四月三日事件,
1987), Frisson (Zhanli 战栗, 1994).

Appendix 2
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF YU HUA’S WORKS
PUBLISHED SEPARATELY
“Crépuscule pour un petit garçon” (Huanghun li de nanhai 黄昏里的男孩), short story, trans. by
Françoise Naour, Perspectives chinoises (Hong Kong), No. 45, January-February 1998, 50–53.
“L’Influence de la musique sur mon écriture” (Yinyue yingxiangle wode xiezuo 音乐影响了我的写
作), sanwen, trans. by Marie Laureillard, in Annie Curien (éd.), Écrire au présent : débats littéraires
franco-chinois, éditions de la Maison des sciences de l’homme, Paris, 2004, 65–71.
“C’est alors que l’homme entra dans la petite ville”, excerpt from the novel 1986, trans. by Jacqueline
Guyvallet, Les Temps Modernes (Paris), Nos. 630–631, March-June 2005, 204–211.
“Autoportrait en grand écart” [Juda chaju de zihuaxiang 巨大差距的自画像], sanwen trans. by
Angel Pino et Isabelle Rabut, Assises internationales du roman 2009 (X : Portraits d’une
génération), Villa Gillet-Le Monde, Christian Bourgois éditeur, “Titres” (Series, No. 102),
Paris, 2009, 333–337.
“De Mao aux J. O., l’épopée de la Chine contemporaine” [From Mao to the Olympic Games, the epic
of contemporary China], talk with François Jullien, interview by Alexis Lacroix, no name of
translator, Philosophie magazine (Paris), No. 32, September 2009, 28–33.
“Une semaine de Yu Hua”, diary from September 26 to 2 October 2009, trans. by Angel Pino et
Isabelle Rabut, Libération (Paris), 3 octobre 2009.
“(La) Vie quotidienne” [Richang shenghuo 日常生活], sanwen trans. by Angel Pino et Isabelle Rabut,
in Lexique nomade, Assises internationales du roman 2009, Villa Gillet-Le Monde, Christian
Bourgois éditeur, “Titres” (Series, No. 94), Paris, 2009, 85–86.
“Robert van der Hilst : regards sur la Chine” (mars 2010), preface to Robert van der Hilst, Intérieurs
chinois [Chinese Interiors], photographs, Gallimard, Paris, 2010, p. [7].
“L’Odyssée de mes livres à travers le monde” [Wode shu youdang shijie de jingli 我的书游荡世界的
经历], Keynote Speech delivered at Passa Porta Lecture 2017, trans. by Angel Pino et Isabelle
Rabut, Bruxelles, 21 September 2017. Published in Le Soir (Bruxelles), September 20, 2017.
“Les changements de la Chine tels que je les ai vécus” [Wo jingli de Zhongguo de bianhua 我经历的
中国的变化], Keynote Speech delivered at the Rencontres économiques d’Aix-en-Provence
(July 6–8, 2018), trans. by Angel Pino et Isabelle Rabut, in L’Âge des métamorphoses (The Age
of Metamorphoses), Le Cercle des économistes, 2018, 12–18.
110 I. RABUT AND A. PINO

Appendix 3
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF INTERVIEWS GIVEN BY YU HUA
TO FRENCH JOURNALISTS
“Courage et crimes : rencontre avec Yu Hua, auteur d’un recueil de quatre ‘petits romans’”, interview
by Sean James Rose, Libération (Paris), May 25, 2000.
“Êtres et lettres de Chine” (entretien avec Yu Hua [余华] et Chu T’ien-wen [Zhu Tianwen 朱天文]),
interview by Nicolas Ethève, L’Hérault du jour (Montpellier), March 26, 2004, 5.
“La Chine se déchaîne”, interview by Ursula Gauthier, Le Nouvel Observateur (Paris), No. 2270, May
8–14, 2008, 96 and 98.
“Entretien. Yu Hua, écrivain chinois : ‘La Chine vit actuellement une période très chaotique’”, inter-
view by Geneviève Welcomme, La Croix (Paris), 29 May 2008, 14–15.
“Mon écriture est simple, c’est devenu mon style”, interview by Frédéric Koller, Le Temps (Genève),
May 24, 2008.
“Rencontre – Yu Hua évoque Brothers et sa vision de la Révolution culturelle : ‘La Chine est plus riche
et la vie plus exagérée que je l’imaginais’”, interview by Claire Devarrieux, Libération (Paris),
April 24, 2008, “Livres”, p. III.
“Rencontre – Yu Hua : ‘J’ai servi la Chine toute crue’”, interview by Nils C. Ahl, in “Le Monde des
livres”, Le Monde (Paris), May 9, 2008, 10.
“Le Vent de l’histoire”, interview by Dominique Bari, “Chine 2008, l’année du tigre?”, Special Issue of
L’Humanité (Paris), 2008, 46–47.
“La Chine ne pouvait plus se développer sur le modèle de l’atelier du monde”, interview by
Guillaume Duval, trans. by Angel Pino et Isabelle Rabut, Alternatives économiques:
site internet (<www.alternatives-economiques.fr>, 27/06/2018.

Appendix 4
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF RESEARCH WORKS
WRITTEN ON YU HUA IN FRANCE
Zhang, Yinde. 2003. “Yu Hua et la violence de l’histoire”. In Zhang, Le Monde romanesque chinois au
XXe siècle: Modernités et identités, 223–240. Paris: Honoré Champion.
Rabut, Isabelle. 2004. “Yu Hua, l’obsession du mal”, Magazine littéraire, No. 429 (“La Chine de
Confucius à Gao Xingjian”), March, 59–60.
Rabut, Isabelle. 2005. “Yu Hua et l’espace hanté”, Les Temps modernes, No. 630–631, March-June,
212–246.
Jin, Jufang [金桔芳]. 2009. “Souvenirs d’enfance: une cage entrebâillée (une étude comparative
entre Le Tramway de Claude Simon et Cris dans la bruine de Yu Hua)”, Confluent, No. 5, April,
8–17.
Jin, Jufang [金桔芳]. 2010. “Histoire et fiction: une étude comparative des œuvres de Claude Simon
et de Yu Hua”, Doctoral Thesis in General and Comparative Literature, Université Sorbonne
nouvelle – Paris 3.
Delange, Elsa. 2012. “Yu Hua, métamorphose d’un écrivain entre deux Chine”, Master’s Thesis in
Chinese Studies, Bordeaux Montaigne University.
de Oliveira Gomes, Ariadna. 2012. “L’exil hors du langage”. In Chantal Chen-Andro, Cécile Sakai and
Xu Shuang eds., Imaginaires de l’exil dans les littératures contemporaines de Chine et du Japon,
185–201. Arles: Philippe Picquier [about Yu Hua’s 1986].
Rabut, Isabelle. 2013. “Une lecture empathique: Yu Hua et les littératures étrangères”, in Angel Pino
& Isabelle Rabut (éd.), La Littérature chinoise hors de ses frontières: influences et réceptions croisées,
You Feng, Paris, 281–299.
Liu, Junxian [刘俊贤]. 2015. “La Mort dans l’œuvre de Yu Hua”, Master’s Thesis in Chinese Studies,
INALCO.
Yang, Xiaoliu [杨小六]. 2017. “Le Septième Jour de Yu Hua: un monde rempli de bonté derrière les
désespoirs de l’humanité”, Master’s Thesis in Chinese Studies, Bordeaux Montaigne University.