Yu Hua

Yu Hua
Yu Hua speaks at the 2023 Hong Kong Book Fair
Native name
余华
Born (1960-04-03) 3 April 1960
Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China
OccupationNovelist, essayist
LanguageChinese
NationalityChinese
Alma materLu Xun Literature School
Period1984 – present
GenreNovel, prose
Literary movementAvant-garde
Notable worksTo Live (1993)
Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (1995)
Brothers (2005–2006)
Cries in the Drizzle
Notable awards5th Zhuang Zhongwen Literary Prize
1992
James Joyce Award
2002
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
2004
RelativesFather: Hua Zizhi (华自治)
Mother: Yu Peiwen (余佩文)

Yu Hua (simplified Chinese: 余华; traditional Chinese: 余華; pinyin: Yú Huá; born 3 April, 1960) is a Chinese novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is widely considered one of the greatest living authors in China.

Shortly after his debut as a fiction writer in 1983, his first breakthrough came in 1987, when he released the short story "On the Road at Age Eighteen". Yu Hua was regarded as a promising avant-garde or post-New Wave writer. Many critics also regard him as a champion for Chinese meta-fictional or postmodernist writing. His novels To Live (1993) and Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (1995) were widely acclaimed. Other works like Brothers (2005–06) received mixed reviews domestically, but positive reviews abroad.

Yu Hua has written five novels, six collections of stories, and three collections of essays, which have collectively sold nine million copies and have been translated into over 20 languages.