The English translation of Yu Hua’s book “Brothers” was released early this 2009. Having gotten myself a copy, I immediately devoured its 658-page book in the span of a week.
The novel presents a colorful trace down of China’s social and cultural transformation from the Mao era to the emergence of the “class enemies” and struggle sessions up to Deng Xiaoping’s opening up and reformation to Westernization and modern China (2001).
It starts with protagonist Baldy Li sitting on top of his gold-plated toilet seat doing his thing and planning on purchasing a US-million-dollar ride aboard the Russian Federation space shuttle—this after witnessing American businessman Dennis Tito preparing to depart on his $20-million space tour.
After which, the book takes us back to Baldy Li’s infamous childhood memory when he was just 14-years old. He is paraded embarrassingly in front of Liu Town’s masses after getting caught peeking at women’s butts in China’s (also) infamous public toilets.
Before going on, as a caution to bookworms who are interested in reading “Brothers”, I must warn you that the English translation stays true to the perversity and vulgarity of some descriptions and expressions—which all-in-all I find charming, funny, and touching at the same time. Let me explain.
Basically, “Brothers” is all about a recount of China’s history from the Cultural Revolution onwards through the lives of the 2 stepbrothers Baldy Li and Song Gang and the intertwining relationships among the Liu Town people. Memorable characters include Lin Hong (now Madam Lin), Poet Zhao, Writer Liu (now CEO Liu or C Liu), Blacksmith Tong, Yanker Yu, Popsicle Wang, Mama Su, Little Scissors Guan—along with other prominent or loud citizens of Liu Town.
There are a lot of references to sex and women’s body parts, especially the hymen, as shown in the National Hymen Olympic Games whose name was later changed to the more state-like Inaugural National Virgin Beauty Competition.
Some hilarious quotes and some that can make you go, “Oh, right!” and “A-ha!” are as follows:
When he thought of there being so many hymens throughout the country, lined up like a Great Wall of troops waiting for him, Baldy Li couldn’t help excitedly scratching his thighs with both hands.
About the Hymen Olympics—
The continuous flow of virgin letters had given Baldy Li an inspiration, and he announced that he was going to host a National Hymen Olympic Games…He uttered the word fucking more than twenty times. He was going to make those fucking reporters come running back like mad dogs. He wanted the fucking television reporters to broadcast his Hymen Olympics live and also to have it streamed live on the fucking Internet. He wanted the fucking sponsors to open up their fucking checkbooks and take out their fucking money, and to have fucking ads for the games plastered all over the streets and alleys. He wanted to have those fucking beauties wear bikinis and sashay up and down the street, and to have the fucking townspeople of Liu feast their fucking eyes on the spectacle. He wanted to establish a fucking Hymen Games organizing committee, find some fucking political leaders to serve as fucking chairmen and fucking deputy chairmen, and find ten fuckers to come serve as fucking judges. Pausing briefly at this point, he specified that the ten judges must all be male. Finally, he told PR Liu, “And you will be my fucking spokesman.”
This big part in the book is eerily similar to the 2008 Olympics where controversies hounded the Games such as fake ages and personalities, because the catch in Baldy Li’s Hymen Olympics was that none of the participants were real virgins per se (if based on the hymen itself). Of course “Brothers” was published way before the Games. Go figure your own conspiracy theory.
This episode fueled the rise of the supposed hymen economy where everyone knew what hymen reconstruction is.
It is as simple as having double eyelid surgery.
Others may counter, what is the definition of a virgin anyway? It is just society’s way of labeling women.
Besides sex and hymens, “Brothers” has many references to China’s literary culture. So if you are not familiar with. for example, “Journey to the West,” you may not get the contexts of their conversations.
The career and entrepreneurial success of Baldy Li is notable too in that it was the driver of the many events in the book. Back in the days when Mao suits where a come on, Japanese “junk suits” became the rage, and then other worldly brand names like Armani emerged. Eventually, the timeline leads to anti-Japanese sentiments among the Chinese people.
Another thing, aside from the historical notes, you would not find any Chinese “secrets” in the book itself. From my perspective, it is meant to titillate the readers more than actually think—though it really made me cry. It really did.
Of course, the title of the book being “Brothers,” the relationship between Song Gang and Baldy Li is the central theme of everything. A touching scene is when their mother Li Lan is on her death bed and gave Song Gang her final wishes—
“Song Gang, Baldy Li is your little brother. You must take care of him all your life. I’m not worried about you, but I am worried about him. If he takes the straight path, he will make something of himself; but if he goes the other way, I’m worried that he will end up in jail. You have to watch out for him and not let him go the wrong way. Song Gang, promise me that, no matter what Baldy Li might do, you will take care of him.”
“Mama, don’t you worry. I’ll take care of Baldy Li for as long as I live. Even if I have one bowl of rice left, I’ll let him have it, and if I have just one shirt left, I’ll give it to him.”
“If there is one bowl of rice left, the two of you should split it; and if there’s one shirt left, you should take turns wearing it.”
Looking back in the end, it is ironic how the fate of the two brothers turned out. But I will leave that to you. An exchange between Baldy Li and Lin Hong (homegrown beauty of Liu Town; childhood crush of Baldy Li; wife of Song Gong; lover of Baldy Li; lastly, entrepreneurial pimp of the rich) gave me the goose bumps (right on page 608).
Face plays an important role among the Chinese people. Being macho (for the males) is one. This is heavily seen in Yu Hua’s novel. It is highly frank and offers dissident humor. Various extremities like heart-wrenching poverties, gender bending, and detailed portrayal of the violence portrayed during the Cultural Revolution can be seen in the book.
“Brothers” can make you hate Baldy Li for his bastard-ness yet adore the pole-humping kid (and teener and adult) at the same time for his sense of family, loyalty, and responsibility (not to mention his smart-alecky business ways).
I will end with an unforgettable anecdote coming from Baldy Li after he returned from his Japan travels—
“While I was in Japan, I wanted to spend some of the money I was earning, so where do you think I went? Naturally, I wanted to go to the poshest place I could find: a bar. But would I know where to find such a bar? I didn’t even know the Japanese word for ‘bar.’ If I used the Chinese word for ‘bar,’ the Japanese wouldn’t know what I was talking about. What could I do?”
“I, Baldy Li, had an inspiration. It occurred to me that even if the Japanese don’t understand Chinese, shouldn’t they at the very least understand Arabic numerals?”
“Therefore, I wrote the number 8 on my palm, which, read out loud, sounds like the word for ‘bar,’ right?”
“I, Baldy Li, therefore was completely flabbergasted to find that, when I showed seventeen different Japanese people the number on my palm, not a single one of them had any idea what I was talking about. Is it therefore not true that the Japanese have no culture?”
Interestingly enough, I have just finished this book and was most disappointed. I really wanted to enjoy it but never got there.
Without turning this into a literary criticism. I thought it was a lightweight plot, predictable at every turn (the death of Song Gang’s father, Song Gang getting together with Lin Hong), and incredibly repetitive (the tedious passages around the workers at Director Li’s factory, or the part where he is trying to raise money from Yanker Yu and friends, for example). Most of all, I was surprised by the lack of humour. Apart from one or two laugh out loud moments, I laboured through the prose with barely a smile.
The cultural revolution era section was painfully dull (he may have well have flagged the plot turns); the reform years better and the last section, when Baldy Li finally beds Lin Hong, were just plain ridiculous.
Sorry if this includes too many spoilers for those who are about to read the novel, but to be honest, you could probably guess all of these from the first 50 pages…
Haha. You’re right about the workers. Though they represent the only ones who are loyal to Li. It’s sad really. How the fact he got together with Lin Hong…I truly thought he was trying to be more romantic. Anyway, I never liked Lin Hong.
The book IS long–that’s all I can say.
Quote: The cultural revolution era section was painfully dull
Did we read the same book? Are you mentally disabled?
Yu Hua has another interesting title about the cultural revolution–”To Live”. I have seen the movie, have yet to read the book. TommyDF, you could try that title. It offers another approach to the era. Ok, I cried in that film, so I guess it touches the human heart more.
For me, I like “Brothers” because it’s so extreme and different. I never expected it to be so exposed and raw and bordering on the unrealistic (in some areas) at the same time.
Anon. as tempting as it is to get into a name calling game with you, it is obvious you are quite new this book reading malarkey so I will refrain.
tip for the future though. when someone has a different opinion to you – eg. that Titanic is not a good movie or that Kenny G grates the ears – try not to respond by calling them mentally retarded. all it does is raise the suspicion that it is you yourself who has problems around the brain area.
very average read. the whole virgin/hymen thing was annoyingly leaden. wandering zhou was the most interesting character, but even he, like all the other characters, had no depth whatsoever. Whole thing was a bit of a comic book, minus the laughs.
Really? You thought Wandering Zhou was the most interesting character? He turned out to be pretty useless in the end.
You should take note of how the various characters changed when they worked for Baldy Li.
you judge a character on how ‘useless’ s/he is? how odd.
my point was that zhou at least had some depth to him – who was he, where did he come from. the fact that he ended up ‘useless’ was because the author failed to properly utilise him.
anyway, here is what I believe is a very good review. I
http://quarterlyconversation.com/brothers-by-yu-hua-review
I disagree with some of the review (I just didn’t see the humour in Brothers and I think some of the allegories – the hymens – were poorly conceived and badly written) but do agree with the following passage:
“Social satire can be dangerous. There is a temptation to overplay it, and this, perhaps, is why Brothers fails: it’s exceedingly difficult to read it as anything but an allegory—the characters are too pat, too iconic, too unable to confound expectation. Although authors should not be penalized for creating characters that broadly represent a point of view or a political ideology, there should be more to them: they should challenge, they should remind us people we know, of ourselves. Characters fall apart when they are only ideologies, loose and ill-defined as the ideologies may be.”
Well, I guess in my case, I side or not side with a character at once. Ok, so I’m pretty judgmental; but I think that’s one way you can see how an author makes his characters’ personalities strong and relevant to the continuity of the story.
I didn’t like Zhou. And he is a useless person. But his appearance is not entirely useless to the story.
Someone who I think has depth is Baldy Li himself. He is a mixed-up person–you’d want to hate him–but at the same time feel proud that he is like that. Just what I think.
should add, as I tried to post earlier but didn’t register, I was very disappointed with this. a lightweight plot, very predictable ( song gang would end up with Lin Hong anyone?), and at times just ridiculous.
Song Gang is kind of a…ummm…loser. But he is a good brother. Though quite stupid.
“Therefore, I wrote the number 8 on my palm, which, read out loud, sounds like the word for ‘bar,’ right?”
“I, Baldy Li, therefore was completely flabbergasted to find that, when I showed seventeen different Japanese people the number on my palm, not a single one of them had any idea what I was talking about. Is it therefore not true that the Japanese have no culture?”
Is he joking about the number 8, or what?
daesong – sadly, nothing in this novel is a ‘joke’, except the plot, characters and dialogue. truly awful.
I accept that Brothers not meant to be hard-hitting social realism, but a little veracity would be nice. once song gang (a man) got breast enhancement surgery to help sell some vials of breast enhancement cream, it finally sunk in (the clues were already there) that we were dealing with a cheap piece of fiction. its transition from deep tragedy (cultural revolution) to farce (the rest of the book) sets it up as a very unconvincing work of fiction. I liked the last line though, with baldy li wanting to send song gang’s ashed to outer space. pity about the preceding 600-odd pages.
Actually, “Brothers” reminded me of “One Hundred Years of Solitude.”
But I’m sure many here would react violently.
I thought exactly the same. There is a strong link between social- historical realism and a kind of mythical, distorted vision of mankind facing modernization, which reminds us how easy it is to lose our ability to make sense out of Change. Even if Brothers’ fictional world looks completely different after 600 pages from what it used to be 40 years earlier, we are in March and it’s always Monday.
@TommyDF
A truly shallow review (and one would suspect, reading.)
Do you need a point-by-point rebuttal, or will lavishing in your failure as a reader without further discussion suffice?
a truly shallow review of a truly shallow novel. nice symmetry don’t you think.
and yes, I would welcome a point by point rebuttal, if you would like to condescend further. pun intended.
but if your argument is going to rest on the cheap relativist claim that I somehow “read the book incorrectly”, then I really wouldn’t bother if I were you.
the only failure in all this was the book itself. oh, and your tardy comment.
sorry, I should add that I am TommyDF as well
I read this book way back in 2005, had I known it hadn’t been published in English until now, I would have translated it back then and put it out—
best scenes IMO:
1) The scene when Song Guang’s father fetches the body up out of the latrine.
2) when Song Gang and Li Guangtou are being beaten up during the cultural revolution
Did the English translation give justice to the original?
Funny how everyone gets a different feel from this book :)
I had just finished book last month. Started with the English version, not sure if it was the content or the translation, I couldn’t even get past pg5. Then I tried with the online Chinese version, find it easier to skip the loads of detailed (and repulsive) descriptions (I know, not really reading the story….but I wanted to finish the darn thing so I can understand why everyone is talking about it).
I would say the first part is quite touching and rings true to most of us who grew up hearing “how things used to be”. The 2nd part does not seem quite coherent. Some parts (especially the ending) feel like they were twisted for the purpose of shocking the readers rather than describing how the characters truely matured into adulthood.
I agree with the final paragraph. It appears the author got so wrapped up in allegory that he plain forgot to make any of the allegories either believable or interesting, which in turn led to a very flat second half.