【Feature】
★Liang Xiaosheng's definitive "Educated Youth Literature" masterpiece — The spiritual epitome of educated youth returning to urban life.
★More than literature — it's history, and a spiritual manifesto for contemporary youth.
★An Educatued Youth Literature Without Generational Gap: Panoramas of hardship and rebirth during China's transformative era. This novel mirrors the self-reflection, redemption, struggle, and forgiveness of returnees in this era, as well as the reconstruction of value system amid Reform and Opening-Up, bearing extremely important practical and enlightening significance for the survival and development of contemporary young people.
★A philosophically Rich Realist Novel: Vivid characters and gripping conflicts embody the rational force imbued by Liang Xiaosheng, the relentless spirit of Chinese nation, leaving readers profoundly inspired.
We cannot choose our times — only how we respond
In this mortal world, the hardest yet most worthy task
Is simply to live well.
This book is a representative work by Liang Xiaosheng. It tells the stories of joy and sorrow of several educated youth families living in Harbin in the 1980s. It reflects the struggle and pain of a generation after the passion has faded. The novel takes the development and entanglement of characters such as Lin Chaoran, He Ningzhi, Luo Yimin, Yang Yifan, and Zhang Jihong as its main thread. It artistically shows the hardships, confusion, bewilderment, bitterness, and even despair that the educated youth faced after returning to the cities from multiple angles. Despite the hardships, they never bowed to fate or succumbed to life. Through struggle and hard work, they eventually found their place and sense of belonging.Read More
【Review】
I once wrote merely about that generation — until realizing their era matters even more. The true protagonist is 'The Times'. This book isn't nostalgia; it's a return to history's pivot point, presenting a true period of time, and filling in the historical memory for today's young people. It is not only to let them understand that generation of people, but more importantly to let them know about that period of history.
If "Snow City", which came out in the 1980s, was a story for the post-70s generation, and "The Rings of Time" in the 1990s was for the post-80s generation, then "The Age of Urban Return" can be said to be a "history of awakening" for the post-90s and even the post-00s generations, a "return to urban life and to the past" for all Chinese people.
—Liang Xiaosheng
"Unlike grievance-laden 'scar literature', this work transcends trauma with hope — aching yet uplifting."
—Da Chuang, Author
"Persevere, and skies clear. Liang's idealism shines through these characters' struggles."
—Song Qiang, Author
History and human nature are inherently very complex and multifaceted. They encompass pain, struggle, ugliness, cowardice, and distortion, but also include human warmth, ideals, loyalty, and dedication. While criticizing and reflecting, we should not deliberately evade the spirit left by this period of history, and we cannot deny that there are aspects of these spirits that are worth affirming. In this regard, Liang Xiaosheng's novels are close to historical truth.
—Liu Yang, Author
【Author】
Liang Xiaosheng
He was born in 1949 in Harbin with ancestral roots in Rongcheng, Shandong. He is a renowned contemporary Chinese writer and scholar. Currently, he serves as a senior professor at the School of Humanities of Beijing Language and Culture University, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), and a researcher at the Central Research Institute of Culture and History. To date, he has authored over ten million words of literary works, including essays, novels, commentaries, and documentary literature. His representative works include "Tonight There’s a Snowstorm", "The Rings of Time", and "Educated Youth". In 2019, he won the 10th Mao Dun Literature Prize for his novel "A Lifelong Journey". |
