Lu Yao
A native of Qingjian, Shaanxi Province, Lu Yao (Chinese:路遥) (1949-1992) was born on December 3, 1949. Having spent his childhood in the countryside, he entered a high school in Yanchuan in 1963. In 1969, he finished high school and returned to the countryside to become a teacher. Lu Yao was admitted to Yan'an University in 1973, majoring in Chinese. The same year, he published his first short story "Red Flag for Excellent Work" in the first issue of the periodical Shaanxi Literature and Art. After graduation in 1976, he served as an editor for the magazine Yanhe River.
In 1980, his novelette A stirring Act, published in Contemporary Literature, won the best award in a national contest.
In 1982, Lu Yao published his novelette Life, which describes the crooked path traversed by an educated village youth who desires to create a new life. It also describes his experiences in love and work, and in doing so reveals what village youths are pursuing in the new era. This novelette caused a tremendous response fro readers and won an award in a national contest. The film based on it won the Hundred Flowers Film Award fro best feature film during the Eighth Annual Film Festival.
His novel The Common World gives a panorama of the country life of Shaanxi in the 1960s and 1970s.
Lu Yao drew mainly from the Shaanxi countryside for the themes of his works. He portrayed a series of honest, good, aggressive youths, set against the background of their rustic surroundings.
His main works include A Stirring Act (1980), "The Wintersweet in Wind and Snow" (1981), "The Love Story of My Elder Sister" (1981), In the Difficult Days (1982), Life (1982) and The Common World (1986-88).
