nursery teacher, marking the start of her writing.
Fan has tales to tell. Her strong desire to express herself cannot be
satisfied merely by recording events. Making use of the snatched mo-
ments of rest, Fan has written a 100,000-word novel, for which she
has already thought of a title: To Meet Again.
As Fan explained, the novel is based on fact, on the previous and
current lives of people she has known. “The source of art is in life, and
real life is absurd,” she wrote.
After the Sandstorm
Never would Fan imagine that her quiet life would be struck by a
storm after her essay “I Am Fan Yusu” was published on NoonStory.
Things got out of control in a way that far exceeded her expectations.
Journalists from all around the country flocked to her eight-square-
metre home and to the office of the literature group. A website an-
nounced its intention of providing Fan a position as editor for its
parenting channel; a media outlet said it could help Fan “find a boy-
friend.” Journalists also rushed to Fan’s hometown, attempting to in-
terview her 83-year-old mother.
Overwhelmed by the sudden fame, Fan had to abandon her home
and vanish from public view. Through a message she sent to a reporter,
Fan claimed that her “social phobia had turned into depression” and
she had hidden herself “in an ancient temple in a nearby mountain.”
“It’s like a sudden sandstorm, so grey and hazy that it might easily
veil one’s eyes,” Fan told a WeChat official account, Meirirenwu.
A new media platform invited her to become a contracted writ-
er, promising to pay 10,000 yuan (US$1,450) per month for four
monthly articles. She rejected the offer outright, as she feels she can-
not write on demand about topics given to her by others.
As Fan explained, writing “I Am Fan Yusu” was driven by a strong
sense of pain and shame. The essay was originally written for her
mother, after she heard that her mother had been violently mistreated.
A strong woman, her mother, as she described with humour in the
essay, “was elected head of village women affairs in 1950 and stayed
in power for 40 years, exceeding the amount of time Saddam Hussein
and Muammar Gaddafi reigned.”
Two years ago, Fan’s then 81-year-old mother went to the local
government protesting against the violent seizure of farmland. Her
shoulder was dislocated when the guards pulled her away by the arm.
She was relatively fortunate because the youngest protester suffered
four broken ribs at the hands of guards.
In her writing, Fan hopes that people can be treated equally and
live with dignity. “As a daughter of a strong rural woman, I was often
bullied by people in the city. I would then think: do people bully
others who are weaker than they are to get physiological pleasure? Or
is it how genes work? Since then, I have had this idea that I will pass
on love and dignity to everyone I meet who is weaker than I am,” she
wrote.
Fan has now quit, temporarily, her hourly domestic work and is fo-
cusing on the revision of her novel To Meet Again. The draft has been
sent to a well-regarded publishing house. “Whether the work will be
published or not is fine with me. No matter what, I will continue to
do what I am supposed to do,” she told ChinaReport.
“I have no talent,” she said, refuting the suggestion that she hoped
to pursue a writing career. “If there is no emotion surging from my
heart, I won’t be able to write a word. After all, I am not a person who
lives by writing,” Fan told our reporter. Media constantly compares Fan Yusu with the famous poet Yu Xiuhua, who
is also a woman from rural Hubei Province. On May 3, Yu Xiuhua visited the
Workers’ Home, hoping to see Fan Yusu. However, Fan did not appear
Photo by cfp