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Yi Shu
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Yi Shu in
1964 | Hong Kong is a land of miracles. Its
popular literary boasts tremendous readership in Hong Kong, on the Chinese
mainland, Taiwan and wherever Chinese live. Dubbed Three Miracles in HK's
literary circles, romantic stories by Yi Shu, martial art novels by Jin Yong and
science fictions by Ni Kuang have enjoyed unbelievable popularity for decades
among all the Chinese people. As a female writer, Yi Shu stands out with her
romantic but sober stories and concise and fashionable style.
Yi was born in Shanghai. She published her first short story when she was
fifteen and has since become one of Hong Kong's best-known popular fiction
writers, with a truly prolific output. Her representative works include Story of
the rose and Once deeply in love.
Yi is a prolific writer, with more than 180 works published: full-length and
shorter novels, short stories. Her writings are a vivid depiction of middle
class life in Hong Kong, from the point of view of someone who has been
influenced by both Western and Chinese cultural values.
Yi's family, which was an average middle class family, moved to Hong Kong
from the mainland when she was a child. She is a natural writer and had her
first story published when she was only 16. She worked as a journalist, and many
of the events she covered gave her access to the upper echelons of Hong Kong
society. She draws from this experience when writing her novels.
After establishing her reputation as a writer of idealistic romantic novels,
Yi has branched out in recent years, and her works now include ghost stories,
tales about dreams or unexplained phenomena and "life lesson stories" --
moralistic tales about how to deal with everyday problems. Although no market
research has been done, it is estimated that more than 80 percent of Yi's
readers are women aged between 15 and 35. Not only is she an extremely popular
writer in Hong Kong, but her fiction is also widely read in mainland China,
Singapore, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries.
Yi's work contains few cultural or literary references. Her readers prefer
something entertaining and interesting, with characters similar to themselves.
It is for this reason that Yi Shu is looked down on by the literary world in
Hong Kong.
 Concise and Despairing
Even the writer's name is invisible at the end of a story, Yi's fictional
works are easy to recognize for her unique and concise writing style. She likes
using short sentences, and as few words as possible, managing to use
pungent tones and providing sober insights into human deep heart.
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