"Alive" is one of the writer yu hua's masterpiece, tells the story of the big background, as the civil war, three-mirror five antis, the great leap forward, the cultural revolution, social change, Xu Fugui constantly experiencing hardship in life and family, in the end all the relatives have left him, only he and a head of cow are old.

For this novel, Yu Hua was awarded the Order of the Knight of the Arts and Letters of France in March 2004.

Theme
The novel "To Live" is a watershed in Yu Hua's creation. "To Live" shows the process of death of one person after another, setting off waves of endless suffering, showing an attitude towards the possibility of the process of death. Life itself is very difficult, the continuation of life must be difficult to live, just because it is extremely difficult, life has a profound meaning. Nothing is better than being alive, and nothing is more difficult than being alive.