onsdag 3. mai 2017

'I am Fan Yusu': China gripped by Dickensian tale of a migrant worker's struggle

As a girl, Fan Yusu looked to Charles Dickens for an escape from her life of rural poverty, immersing herself in the travails of Oliver Twist as he fled a Victorian workhouse and set off for the big smoke. But it is the story of Fan’s own flight to the big city that has captured hearts and minds in her native China after an online account of the migrant worker’s struggles made her an overnight literary sensation. According to Chinese media reports, more than one million people have read an autobiographical essay in which Fan charts her attempts to build a life in Beijing since last week when it was published on the social network WeChat. Read more