China's first campus alternative novel: A Whole Road of Yelling

Author: Xiao Rui
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2003-04-01
Features: Two challenging, rebellious, and resentful underachievers who cannot endure their teachers' clichés and the lifeless atmosphere on campus escape school in the middle of a hot day, heading to Yanzhuang at the urban-rural interface to seek out a group of renowned itinerant artists. Upon arrival, everything feels stimulating and fresh. These artists, who claim to live for rock music, wear ragged clothes or odd outfits, some quiet and moody, others cheerful and flamboyant. When they have money, they live carelessly, and when they have drinks, they all sing together. When they have no money, they eat free meals and refuse to pay rent, waiting for the landlord to drive them out so they can save on the long-overdue rent. unlucky boy feels that this is the ideal paradise he has always dreamed of, filled with friendship, equality, passion, and sunshine. The two boys try their best to integrate into the group, respectfully asking for advice and treating them to meals. However, they clearly disdain and the two boys. Only then does unlucky boy realize that behind so-called art also lies hypocrisy and ugliness, along with an unspoken hierarchy based on seniority. At a bar, some of them advocate rape as the best way to have sex, and unlucky boy casually objects, only to be beaten with fists and feet by the furious group, leaving his face covered in blood. Later, they returned to school. It seemed everything had returned to the way it was. In fact, this strange experience had given him a deeper understanding of the complexities and changes of life. This is far from the only time, and it will never be the last. For them in their adolescence, a life always lies just beyond the horizon.