Brothers by Yu Hua: Story, Characters and Reading Guide

Published by Anthony
on November 11, 2026

Read a guide to Yu Hua’s Brothers, with Baldy Li, Song Gang, Lin Hong and the change from the Cultural Revolution to the reform years.

Quick Answer: What Is Brothers by Yu Hua About?

*Brothers* (兄弟, Xiōngdì) is a novel by Yu Hua (余华, Yú Huá) about two boys who become family when their parents marry. Baldy Li (李光头, Lǐ Guāngtóu) and Song Gang (宋钢, Sòng Gāng) promise to remain brothers. Their loyalty is tested first by violence during the Cultural Revolution and later by rivalry and changing fortunes in the market reform years.^[1][2][3]

The place: The fictional Liu Town gives the story a community that remembers both boys across decades.
The brothers: Baldy Li becomes an entrepreneur. Song Gang has fewer ways to turn the new economy to his advantage.
The tone: Tender scenes of family life sit next to violence, crude comedy and public spectacle.

The bond formed in childhood gives the later rivalry its stakes.^[1][3]

Four reading points follow the boys’ family bond through two periods of change in Liu Town.

Yu Hua introduces Baldy Li with money to burn, then returns to the years when the boy needed someone to stand by him.

Why the Novel Starts With a Rich Man’s Toilet

The opening finds the prosperous Baldy Li sitting on a gold-plated toilet and thinking about a trip into space. His spending gives the reader a view of where he has arrived before the novel goes back to his childhood. It also makes wealth look absurdly ordinary. The means to pay for an extraordinary trip and the place where he thinks about it are part of the same joke.^[2]

The opening works as a promise about tone. *Brothers* can make a character ridiculous without making him easy to dismiss. As the account moves back in time, you see the boy behind the rich man and the family bond that preceded his wealth. The novel also returns to public episodes that townspeople remember and retell. The town has been telling stories about his embarrassing behavior since he was a boy.^[2][4]

Baldy Li, Song Gang and Lin Hong

The brothers do not have the same way of keeping promises. Baldy Li is quick to act on desire and opportunity. Song Gang places a high value on standing by others. Lin Hong (林红, Lín Hóng) makes a choice that makes the differences between them harder to ignore.^[1][2][3]

Character	What to follow
Baldy Li	The boy who depends on family loyalty becomes a man skilled at turning people’s attention into an advantage.
Song Gang	The more reserved brother values loyalty, marries Lin Hong and struggles as his economic circumstances change.
Lin Hong	The woman both men want to marry has decisions of her own, and those decisions carry different consequences as their fortunes change.

By the time both men pursue Lin Hong, the reader has seen what their loyalty has already cost them. Even when they judge the same event differently, they remember the closeness that came first.

How the Two Parts Change the Brothers’ Fortunes

The first part follows the boys and their parents through the Cultural Revolution. Their family can give them affection and a sense of obligation, even when it cannot keep violence outside their door. The second part takes them into an economy where wealth can arrive suddenly and where stable work and status can also disappear. The events of childhood matter because they leave the brothers with expectations of one another that the second part puts under pressure.^[2][3]

Baldy Li’s climb is uneven. He loses money and makes a livelihood from scrap before reaching the position promised by the opening. Song Gang’s marriage to Lin Hong does not secure his economic future. Their fortunes cross often enough to unsettle any easy judgment about which brother has chosen well.^[1][2][3]

Yu Hua’s Chronicle of a Blood Merchant also asks what one man will do to support his family. There the repeated act of selling blood gives the story its measure of sacrifice. *Brothers* takes the reader through more abrupt changes of fortune.

Why the Comedy Turns Cruel

The novel is full of things people can notice together. In the first part, that attention can become a crowd’s willingness to look on at violence. In the later part, it can become something to attract, sell or use to raise a public profile. The jokes can feel cruel because what makes a scene entertaining to bystanders can hurt the people at the center of it.^[2][3][5]

For a different family saga that also tracks twentieth-century political changes through siblings, see Mo Yan’s Big Breasts and Wide Hips. Yu Hua’s To Live uses a more concentrated account of family survival.

FAQs About Brothers by Yu Hua

Are Baldy Li and Song Gang biological brothers?

They are stepbrothers. Baldy Li’s mother marries Song Gang’s father. Their promise to stay brothers gives that relationship a force of its own.^[1]

Who translated Brothers and should I read both volumes?

Eileen Cheng-yin Chow and Carlos Rojas translated the novel. Pantheon published their English edition in 2009. It contains both parts of the story, which appeared separately in Chinese in 2005 and 2006. Read them in order to see why the later rivalry matters to both men.^[3][4]