Like a Speeding Youth

Like a Speeding Youth (像少年啦飞驰, pinyin: Xiàng shàonián la fēichí) is a 2002 novel by Chinese writer Han Han. It is Han's third book, and uses Han's traditional writing style, a mixture of humor and satire about society. The novel indicates contemporary Chinese students' as well as lower class workers' confusion and current situation.
Preface.
It is universal that published books' prefaces are something like expectances that this book could sell well or praises for the authors' great talents by another several masters. However, the content of the "Like a Speeding Youth"'s preface differs from the majority. The content of the preface can be divided into four parts.
Synopsis.
This book can be divided into three parts according to three main characters' appearance and disappearance. They are Tie Niu (铁牛 TiěNiǘ), Lao Xia (老夏 LǎoXià) and Lao Qiang (老枪 LǎoQiāng).
Plot.
In the first part, the narrator recounts the carefree life of the leading character and Tie Niu in Shanghai. In this part, the protagonist shows no interest in study. Junior school teachers appear as very cruel to less wealthy and less academically inclined students, which results in these two characters' hatred of school. In the following years, the two little boys skipped school all day and joined an informal faction. During the time in the faction, actually, they didn't do anything antisocial, they just idled away and laughed, shouted and played. But this part has a mysterious ending that Tie Niu disappeared in a certain summer holiday and no longer appeared.
In the second part, another important character Lao Xia appeared when the protagonist entered the university. In their daily life, they didn't act as students. Their lives were full of drinking and different methods of pursuing different beautiful girls. Completely empty, they started to study cars. In a car accident, Xia injures someone and is thrown out of the college. Eventually, the protagonist was expelled, either because of this or being framed for stealing cars.
In the last part, the author describes Lao Qiang and the protagonist's lives as fake writers. They wrote books for famous authors and then published in their names. The protagonist and Lao Qiang lived in the low social class. Besides writing, they had nothing to do but idle away. But they could enjoy a short luxury life as long as they got payments from some underground editors.
Main characters.
Most characters in literary works don't simply stand alone, but stand for certain distinctive groups in current public life. On them, we can observe a lot of reflections of social issues. Here come our three male characters. They are Tie Niu, Lao Xia, Lao Qiang, who appear in different stages of 'MY' life and represent distinct social being.
Writing devices.
The book is written in the first person, in the style of a bildungsroman.
Accomplishments.
This book displays a lot of ugly realities in society and the author's criticism of teachers, colleges and some sophisticated literature masters. Because of Han's kind of unique and sarcastic literary writing style, many people become enthusiastic about it as well as some foreigners.
Author.
Here's Han Han's brief introduction
Generally, writers would base their characters upon themselves. So, to some extent, the narrators in "Like a Speeding Youth"' reflect Han Han's personality. Having thoroughly appreciated the book does help readers to understand Han Han.
Han Han is a person who is eager to grasp any opportunity to vent his backlog of depression and resentment of certain current social circumstances. He always tries to impress us with his strong but implicit satire to some so-called critics. At the beginning, his words make us laugh. But after digging in, most people would stop to muse why these conditions occur in China from time to time, what the bigger crises of current educational system behind these phenomena are, and what solutions we should take to confront the severe issues.
Here's his recent speech about reform
Negative.
This distinctive preface indeed reminds me of such a term cynicism whose father is a smart lunatic, philosopher Diogenes. Cynicism advocate the belief of absolute freedom and intense contempt to authority. This sort of spirits, to some extent, reflects Han Han's lifelong motto. In that angle, we can speak up that Han Han is a modern Diogenes, who is also condemned by times
Positive.
However, Han Han indeed speak out where current social problems are and today'a adolescent's heart. That accounts for the reason why there are still many Han's supporters standing out to advocate their idols. Among these supporters, they also include some celebrities.