Getting By

Name: Getting By
ISBN: 9787559802965

杨葵Guangxi Normal University Press · ChinaDec 2021

3.8

Word count: 112K words
Chapters: 9
ISBN: 9787559802965

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Summary

"Memory" is the theme and tone of Passing Muster. The expanded edition adds two essays, "Notes from Northern Jiangsu" and "No. 19, Xinjiekouwai Street," recalling childhood and youth. Yang Kui says the standard for a good essay is "not being pretentious," so he simply writes memories honestly—real people and real events, all things he experienced himself, things that influenced the formation of his outlook on life and the world. Yang Kui came from an artistic family, was born in northern Jiangsu in 1968, and moved back to Beijing with his parents in 1979 when their policies were implemented, living in the cadres' dormitories of the Chinese Writers Association and the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, next door to senior literary and art cadres of the older generation such as Lu Ling, Shu Qun, and Li Zhun; in the late 1980s he studied at Beijing Normal University, personally taught by famous teachers including Zhong Jingwen, Xu Jialu, and Wang Furen; in the 1990s he worked as a book editor at the Writers Publishing House, and over more than a decade of editing dealt with hundreds of authors including Bing Xin, A Cheng, and Wang Anyi. Yang Kui's rich personal experience gives his writing no lack of material, but he is modest and restrained, not writing for catharsis, nor writing as piecework, seeking only the beauty and power of words and writing his heart with his own hand; the stories he chooses to record depend neither on the fame of the people nor on the depth of his private friendship with them, only on whether the story is interesting.

Editor's review

Passing Muster is a restrained book of memories. Yang Kui writes of childhood in northern Jiangsu; of the days after moving back to Beijing with his parents in 1979 into the cadres' dormitories of the Writers Association and the Federation of Literary and Art Circles; of what he saw living next door to Lu Ling, Shu Qun, Li Zhun, and others; of his time at Beijing Normal University in the 1980s studying under Zhong Jingwen, Xu Jialu, Wang Furen, and other teachers; and of his career in the 1990s as an editor at the Writers Publishing House, dealing with many authors. Its value lies in the author's conscious refusal to vent or show off credentials; he selects material only by whether "the story is interesting," and his prose is clean and restrained, rendering people and events of a great era plainly and with warmth. The expanded edition adds "Notes from Northern Jiangsu" and "No. 19, Xinjiekouwai Street," further filling in childhood and youth. It suits slow reading in quiet moments—as a mirror showing a corner of everyday literary life in the second half of the twentieth century, and showing how ordinary people come to terms with their own origins.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy plain, restrained essays and memoir writing
Those curious about the everyday literary scene of the 1980s
Publishing professionals who want to learn about the industry's past
Readers who want short essays for fragmented time

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting strong plot and dramatic conflict
Researchers seeking systematic literary history or biographical chronologies
Readers who prefer sharp argument and opinion-driven writing

Reading tips

Flip through the essays in any order; each stands alone, so no sequence is required
When encountering familiar names, do not look them up first; read the piece, then check background to preserve the original impression
Keep pen and paper to note details that move you; they read differently later
Read one or two pieces before bed; it suits slow reading rather than finishing in one sitting

About the publisher

Guangxi Normal University Press China · Founded in 1986

Guangxi Normal University Press is a publisher known for literature, foreign literature and history titles. Its 1,175 books in the database show a solid accumulation in classics and prose collections, including foreign literary works such as Les Fleurs du mal: Annotated Poems of Baudelaire, Snow Country, Dubliners and The Wild Palms, as well as modern prose compilations like The Complete Prose of Zhou Zuoren. History and philosophy also hold a notable share, with titles such as Running Dogs: Clerks and Runners in Qing County Yamen and The History and Thought of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reflecting attention to Qing local administration and modern history. In art literature there is the 16-volume Ten Bamboo Studio Painting and Calligraphy Manual. Its author resources include foreign writers Charles Baudelaire and Yasunari Kawabata, translators and annotators Liu Nanqi and Zou Bo, and scholars such as Zhong Shuhe, Bradly W. Reed and You Chenjun. As public information is limited, this characterization is based only on the books in the database, which together present a profile balancing Chinese and foreign literary classics with academic works in the humanities and social sciences.

版权信息
增订版自序
初版自序
苏北笔记
虎坊路甲十五号
新街口外大街十九号
农展馆南里十号
我和我的作者们
老城门边的私家地理

FAQ

Is this book a complete biography or an essay collection?

It is a collection of memoir essays. Each piece stands alone, unfolding around fragments of childhood, schooling, and editing career; it is not a complete biography laid out along a timeline. The expanded edition adds two essays supplementing memories of childhood in northern Jiangsu and life in the old residence.

Will it affect my reading if I do not know the literary figures mentioned in the book?

Not much. The author writes about people with attention to everyday details and the feeling of being together; he does not rely on their fame or show off private friendships. Even without knowing names like Lu Ling or Shu Qun, you can still sense the era's atmosphere and human warmth; look up background later if interested.

Why is the book titled Passing Muster?

The available material does not directly explain the title's origin. Judging from the book's overall tone, the author looks back on his path with restraint and plainness, neither dramatizing hardship nor boasting of experience; the phrase "passing muster" fits this unassuming stance of seeking only the beauty of words.

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About the author

杨葵 Author

Yang Kui is an author in the Chinese-language writing scene known for his essays and documentary-style prose. Public information about him is currently limited, and no confirmed details of his life are available. Two of his works are included here, Bujingyi (Inadvertence) and Guodequ (Getting By), commonly classified as essays and miscellaneous writings and as documentary literature. Judging from the titles and genres of these two books, Yang Kui's writing tends to draw on everyday experience and the people and events around him. His tone is plain and restrained, revealing human feeling and the passage of time through small fragments of life, with a note of recollection and self-reflection. Rather than relying on grand narrative, he attends to the measure of language and the texture of detail, letting ordinary people's situations emerge naturally in his understated prose. This close-to-life approach gives his writing a simple sense of truth somewhere between the essay and the documentary, suited to readers who prefer quiet reading and an attention to daily experience. Owing to limited materials, the full scope of his work and his writing career remain to be further documented.