A Yi: Stendhal's novel showed the way

A common saying in Chinese goes, "reading changes fate." For writer A Yi, this is not merely a catchphrase, but his true life experience.

In his speech, he shares how reading changed his life trajectory, leading him out of the mountain valley in his hometown to become a writer and see a broader world.

"From a pragmatic point of view, the most beneficial thing in this world is reading," he says.

Born in 1976 in Ruichang, Jiangxi province, A Yi studied at Jiangxi Public Security College in Nanchang, the provincial capital, today's Jiangxi Police Institute. After graduation, he went back to Ruichang and worked as an administrative officer stationed in a remote police station.

"I saw no need to change anything about that life, until I read Stendhal's novel," he says.

He refers to The Red and the Black written by the French writer. He still has the original copy he bought, on the title page of which he left the date when he first read it: July 27, 1998.

In his description, he "caught the fervor" of the protagonist Julien Sorel, whose ambition and recklessness influenced him to leave his hometown in pursuit of a greater life.

"I realized I should do something worthwhile for this vast land and even the entire planet," he says. "A young person of humble origin is just as entitled to the world as anyone else."

After nearly a decade in media, he became a full-time writer. He has since published 12 books, translated into over a dozen languages.

"Humans first exist, then define themselves through their own will. Life is nothing other than this process of self-design and self-realization," he says.