Zhang: Mo Yan also opposed my saying that his works were intellectual. I think both of your works carry the tradition of Lu Xun, whose writing criticized society, recognized absurdity in individual life, and focused on the poor. His later period of illogicalism and irrationalism was very dense. Intellectualism is multi-layered. I believe you and Mo Yan are fundamentally intellectual writers.

Yu: An intellectual is someone who has at least graduated college! I haven't.

Zhang: What do you do now?

Yu: I'm preparing to write my next novel.