What novelists write is all about their perceptions and understanding of their current life, Yu said. Whether the story happens in the past, present or future, writers create from a perspective and position they understand, which is usually their currently one, so "all novels are about today, but works from different time are just about a today of that time", he said.

Delving into the details of the novel, he noted that he was impressed by the four dramatic deaths that occur within the first 70 pages.

Recalling his visit to Istanbul in 2014, Yu said that literature brings distant cultures closer. This, he believes, is why people still read classical Chinese poetry, the Chinese classic Dream of the Red Chamber, and works by William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Charles Dickens, Honore de Balzac, Franz Kafka, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

The event, jointly organized by the School of Chinese Language and Literature and the International Center for Writing at Beijing Normal University, is part of the Writers' Open Literature Class series.

During the Q&A session, a student asked Yu how to live well in modern times.

Yu said, "I've signed many books for people, and many young people ask me to sign 'live well' on their book. I know how difficult living well is, otherwise people wouldn't ask me to write it.

"I feel it's about effort," he said.

"Especially for you students, the difficulties you may encounter in the future will be much greater than those you face on campus. One thing is important: Every day we face a lot of negative things, so what should we do? The best approach is to diligently seek positive things within them and magnify them. Because any negative thing contains positive content. Once you find it, that is your key to living well. Living well is about making an effort to find positive things in daily life."