Recently, the novel Children of the Tide by Hengyang-born writer Wu Jin, whose pen name is Yehuo, was published by Beijing Arts and Crafts Publishing House. Taking the growth and entrepreneurship of the four Chen brothers as its main line, the book unfolds a panoramic picture of the times spanning twenty years.

Wu Jin has spent his life among the podium, pen and ink, and law, and has long focused on grassroots reality and individual destiny. Children of the Tide continues Wu Jin’s narrative path of “writing people close to the earth.” It not only shows individuals’ struggle and growth amid opportunities of the times, but also depicts the pulls and perseverance of family affection amid interest entanglements and turns of fate. It also incorporates a distinctive local texture, allowing the grand era to land on concrete people and rural scenes.

The story makes its theme clear from the beginning. The father, Chen Shouye, is a traditional rural teacher who firmly believes that “going to college, entering the system, and holding a public-sector job” is the only right path. His four sons, however, each have their own ideas: the eldest son, Chen Jianguo, goes to work as an accountant in a state-owned factory; the second son, Chen Jianjun, harbors a literary dream and an entrepreneurial spirit; the third son, Chen Jianhua, is determined to venture into the market; and the fourth son, Chen Jianye, is obsessed with machinery. Magazines under the old locust tree, exam preparation under kerosene lamps, and the dispute over college applications at the square table outline the four brothers’ struggle between their father’s expectations and their personal ideals.

The turning point of the story occurs amid the vortex of interests and a rift in family affection. Although the four brothers’ careers each blossom, deep cracks are left in their kinship. The novel ends with the four brothers raising their glasses in reconciliation on New Year’s Eve and little Chen Yang, under the fireworks, resolving that he “also wants to make agricultural machinery.” It reveals the theme: true success is not holding the “iron rice bowl” in the eyes of others, but finding what one truly wants to do and keeping the bottom line of “being practical” and conscience.

Some literary critics believe that, with solid rural experience and period details, the work presents the spiritual trek of a generation amid the transition in and out of the system. The book’s language is plain and its narrative dense, refracting the deep pulse of reform and opening up through individual destinies.