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Brief Description
"Hut On the Hill" was first published in the 8th issue of "Ren Min Wen Xue" (People's Literature) in August 1985. It is not only Can Xue's masterpiece, but also one of the masterpieces of avant-garde short stories that appeared in the mid-1980s in Chinese literature.

It was then reprinted in Taiwan and translated into at least three English versions.The three English versions are in (1) Renditions, nos. 27-28 (Autumn, 1987), Michael S. Duke trs., and reprinted in Worlds of Modern Chinese Fiction, Michael S. Duke ed., (Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, Inc., 1990); (2) Chinese Literature, Fiction, Poetry, Art,(Beijing, Summer, 1989); (3) Dialogues in Paradise, Ronald R. Janssen and Jian Zhang trs., (Evanston:Northwestern University Press, 1989).

Historical Context
Can Xue experienced the chaotic years of the Cultural Revolution in her early years. Beginning in 1966, the Cultural Revolution broke out and Can Xue, at that time, has just graduated from elementary school. The revolution forced her quit her school education and she was ordered to carry out Laogai (labor reform) in the countryside with all other teenagers. However, she was able to stay in Changsha, because of her poor health: she had been suffering from tuberculosis since childhood. During this period, Can Xue's father was sentenced to prison, and her mother went to the labor camp. The whole family suffered continuously from political and economic persecution. In order make a living, Can Xue worked in a small neighborhood factory for ten years. After the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976, Can Xue's father resumed his job politically and in 1980, and Can Xue also started to run her own sewing business. She began to have more time for her writing.

Speaking of her motivation for writing during the early ten years, she called it a kind of vengeance. She was unforgettable about the tough memories in her past experience, and the feeling of vengeance drove her to write down her feelings in the emotional realm. The irreconcilability of self and reality made her reflect on the restlessness of human nature. Everyone lives in the opposition between self and reality, and we all need to realize ourselves in the real environment. The self-completion of life is so complicated, as  the liberation of ourselves is the result of the victory of the good side of our human nature in the war of opposites.

Although not educated in school system, Can Xue dived in literature herself, both domestic and foreign, which profoundly influenced her formation of literary thought. Specifically, she formed her Modernist literary thought and writing style on the basis of Western culture and Western literature. Different from western modernist literary style, Can Xue's works are not written from the character of human beings, but from an abstract perspective to express the spiritual world of humans. They write the story of the soul and its pursuit of human nature. The emphasis on female consciousness and female self is another important aspect of Can Xue's modernist literary thoughts and an important feature of her literary creation.

Summary
The Hut on the Hill describes the absurd and chaotic life of a family living in a hut on the mountain.

The "I" "I" refers to the protagonist and same applies in the following text) in this work stands up with every vellus hair almost all the time, feeling the outside world vigilantly, and this outside world is the cold and vicious eyes of the house where my family lives.

I liked to organize my desk drawer ever night, but the noise and light in my room drove my mom crazy. She always peeped into the drawer of "I", and stared fiercely at the back of my head. My parents messed up the drawer and stole her most favorite things:  a set of Go (Go, a type of Chinese chess) was buried near the well, and moths and dragonflies were scattered on the floor. My mother's smile is hypocritical, my father made me feel familiar wolf eyes, my sister's eyes turned green... Hatred and suspicion have become the main theme of the family's daily life.

In terms of the environment, this hut is really dangerous. It is a simple wooden house, surrounded by no one inhabited. I went out and climbed the mountain several times to explore what happened there. When I reached the top of the hill, all I saw was desolate rocks flashing white flames, no wild grapes, no huts and no people. It is struggling barely by the fierce north wind and the screaming wolf howling. The black wind mixed with the leaves of wild grapes, the stones are shining with white flames under the sun. This kind of environment reveals a gloomy atmosphere everywhere.