(Buy Yu Li – Confessions of an Elevator Operator on Amazon U.S. / Buy Yu Li – Confessions of an Elevator Operator on Amazon U.K.)Paperback ● 100pp ● ISBN 978-1-84831-050-6
The title character of Yu Li: Confessions of an Elevator Operator, is an inspector at a fake wine distillery in a small town without any tall buildings in Hebei province. After he is fired for drinking the wine during his inspections, Yu Li manages to land another job as an elevator operator in a luxury apartment building in the far-off capital, Beijing.
The apartment building is home to the winners in the new China: celebrities, the new rich and big-shot officials. Misadventures abound as Yu Li struggles to adjust to the confusion of city life and, above all, fights to subdue the ‘nuclear weapon’ in his pants.
Yu Li’s story highlights the plight of China’s migrant workers, which has largely gone unremarked by China’s prospering middle classes. Millions of rural inhabitants are leaving the land and moving to the cities, which struggle to generate enough work to provide them with a living, and so social tensions develop. Author Jimmy Qi said, “Yu Li shows the boundless and rich ingenuity, not to mention philanthropy, of the Chinese people.”
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