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20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
Title
20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
Author
Xiaolu Guo
Topic
Fenfang’s 20 Fragments
Research Question
How do the fragments in 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth affect Fenfang’s life and how are
the fragments connected?

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Abstract
This essay is an analysis of the book 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
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These included poverty, memories and so on, however this essay
will write according to the topic Fenfang’s 20 Fragments
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One of the connections being Fenfang’s Hao An
script connected with her own life
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Using
secondary literature, mostly books about life in Beijing from several angles, it shows how
Fenfang had a hard time adjusting in Beijing
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Huizi, who was one of her friends, even inspired her to be a scriptwriter, which is
eventually the reason she became successful
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3
Important Fragments
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4
Fragment Two
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4
Fragment Seven
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5
Fragment Eleven
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6
Conclusion
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8

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Introduction
“Never look back to the past, never regret, even if there is emptiness ahead
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Sometimes I would rather look back if it meant that I could feel something in my heart…”
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Xiaolu Guo1

20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth is a book about twenty fragments in the life of Fenfang
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For each fragment in the book, we get a glimpse
into Fenfang’s life and learn more about her, fragment by fragment
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Fenfang starts out by working in minor jobs,
however as the story progresses she starts taking acting jobs
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Fenfang has a couple of different lovers
throughout the book
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Fenfang’s love life
greatly affects her personal life, as she is not strong enough to withstand the attachment her past
boyfriends have developed for her
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These were
words told to Fenfang by one of her best friends, Huizi
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This is how the
book tells us the story of Fenfang, through different fragments telling us a short part of her life
and how each fragment contributed to how the future might develop for her and is what this
essay will focus on
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She was at the Beijing Film Studios
filling out an application form for an extra role in a film
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This is the moment
of Fenfang’s life where she began her acting career as a small extra role, but it will affect her
future greatly and change her life as she also suggests herself: “From this day on I would never
again live like a forgotten sweet potato under the dark soil
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This is what Fenfang
thought shortly after walking out of the Beijing Film Studios
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The moment she enters the acting career
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It takes place during Fenfang’s
first night in Beijing
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Through the curtains of a
window in a nearby building, Fenfang overheard a girl and her mother arguing
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A van crushed both the girl and the mother
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This could
possibly be the first time Fenfang has witnessed a major argument, which could lead to her
thinking that this could be a sign that it was a good thing that she never talked to her mother,
since it could lead to an argument
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Silence
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How about the chain of lakes at the center of
town? Out of seventy-five students, three had been to them… Our students could
navigate the neighborhood’s maze of lanes blindfolded… Seeing the
neighborhood abstractly was a bigger challenge
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This confirms the fact that Fenfang could have a hard time finding her way around
Beijing, since it was all new to her
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The third
fragment jumps ahead to when Fenfang meets her first love, Xiaolin, during a role in a TVseries, where he invited her to go swimming
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She went to live with Xiaolin’s family in a small room
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Here Fenfang is referring to her diary
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Fenfang lived with Xiaolin for three
years before she decided she no longer wanted to live in that small room
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That decision would affect her
future
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Xiaolin did this mainly because Fenfang left him
and because Fenfang befriended a person named Ben, who was an American student from
Boston, and the jealousy made Xiaolin angry
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There, everything happens the exact
same way every day: “Nothing changed, and nothing could change
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However, Fenfang finally
took the matter into her own hands, fixed herself a suitcase and left for a train heading towards
Beijing
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Her father had left the village to
follow his dream of becoming salesperson some time ago
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Each time
it was different
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Another time, it had the formidable head of
a golden bear, the curling tail of a lion, and flew off to an outlandish place where
strange headless animals danced and welcome me with slimy arms
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”2

This is as quote from Sounds of the River and is Da Chen’s dreams of the train to Beijing
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By the tenth fragment, Fenfang had a friend named Huizi,
who was a scriptwriter
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Huizi would try to help Fenfang get roles in
films and later, Huizi was the person who inspired Fenfang to become a scriptwriter
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Therefore, Fenfang went to Huizi for everything
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She began writing about an ordinary
man named Hao An
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When
comparing this script to Fenfang’s own life, many connections unravel
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He was a model worker and could mould twice as many screws as any other
worker”1
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Later in the
story, Hao An sold films on VCD’s
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Hao An met a
woman named Li Li in the script
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This relates to Fenfang feeling betrayed by Ben and partly Xiaolin
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This is possibly a hint that
Fenfang is planning to visit her old village
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This confirms the idea suggested before, that Fenfang was
thinking of visiting her old village
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When she came back, she sat down with her mother and father and had dinner
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She realized that this village had
started to grow on her again
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She realized she loved her life in Beijing
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She received 5,000 yuan
for the script
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After this, Fenfang decided
she wanted to leave Beijing
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“Fenfang, I need to tell you, I used to love you, and now… I still love you”2
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Huizi left the shortly after,
leaving Fenfang with his last words: “Fenfang, you must take care of your life”2
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Xiaolu Guo / Fenfang in 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth
Xiaolu Guo / Huizi in 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth

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This essay has gone over the most important fragments of Fenfang’s life and explained how
each one of them contributed to her career, her love life and her past
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Fenfang is possibly looking at Hao
An as a male version of herself, however she does not mention any connection in the book
itself
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They caused her to think about her own life and make
choices she might not have made otherwise
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Fenfang keeps looking back to her former life and surprisingly does not regret her choice of
moving to Beijing, even though she had proper shelter and proper food before
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Word Count: 2000

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Xiaolu Guo / Fenfang in 20 Fragments of a Ravenous Youth

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Bibliography

Chen, Da
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Harper Perennial,
2002
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Guo, Xiaolu
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Nan A
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Print
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The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City
Transformed
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Print

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