In Yu Hua's novel To Live, Fugui and his daughter Fengxia lived lives full of tragedies and hardships. Fugui lost all of his close ones in his life, including his parents, kids, wife, etc. On the other hand, Fengxia's loss of hearing puts her in numerous unfair situations. "People live for the sake of living itself, not for anything beyond living." The novel puts a lot of focus on illustrating how the characters deal with fear and loss. Despite the discrimination Fengxia faced, we always find her helping others and smiling at the little things. And in Fugui's case, he always finds a reason for him to keep living. In these illustrations, I intend to capture their moments of happiness, anxiety, and loss and their reaction to them with popping colors and loose watercolor marks.

This series of drawings is then made into a lantern-shaped calendar-style booklet, capturing the essence of rural Chinese lives during Fugui and Fengxia's story. The covers are made out of patched clothes with Chinese patterns.