Shen Congwen
In 1986, "The New York Times" reported that he has "risen to prominence in the last three years among some younger writers who seek to rediscover, if not necessarily to affirm, China's traditional life and values. In China he has been called the Shen Congwen of the 1980s and even the Thomas Hardy of Hunan," although Perry Link (professor of Chinese at the University of California) disagreed that Gu is comparable to those talents.