Niu Niu: A Father's Notes (20th Anniversary Version)

Changjiang Literature and Arts Press

[Photo provided to China Daily]

Two decades ago, a book by a Nietzsche scholar touched the nation－so much so, that readers flocked to meet him at the release of its 20th-anniversary edition during the Beijing book fair.

Zhou Guoping, a research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, learned his daughter wouldn't live long soon after she was born.

She survived 562 days. Zhou struggled to recover.

He recorded his thoughts in a collection of essays.

"Those things that come natural to us－falling in love, getting married or becoming a parent－seem ordinary and trivial. But they're actually the core of life and are precious moments," Zhou says.

The publisher has sold over 500,000 copies, and others have sold more. The new edition features 112 sketches from surgeon-turned-artist Wei Erqiao.