Four generations under the same roof (四世同堂) is a Romance of the Chinese writer Lao She.

Writing between 1940 and 1942, the long novel (in three bulky volumes) described the life of the inhabitants of a district of Beijing (Beijing) under the Japanese occupation 1937 - 1945. And more particularly that of a family living in narrow the huong (lane) of the Small Fold , very similar to that where the author himself was born. All are not agreement on the action to be taken vis-a-vis the occupant, who they are the neighbors (collaborator with Japanese: the Guan family), or of the intellectuals persecuted, ready to fight (Qian family), or of family members IQ (pivot of the history), or of Mr Li, remover, Main Sun, barber, Small Cui gunner of growth, etc Lao She thus shows with meticulousness the multiple facets of the people of Beijing reflection of China and its destiny. This enormous project takes the shape of the Chinese traditional novel whose model could be the Rêve in the red House (紅樓夢). In its introduction entitled Lao She, the professor , Clézio qualifies work as follows: it is without any Chinese doubt of the novels of Lao She . He understands by there that he incrit in the tradition of the Rêve of the red house , with the multipicity of the precise protagonists and the description of the Chinese lifestyles.