"Writing Fiction from Exile. An Interview with Ha Jin"

Abstract

During the last two decades, Jīn Xuĕfēi, who goes under the pen-name of Ha Jin, has emerged as one of the most prominent Asian–American writers in America, with works in fiction, poetry and essays dealing with the Chinese experience in China and the U.S. Born in 1956 in the Chinese province of Liaoning, Ha Jin’s life has been strongly marked by political and sociological events occurring in contemporary China. His father was an officer in the Red Army who was transferred around various provinces for years. This continuous change of residence gave young Jin the opportunity to discover remote regions, meet people and get acquainted with Chinese traditions and customs. Ha Jin was ten years old when Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution, which aimed at removing capitalism and Chinese traditions by way of the strict implementation of communism. Colleges closed down for ten years and many young people became Red Guards, an armed revolutionary youth organization aiming to eradicate the ‘four Olds’ – Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits and Old Ideas – which were described as anti-proletarian. At the age of thirteen, Ha Jin joined the People’s Liberation Army as a way of leaving home as he declared in different interviews (Gardner 2000; Weinberger, 2007; Fay 2009). While in the army, he worked as a telegrapher, a post which allowed him some free time to read literature and educate himself. He left the army in 1975 and worked for three years in a railway company. In 1977 colleges reopened in China and, a year later, Ha Jin began his studies at Heilongjiang University where he earned a B.A. in English in 1981. He then decided to pursue his studies in Anglo–American literature at Shandong University, where he received his M.A. in 1984. A year later, he won a scholarship to study American literature at Brandeis University, from which he earned a Ph.D. in English in 1993. While he was at Brandeis, Jin saw on television the Tiananmen Square massacre, an incident which split his life in two: along with his wife, he decided to remain in the U.S. as a refugee. This political incident made him realize he could never go back to China and teach in a state-controlled educational system. After a series of odd jobs, Ha Jin was offered a teaching position at Emory University. Later on, he moved to Boston University where he currently teaches literature and creative writing. His literary career began with the publication of poetry: "Between Silences" (1990) and "Facing Shadows" (1996). He soon turned to short fiction, a genre which Ha Jin claimed he feels more at home with than with any other (Fay 2009). To date, he has published four collections of short stories: "Ocean of Words" (1996), ����"Under the Red Flag" (1997)—for which he received the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction—, "The Bridegroom" (2000) and "A Good F����all" (2009). He has also published six novels, among which are the critically-acclaimed "Waiting" (1999), awarded with the National Book Award for Fiction in 1999 and "War Trash" (2004), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. This interview took place at Ha Jin’s office at Boston University. What follows is an edited transcript of our talk recorded by the interviewer, with the kind permission of the author. However, due to time constraints, several questions were answered via e–mail exchange.