Ha Jin: “Affected by the Insufficiency”

Ha Jin (哈金) is the pen-name of Jin Xuefei (金雪飛). He was born February 21, 1956 in Liaoning, China to a family of faithful comrades. His father was an officer and Jin would follow in his footsteps by joining the PLA in 1969 at the height of the Cultural Revolution (文化大革命). After the demise of the Gang of Four and the rise of Deng Xiaoping, Ha pounced on the opportunity to seek higher education. Between 1981-84, he obtained advanced degrees in English and Anglo-American literature at Heilongjiang and Shandong universities. His opportunities for intellectual growth increased in 1985 when he and his wife moved to Waltham, MA to study at Brandeis University. While on scholarship there, he witnessed the attrocities of the Tian’an men incident from afar. The horror of the experience compelled him finally to emigrate permanently to the US to secure a better life for his wife and child.

After receiving his PhD (1992), Ha remained in the US. He is a unique and especially talented writer in that he writes exclusively in English about Chinese culture and history. Living in the US for only 20 some years, Ha has already become one of its most acclaimed authors, composing in a language that originally was not his own. His bibliography includes: Between Silences (1990), Facing Shadows (poetry)(1996), Ocean of Words (short stories)(1996), Under the Red Flag (short stories)(1997), In the Pond (novel)(1998), Waiting (novel)(1999), The Bridegroom (short stories)(2000), Wreckage (poetry) (2001), The Crazed (novel)(2002), War Trash (novel)(2004), A Free Life (novel)(2007), and The Writer as Migrant (essays)(2008). Ha is also the recepient of a number of awards: Hemingway/PEN (1997), National Book Award (1999), PENFaulker (2000). Currently, he writes and teaches as a professor at Boston University.

The following is a selection from a poem Ha is famous for that emphasizes the heightened role of language in the immigrant experience:

"In New York City

In the golden rain
I plod along Madison Avenue,
Loaded with words.
They are from a page
That show the insignificance
of a person to a tribe ,
Just as a hive keeps thriving
While a bee is lost [...]

No wisdom shines
Like the neon and traffic lights,
But there are words as true as
The money eyes, the yellow cabs,
The fact of pigeons on the sills."

Readings:
*Powell Books interview with David Weich
*The Writers as Migrant (2008)

Questions to consider:

(1) According to Ha Jin, what are the specific complications and challenges facing migrant writers?
(2) What are the specific ways in which you see Ha Jin managing his hybrid identity as an immigrant writer?
(3) How do you see him attempting a dual maneuver to preserve and to acquire original and new identities?

Links:
*Radio interview with Commentary.Ca' s Joseph Planta