So far, I've read four books from the famous Chinese author who wrote in
English. Mid Feb, someone posted in the online forum, MYSJ, a short bio of Ha
Jin and the next week I finished 'Waiting,' Mr. Jin's National Book Award
winning piece. Its backdrop is set in the northeast China and I could definitely
relate. I don't exactly like the main characters, some reviews criticized them
as 'wooden,' but that was how I remembered people from that era. It was a good
read.
I went on to 'The Boat Rocker' which was a bit of a flop. The hero was not
defending journalistic integrity or protecting the public when he was bent on
getting even with his ex-wife by exposing hyperboles she used in flogging her
new book. Calling her a 'bitch' is not self-respecting(IMO) at all, having an
Irish girlfriend, an NYU professor, does not validate himself, and the story
felt like much ado about nothing. (Later the day I wrote this post, I chanced
upon a remark from Stephen King: "Every book you pick up has its own lesson or
lessons, and quite often the bad books have more to teach than the good ones.")
In 'The Writer as Migrant,' Mr. Jin talked about giving up his savior complex
where he aspired to speaking for the downtrodden Chinese. It felt authentic. I
learned interesting facts about a few writers (Lin, Sozhenitsyn, Conrad,
Nabokov, etc.) whose first langauges were not English. I admired Nabokov
for his tenacity in inventing humor in his fiction although I had lost interest a
quarter through 'Lolita.' (Maybe I should pick it up again.) In the end, I
borrowed 'A Bend in the River' by V. S. Naipaul which was quoted a few times.
I chose 'War Trash' for its rating (3.8/5 at goodreads) and was not
disappointed. I strongly identify with Yuan, the hero, who joined neither the
Nationalist or Communist camp, was volunteered to fight in Korea, and later as a
POW, just wanted to go home to his mom and fiancee. I wished for less prison
stories and more on the Chinese POWs' fates post-repatriation. A list of works
is given at the end of the book, which reminds me of the articles I wrote as a
PhD student. So the novel-creating process might share something with publishing
scientific papers.
I like Mr. Jin's vocabulary for everyday Chinese village and small-town life.
Words and phrases like puttee, loamy, ducks and drakes, and Tower Candy, speak my
childhood memories. On the other hand, sometimes words feel coming directly from a
list of synonyms and can block me for a minute or two.
His 2023 'The Woman Back from Moscow' already hit the libraries. I was little
interested in the internecine struggles within the party (I'd say leave it
alone), but the book earned an astounding 4.3 out 5 in goodreads ratings (In
comparison, they give 'David Copperfield' 4.0). So I might get around to it some
day after all.
