The New American Writer
Ha Jin, PhD’93, has made a long journey from his life as a soldier at age 14 for the People’s Liberation Army in China to becoming a celebrated novelist in the United States. He began his stay in America at Brandeis, where he earned his doctorate in English and studied with professors Frank Bidart and Allen Grossman. After attending the Boston University Creative Writing Program and while teaching at Emory University, he won the 1999 National Book Award for his fi rst novel, Waiting. Also a two-time winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, Jin now teaches at the BU Creative Writing Program. He spoke to Dialogue about his work, his homeland, and becoming an American writer.
Dialogue: How did someone from China end up going to Brandeis?
Jin: My American professor in China, Beatrice Spade, said Brandeis was an excellent school and quite generous with scholarships.
Dialogue: Why did you do your dissertation on modern American poets?
Jin: In a way, that was already determined. I was supposed to be trained to be a critic in poetry. I used to work in an institute of American literature at Shandong University, so it was assumed I’d return to that place as a translator and a critic.
Dialogue: Then Tiananmen Square happened.
Jin: Yes. I never thought the government would send the standing army to attack civilians. I had served in the army, so that was really beyond my imagination. I decided not to serve the government. In China at the time, every school was owned by the state, so teaching in college you’d be a state employee. Also, about a month after the Tiananmen massacre, my son came to the States. I wanted him to be American. I didn’t want him to repeat my life, to be trapped in that kind of environment.
Dialogue: Some people may have seen you as an overnight success after Waiting received so much attention.
Jin: For five years I couldn’t get anything published. On the other hand, that was part of the training. Every writer, one way or the other, goes through this kind of frustration. But mine was much shorter than most writers’.
Dialogue: How did the sudden success affect you?
Jin: More pressure, and it makes you feel self-conscious. You’ve lost this kind of fearlessness which beginners have that I think is very precious.
Dialogue: Your latest book, War Trash, is set in a POW camp during the Korean War. Should people see parallels with current events?
Jin: My book is not a direct comment on current events, but it does put current events in historical perspective. Prisoner abuse happens in every war. It’s not just the United States, but every country. When war breaks out, human beings can’t function rationally anymore.
Dialogue: Your students at BU are literally in the same place you were fifteen years ago. How does this affect your relationship with them?
Jin: I know they are facing the kinds of problems and difficulties I used to face. What to do after this? How to eat cheap? It’s not just the words on the page, but to figure out how to become a writer.
Dialogue: Have you been back to China since you came to Brandeis?
Jin: No.
Dialogue: Why not?
Jin: I’m not sure whether it’s safe. My books The Crazed and War Trash have offended the authorities. I have a family, and I wouldn’t take that kind of risk.
Dialogue: Since you left China, people there have enjoyed much more economic freedom, but not freedom of speech. Do you see that changing?
Jin: As long as the Communist Party is in power, that is hard. The Communist Party leaders are afraid of artistic freedom. That would open people’s minds and would create a lot of political heat.
Dialogue: What’s next for you?
Jin: I’m working on a novel set in the States.
Dialogue: That’s a first for you. Why has it taken so long to write a book set in this country?
Jin: For many years, China was the only subject. I lived in the United States, but I didn’t really know how to describe it. A lot of recent immigrants write about America, but they usually write for the people back home. If you talk to the American people, you have to find something meaningful to say. Whereas when you talk to people back home, you can describe the supermarket.
Dialogue: You finally found the confidence?
Jin: I didn’t have a choice. I’ve been here long enough that I’m becoming an American writer.