The Boat Rocker: A Poetry of Life

Xuefei Jin simplified Chinese: Ha comes from his favorite city, Harbin.

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His poetry is associated with the Misty Poetry movement. Ha Jin was born in Liaoning , China. His father was a military officer; at thirteen, Jin joined the People's Liberation Army during the Cultural Revolution. Jin began to educate himself in Chinese literature and high school curriculum at sixteen. He left the army when he was nineteen, [2] as he entered Heilongjiang University and earned a bachelor's degree in English studies.

This was followed by a master's degree in Anglo-American literature at Shandong University. Jin grew up in the chaos of early communist China. He was on a scholarship at Brandeis University when the Tiananmen incident occurred. The Chinese government's forcible put-down hastened his decision to emigrate to the United States, and was the cause of his choice to write in English "to preserve the integrity of his work.

Jin sets many of his stories and novels in China, in the fictional Muji City. Doctorow who are the only other authors to have won the prize more than once. War Trash was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The publication of a book of his essays is stopped and all the copies are pulped. Jin notes that the ever-present government monitoring of writers and artists affects the honesty of their work.

The students were assigned to inform on their professors. This has happened in many cities. It is common knowledge that if you are a professor, you have to keep an eye on what you say in class, or someone will report you. Despite his great literary success with the National Book Award-winner Waiting and War Trash , Jin was unable to get a visa to return to see his dying mother. I tried and tried to get a visa to see her again, and I was rejected every time.

I sent the Chinese embassy the official invitation. In the novel, Danlin is denied a visa for his new American passport, but is offered a chance to go to China, if he reports to the local police station to prove his place of birth. Danlin jumps at the chance, but then realizes that it may be a trap. I first wanted to do it, but then did the same thing Danlin did. I realized it would be impossible to go under these circumstances. The long reach of the autocratic Chinese government has had an impact on American academics, as well. The Chinese government finds ways to interfere with, damage or even destroy these academics.

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The vice consul is American-educated, is very sophisticated and speaks impeccable English. To his own detriment, a defiant Danlin refuses to give up his independence. Ha Jin is familiar with American-educated Chinese officials. They are rational, too, but they speak for the country and work for the country.

Their personal interests are entangled with the national interest. They live a very different existence. They know the superiority of democracy, but at the same time, they are very anti-West. China is always their frame of reference. The human rights situation in China is deteriorating, said Jin.

It is a big step backwards. Sometimes the American government becomes involved in putting pressure on Chinese dissidents in the United States. There was a report in the Chinese media, that when George W. Bush was in power a Chinese delegation came to the US. Bush in Texas, to ask the father to teach his son a lesson on China. At one point in the novel, Danlin envisions China and the United States as sitting in a boat together.

With his columns, he wants to shake things up. Young Chinese government officials are now being sent to two places for further education.

1. kimidakewo (Japanese Edition).
2. The Boat Rocker by Mann, Michael.
3. A DEVIL IN THE CITY OF ANGELS?

China has been spending a great amount of money to promote Chinese culture in the West. A German academic bemoans how unchallenging Chinese literature is after decades of government censorship. In his three-decade writing career in the US, Ha Jin has published eight novels, along with books of poetry and short-story collections. The line-by-line censorship is exasperating. There is no way to trace the cuts. They cut paragraphs and they cut sentences.

Whenever a piece of my writing gets reprinted, you can see more cuts.