Ha Jin Interview Tebi20151005
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ARTS HA JIN: I wrote in English as a form of protest SUDDEN rainshower during early to be photographed with him. He was born as Jin fall in Berlin prompted writers and Xuefei—meaning fl ying snow—in China’s Lianing literary fi gures from various coun- province, in 1956. Mao Tse Tung launched his Cul- A tries to seek shelter under the au- tural Revolution when Ha Jin was 10 years old. He thor’s tent. They stood close to each told Tempo, his recollections over that period were other in protection of the cold wind that blew murky. “I just remember my mother being sent to across the tent, drinking and refi lling their wine. hard labor because of some mistake, but I don’t Last September, the Internationales Literaturfes- know what it was.” Ha Jin also admitted to being tival Berlin featured many names normally found confused and uninformed when all youths were in book racks, such as Elif Shafak, Kazuo Ishiguro, told to register with the Red Army. “I wasn’t even Roddy Doyle, Michael Cunningham, Wole Soyinka 14 years old when I became a member of the Red and Martin Amis, as well as Ha Jin, a literary fi gure Army,” he said. from China, now living in exile in the United States. Like his fellow literary fi gures, Ha Jin fl ew to the All day long, he was surrounded by journalists. US not because of any major plan. “I got a scholar- From more than 100 such luminary writers, Ha ship from Brandeis University in the US after com- Jin may be the least among to be aware of his own pleting my studies on English Literature at Hei- stardom. Having produced collections of short sto- longjiang University and my masters degree from ries and seven works of fi ction, he has won a num- Shandon University,” he said over breakfast with ber of prestigious awards, among them the Flan- Tempo at Hotel Hecker’s in Berlin, two weeks ago. nery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction and the It was at that time that the Tiananmen protests PEN/Hemingway Award. His novel, War Trash, exploded on the scene, greatly upsetting Ha Jin, won the PEN/Faulkner Award, placing him in the which only fi rmed up his resolve to live in the US same status as American authors Philip Roth and with his family. He now teaches at Boston Univer- E.L. Doctorow. sity and so far, has never been able to go back to his Clad always in dark-colored hat, shirt over trou- homeland because, “my request for a visa is always CHUDORI (BERLIN) TEMPO/LEILA S. sers, Ha Jin appears modest and sociable, willing rejected.” The following is Ha Jin’s discourse with to chat with anyone who came his way and asked Tempo journalist, Leila S. Chudori. Would you like to go back to your home country even initial reaction, following the Tiananmen incident. But, to though you describe China as a police state? be honest, I was not ready to migrate to the US. My initial Of course. I’ve often requested for a visa to enter China, intention was to come and study and I knew it was not but it’s always rejected. When that happens, I become sad easy to fi nd work in America, particularly since my and disappointed and the process of getting rid of that sense fi eld is American Literature. This is a rare choice for of sadness takes quite a long time. So I don’t want to get a Asian students. I would not be able to fi nd work that visa again just yet. was related to Chinese language, so I began to im- Why have you written your novels and your collection of prove my English. I wanted to write in English. An- short stories in English, your second language? other reason why I chose to write in English was I was fi nishing my masters degree in the US when the Ti- because I felt that many expressions and words in ananmen incident broke. I protested sharply to the gover- Chinese language had begun to be distorted for ment over the bloody aff air. As a result, I’m unable to go propaganda purposes. They had become taint- home. My passport has never been extended by the Embas- ed and created delusions. This led to my deci- sy. Meanwhile, my child, who was then six years old, had sion in using English as a form of protest. joined me and my wife. We decided we could not allow our What is your opinion about the works of Mo child to be trapped in this cycle of violence. That was our Yan, written in Chinese language and which 52 | | OCTOBER 18, 2015 was awarded the Nobel prize? Initially, you expressed yourself through ier to pronounce by people. My teacher Chinese writers writing in Chinese lan- poetry. Why did you turn to fi ction? agreed. That was the fi rst time my name Ha guage experience the same diffi culty be- I didn’t feel that the social and political Jin was used. cause the language is already distorted. It’s issues of my characters could be fully ex- What do you remember of the Cultural very diffi cult to get out of that distortion. pressed in poetry. That’s why I began writ- Revolution? Here’s an example, the words ‘to report’ in ing short stories, and later I wrote novels. I I was then 10 years old, so I didn’t know Chinese has many meanings. If we use ‘to still write poetry in Chinese language, then much about politics. What really stuck in report’, they can be distorted and taken out I rewrite it in English. In poetry, I feel I can my mind was what happened to my fami- of context. purify words from their tainted meaning ly. I remember how my mother was sent to and that’s why I’m still able to write poet- hard labor by the party because she was a ry in Chinese language. In fi ction, the focus low-level staff and committed I don’t know changes because we must follow our char- what mistake. acters, we must think of the plot. And that’s Your novel, Requiem Nanjing, used a real why I needed to write in English. incident involving Minnie Vautrin. Coinci- Your original name is Jîn Xufçi. dentally, novelist Iris Chang also used the What does it mean? And why did you same fi gure and incident as the subject change it to Ha Jin? for the fi lm The Flowers of War, directed by The meaning of my original Zhang Yimou. What did you feel when you name is ‘Flying Snow’. To west- read or watched that fi lm? erners, particularly in the US, I wrote Requiem Nanjing before Iris it’s diffi cult to pronounce the Chang’s novel came out. We wrote about letter ‘X’ in my name. ‘Xue- the same incidents in Nanking. I purpose- fei’ should be read as ‘Shue- fully refused to read Iris Chang’s novel fei’. Another thing, when when it was published fi rst because I didn’t I fi rst wrote poems in have any opinion about it. When both were English, it was about the published, then I read it. Our focus diff ered, Red Army, a political- mine was on the psychological torture ex- ly-themed piece I called perienced by the characters. That abomi- The Dead Soldier’s Talk. My nable Nanking aff air took only two weeks, teacher then, Frank Bidar, but the psychological and mental impact read it to Jonathan Galassi, remains years after it happened. editor of the Paris Review, by You have a way of shocking readers, as telephone. And Paris Review in the fi rst paragraphs of your novels Nan- took it, just like that. The fun- jing Requiem and A Map of Betrayal, of cre- ny thing is that I have not put ating a sense of uncertainty because it feels my name on that poem. So, I like you begin in the middle of a plot. Why is suggested that it be named Ha that? Jin. Ha comes from Harbin, a fa- (Laughing) I learned (to do that) from An- vorite city of mine, and Jin is my ton Chekov, who always said divide your family name. I felt that story into two. Discard the fi rst part of your name would be eas- story and begin from the middle. The mid- dle part is usually the most dramatic part, or it begins to rise towards the climax. Af- ter starting from there, readers will feel our energy. And later on, there will be many chances to go back or do review scenes or dialogue about past events. That message from Chekov was what I held on to in al- most all of my novels. Which writer is closest to your heart? All of the Russian classical authors: An- ton Chekov, Tolstoy, Nikolai Gogol. Today’s authors…the early works of Haruki Mu- rakami were good too, had beautiful sen- tences. He was able to present it well, but I had a problem with his story and struc- ture. I own four volumes of Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s works. I just read the fi rst and found it to be full of en- ergy. ● OCTOBER 18, 2015 | | 53.