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Cultural Reviews Year Cultural Reviews year. He could not be more pleased with A struggle for allegiance this outcome. The Nationalist government in Taiwan inter- The Lament of a Chinese POW But Yu Yuan’s good fortune does not last venes in the repatriation of Chinese prison- long. Weeks before the Chinese New Year in ers to persuade them to set sail for Taiwan. A Review of War Trash 1951, the 180th division is suddenly As a result, a war breaks out amongst the Ha Jin ordered to move north in order to check the Chinese prisoners along party lines. Sup- Pantheon, October 2004 American invasion of Manchuria and to porters of Nationalist China openly slaugh- 368 pages, $25 assist the North Koreans. Yu Yuan is obliged ter prisoners who refuse to go to Taiwan, to bid farewell to his mother and weeping while Communist sympathizers hang one of BY WU NINGKUN fiancée and depart with his division, which their own in secret for betraying the true incorporates former Nationalist officers. identity of Commissar Pei to the Americans Ha Jin has lived abroad The troops receive a brief training and during an interrogation session. in the United States for learn to use Russian weapons. They also Poor Yu Yuan is caught up in this cruel more than 20 years, and attend propaganda sessions in which Amer- power struggle. He feels no affection for has published many ica is ridiculed as a “paper tiger” unable to Communism and is not a Communist Party poems and novels in withstand a single punch. The division is member. But he wants to return to China, English in the past 15 renamed the Chinese People’s Volunteers because he believes his widowed mother years. A common theme in order to relieve the Chinese government and fiancée are waiting for him. When connects these out- of official responsibilities. faced with violence and death threats from standing works—that of the author’s com- On the night of March 17, 1951, Yu the pro-Nationalists, however, he reluctantly passion for his motherland and his suffering Yuan crosses the precarious bridge across declares his intention to be repatriated to compatriots. Ha Jin’s 1999 novel, Waiting, the Yalu River with his comrades, entering Taiwan. At the last moment during the UN sings a beautiful requiem to the desires and bomb-scarred Korea. For weeks, the inexpe- screening, however, he changes his mind broken dreams of an anonymous genera- rienced and ill-equipped soldiers stagger and is sent to a pro-Communist prison com- tion; the book won him the National Book for hundreds of miles on foot. pound. Award for fiction. His 2002 novel, The Lacking proper food supplies and real- At this compound, imprisoned Commu- Crazed, cries out for the suffering of several time communication with headquarters, the nist Party members have already estab- generations of intellectuals, amplifying the division marches blindly into enemy-occu- lished a firm military hierarchy headed by message of Lu Xun’s masterpiece, Diary of pied territories. Strafed by American air- Commissar Pei. The regime includes every a Madman. Ha Jin’s latest English novel, planes from above and besieged by fierce prisoner in the compound and aims to War Trash, centers on the miserable fate of enemy fire on the ground, the ”volunteers” wage war against pro-Nationalists in other Chinese prisoners captured in the Korean pay heavily for the Communists’ “human compounds in order to win over more pris- War, a topic unfamiliar to most readers. sea” strategy, strewing dead soldiers oners for repatriation to China. across the countryside. After a landslide As a graduate of Huangpu Academy1 A novel written in the form of memoir defeat, the 180th division is fragmented, under the old Nationalist regime, Yu Yuan War Trash is a novel written in the form of and regiments flee in all directions. Sol- knows he is not trusted by the pro-Commu- nonfiction memoir. The memoir’s narrator is diers either desert or are abandoned by nists, and indeed, he is harshly criticized dur- Yu Yuan, a prisoner released after the their officers during failed attempts to wage ing a self-examination “study” session. He Korean War. guerilla warfare without support from realizes that if he wants to return to China, Yu Yuan is a second-year student at the locals. Finally, out of ammunition and food, he must ingratiate himself with the Commu- Huangpu Military Academy at Chengdu some five thousand soldiers are captured, nist Party and participate in pro-Commu- when the People’s Liberation Army liberates including Yu Yuan. nist/anti-U.S. activities. Yu Yuan’s expertise mainland China. The PLA takes over the Yu Yuan begins his imprisonment with a in English allows him to play a substantial academy and promptly sends former shrapnel wound in his left thigh sustained role as translator during various anti-Ameri- Nationalist officers and cadets alike to the during his capture. After receiving medical can protests and insurgencies in the prison. Southwest Military Academy of Military and treatment at the Prisoner of War Collection As a result of his conscientious service, he Political Sciences for a year-long “reindoc- Center in Pusan, Yu Yuan is transferred to steadily gains the confidence of his leaders. trination.” Upon graduation from the acad- an enormous prison camp at Koje Island, One day in late February 1953, the emy, Yu Yuan is posted to the 180th 25 miles southwest of Pusan. He is Americans issue an order calling for four division at Chengdu as a junior clerical offi- assigned to Compound 72, which houses prisoner-officers at the Pusan POW Collec- cer. Since his superior intends to keep the some 8,000 POWs from China and North tion Center to be “re-registered.” One of the division permanently garrisoned in Korea. Most Chinese prisoners are soldiers officers named in the order is Chang Ming, Chengdu City, Yu Yuan is able to look after from the 180th division, including the Divi- a close aid of Commissar Pei. Fearing that his widowed mother, who lives in the same sion Commissar Pei Shan himself. Yu Yuan the order might be a trick by the Americans city, and can look forward to marrying his takes on the pseudonym Feng Yan to hide to charge officers as “war criminals” or fiancée after her graduation from the his real identity. even to kill them, Commissar Pei instructs Sichuan Teachers University the following Yu Yuan to take Chang Ming’s place. Unfor- tunately, the Americans foil the plot, forcing school teaching Chinese, geography and helps Yu Yuan endure his days in prison. Yu Yuan to confess everything and rede- later English. He lives an inconspicuous life Warm memories of and fantasies about her clare his resolve to be repatriated to Taiwan. and marries a beautiful colleague. They comfort his lonely and suffering heart, He is promptly sent to a pro-Nationalist raise a boy and a girl in their happy family, encouraging him to fight to return home NO. 1,NO. 2005 prison, where he is again denounced by the and both children graduate from college. alive. In the end, his waiting and yearning Nationalists. His son goes to the U.S. for graduate stud- result in a broken dream, symbolized by the ies and raises a family of his own. broken barrette that Yu Yuan treasured next War heroes become war trash to his heart for three years. In resignation, In hopes of being reunited with his mother A journey toward enlightenment he sends the broken barrette back to her. and fiancée, Yu Yuan ultimately decides to Against a backdrop of history too sad to At the pro-Nationalist-dominated camp, return to mainland China,2 only to find a dif- reexamine, Ha Jin realistically and the prisoners tattoo the words “Fuck Com- ferent fate awaiting him. Out of the 22,000 painstakingly illustrates Yu Yuan’s journey munism” on Yu Yuan’s belly against his will. Chinese soldiers captured during the war, from a naïve optimist to an enlightened These words torment his mind to no end. only 8,000 return. After risking their lives in soul, while undergoing torment of body and After their return to China, the soldiers are CHINA RIGHTS FORUM battle to defend their country and protect mind. sent to the “Repatriation Center” to await their families, and continuing to fight their Yu Yuan risks his life in battle to defend their fate. At the center Yu Yuan finds a 85 enemies even after being captured and his motherland and submits to the leader- doctor to change the tattoo to “FUCK . U confined to POW camps, they believe the ship of the Communist Party during captiv- . S . .” But the stigma is deeply motherland will welcome them back with a ity. In the beginning, he believes that he will engraved in his memory, reminding him warm embrace. gain the trust of pro-Communist regime, but time and again of his miserable years at To their surprise, the motherland con- things do not turn out the way he imagined. the prison camp, and ultimately compelling demns them as a horde of disgraceful cow- Even his application to the newly formed him to put his story down in words. ards who have betrayed their Party and their prisoners’ United Communist Association At the age of 73, Yu Yuan comes to the country by not fighting to their last breath. In is rejected. He becomes preoccupied with U.S. to visit his son’s family. Based on his special “study sessions,” they are forced to self-examination: memory and material he has collected, Yu REGULAR FEATURES confess to crimes they committed during Yuan finally writes the memoir he has been I wondered why I was so eager to seek imprisonment, and to expose the crimes of planning to write for more than half of his their approval.
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