- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Zoland Books; 1 edition (Jun 1 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1581950063
- ISBN-13: 978-1581950069
- Product Dimensions: 20.8 x 13.5 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 295 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #665,099 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Kirkus Reviews
A peek behind the Bamboo Curtain, where Chinese poet Ha Jin, winner of the latest Flannery O'Connor Award, works out the conflicts between tradition and constraint that animate his second collection (after Ocean of Words, 1996). Ha Jin, who writes in English, is a Chinese veteran of the People's Liberation Army and, although he doesn't address political dissidence directly in his work, the 12 stories here all contain that undercurrent of cynicism in the face of authority that's common to military (as well as Communist) societies. Thus, the soldier of ``A Man-to-Be,'' who holds back from taking part in a gang-rape, not only finds himself defensive about his own manliness but is eventually shunned by his fianc‚e's family, who doubt his ability to father children, whereas the hooligan boys who terrorize their fellow classmates in ``Emperor'' discover that their popularity and status increase ever higher with each new atrocity they perpetrate. The abiding tensions of peasant life prove themselves again and again to be deeper than the Party's ideal of the New Communist Man, as in ``New Arrival'' (where a childless couple refuses to adopt a beloved young boy entrusted to their care because of their fear of bad luck) or ``Fortune'' (in which an old man's faith in fortune-telling remains so absolute that he becomes willfully deluded rather than admit that his life has been ruined). Honor remains a powerful primordial force as well, best illustrated in the predicament of the dutiful Party member who disobeys his dying mother's wish for a traditional funeral and is promptly denounced by his comrades for filial impiety; or in the public degradation of a prostitute (``In Broad Daylight''), which, however harrowing, remains a less vivid spectacle than the degradation of her accusers. Splendidly fluid and clear: Ha Jin has managed to make an utterly alien world seem as familiar as an old friend. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Ha Jin is a master satirist, not so much of Chinese politics as of the human psyche when it's being twisted and pummeled by some higher authority" -- The Chicago Tribune
"Mr. Jin's haunting portraits of life in China, particularly during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, are shattering conventional expectations of what it is to be a 'Chinese writer,' and at the same time attracting torrents of praise" -- The Asian Wall Street Journal
"Mr. Jin's haunting portraits of life in China, particularly during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, are shattering conventional expectations of what it is to be a 'Chinese writer,' and at the same time attracting torrents of praise" -- The Asian Wall Street Journal
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keep the red flag flying.,
By nickunt (Nottingham, UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Under the Red Flag: Stories (Paperback)
I like to leave this lovely book in our bathroom at home, so when Arsenal are playing at home, my girlfriend has something to read. If you've got a wet paint warning, our your house has been left devestated by a jam raid, or maybe tuna town is inaccessbile by skin boat, or the Beetle is up on blocks, this is the book for you and yours. Thoroughly satisflying.
3.0 out of 5 stars
He can do better,
By
This review is from: Under the Red Flag: Stories (Paperback)
Ha Jin excels in writing vignettes that are simply refreshing to the non-Chinese reader. There are, however, better choices. I recommend the other collections like Ocean of Words and Bridegroom, which are more original and better written. Skip his novels, they tend to drag with unnecessary descriptions.
3.0 out of 5 stars
He can do better,
By
This review is from: Under the Red Flag: Stories (Paperback)
Ha Jin excels in writing vignettes that are simply refreshing to the non-Chinese reader. There are, however, better choices. I recommend the other collections like Ocean of Words and Bridegroom, which are more original and better written. Skip his novels, they tend to drag with unnecessary descriptions.
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