ASIAN AMERICAN poet

novelist, poet
Born: 1956
Birthplace: Liaoning Province, China

From the age of 14 until he was 20, Jin served in the People's Liberation Army in China.

THE poems on this page were written in English by a young Chinese poet and scholar, Xuefei Jin, whose pen name is Ha Jin. He was born in Liaoling province of Manchuria in 1956, entered the Chinese People’s Liberation Army at fourteen, served somewhat more than five years as a soldier (his father was at the time a soldier) and then three years as a telegraphist for the Harbin Railroad Company. In 1978 he entered Heilongjiang University and is continuing his studies at present at Brandeis. The poems he has written since he began his studies in America deal mainly with the experience of persons in China during the Cultural Revolution– "experience," as he writes, "not strictly personal, although in most cases . . . stimulated by memory of hard facts which cannot be worn away by time."

In Ha Jin’s poems we overhear the people of China–one at a time–speak to one another in the infinite particularity of his concern or her concern and in the deep solitude of a vast nation–the People’s Republic–which constitutes a fate no one can understand or change. Nonetheless, as Ha Jin says, they are "not merely victims of history. They are also the makers of history. Without them the history of contemporary China would remain a blank page." We hear in these poems the living and the dead–vulnerable, passionate, rational, unforgiving, heartbroken, relentless, gay–speaking of the interests which constitute their humanity in an uncanny language in which English is carried up into a region of pure human authenticity–the language of no nation but the nation of the person who speaks willingly or unwillingly the truth. In the introduction to his manuscript, from which these poems are drawn, Ha Jin remarks: "If not every one of these people, who were never perfect, is worthy of our love, at least their fate deserves our attention and our memory. They should talk and be talked about.



An Older Scholar’s Advice

After you get your master’s degree
you will have to work hard for some years
to be promoted to a lectureship. Then you can relax.
Don’t think that if you go on working in that way
you can get your professorship. First,
you must have enough teaching experience.
In my school, only after having taught for 24 years
will you be qualified for consideration
as an associate professor. Second,
you must publish enough papers.
it is not hard to write them but it is not easy
to publish them. In fact, you can publish anything
if you have connections. My colleagues told me that
publication is also an important field of study.
Well, if you "study" it thoroughly
you may be able to get your papers out,
but you will have to pay a lot for it.

For me the most practical thing to do now
is not to worry about my professorship.
So many lecturers are not qualified for it
until they are qualified for retirement
or for death. I just ignore it for the time being.
In the morning I practice Tai Chi.
In the evening I watch TV and go to bed early.
I have quit smoking but drink two cups of wine
every day. Wine can warm your blood.
Don’t indulge yourself in sex.
It will weaken your young kidneys.
As long as you are in good health,
as long as you live longer than others,
eventually you will get your professorship.

You can wait for that.






Jeffrey aka Jupac