War Trash is one of my favorite novels; his short fiction is almost as good. Thanks for posting this, even though I would have gotten around to reading it in my dead-tree edition of the NYer anyway.
posted by Rangeboy at 5:30 PM on December 8, 2009

I really enjoy Ha Jin. Waiting is a great novel. I read it in Freshmen English at Xavier University. Incredible.
posted by glaucon at 6:03 PM on December 8, 2009

very nice.... thanks for the post!
posted by HuronBob at 6:50 PM on December 8, 2009

I like this a lot too - compelling reading.
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 6:58 PM on December 8, 2009

Thanx for posting, a great story.

I really loved to read his take on writing short stories vs novels vs poetry, from your first link:
Jin says practical reasons make short stories his favorite genre. "You can get into a short story and get it out easily," he explains. "If I work on a novel, I have to immerse myself in it for a long time completely. You are just absorbed by the work, so it is a very hard process, and sometimes I don't have the time and the leisure to do that. As for poetry, it's pure luck. You don't know whether this will work, and you just try and try. I abandon a lot of poems, and so I think it is a high order of writing. It's harder and it depends on luck. Sometimes you write a poem without much effort but it works well, and sometimes you just work for months on one but it doesn't work."
posted by dancestoblue at 7:13 PM on December 8, 2009

Here is a longer interview.

An article he wrote about censorship in China.

Here is one of his poems -- Ways of Talking.

"...After losing a land and then giving up a tongue,
we stopped talking of grief
Smiles began to brighten our faces.
We laugh a lot, at our own mess.
Things become beautiful,
even hailstones in the strawberry fields."





"even though I would have gotten around to reading it in my dead-tree edition of the NYer anyway."

It's from April 2008. You must have quite a pile to go through :)
posted by vronsky at 7:32 PM on December 8, 2009

It's from April 2008. You must have quite a pile to go through :)

Hmmm. So it is. Must have missed it back then. All the more reason to be glad you posted it, I suppose.
posted by Rangeboy at 7:53 PM on December 8, 2009

Well, I did read it all.
posted by humannaire at 7:53 PM on December 8, 2009

My router went kaput when I tried to load the final page. When it came back online and I saw there was only one paragraph on it, I was so let down. But that's nice, I wanted a lot more.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 12:05 AM on December 10, 2009

What clear and lovely prose. Ha Jin knows how to stay out of his own way.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 12:19 PM on December 10, 2009