Chinese-born author not waiting for success to die down

Chinese immigrant author Ha Jin

April 13, 2000
Web posted at: 9:21 a.m. HKT (0121 GMT)

In this story: Novel compared to 'Dr. Zhivago' Success catches author off guard RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Correspondent Stacey Wilkins

ATLANTA (CNN) -- Fresh from his win at the PEN/Faulkner awards, Chinese-born author Ha Jin, who writes in English, isn't waiting for his career to slow down.

He is hard at work on another novel, which is set in China and tells the story of an intellectual who goes mad. The book will be set a long way from Emory University, where Ha Jin is professor of English.

But that isn't a difficult gap for him to bridge, given his recent success. Ha Jin, 44, won the 1999 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction -- the richest literary prize in the United States -- for his novel "Waiting."

"I am deeply humbled and honored," he said upon winning the award. "I think I also wish to thank America, a land of generosity. I thank the English language, that has provided me with a niche where I can do meaningful work."

The $15,000 prize is awarded annually by the Washington-based PEN/Faulkner Foundation. It is America's richest juried prize for fiction. Ha Jin was selected by novelists Andrea Barrett, Nicholas Delbanco and Reginald McKnight after they had reviewed 250 novels and short stories published in 1999 in the United States.

The PEN/Faulkner Award was first presented in 1981. Previous recipients include Richard Ford, E.L. Doctorow, Don DeLillo, E. Annie Proulx, and Tobias Wolff.

"Waiting," which has been described as China's "Dr. Zhivago," is set amid China's cultural revolution, and it tells the story of an unsuccessful arranged marriage. The main character is a Chinese army doctor who falls in love with a nurse, but must wait 18 years for a divorce.

Ha Jin knows about army life, having served in China's People's Liberation Army. The family decided to live in the United States after the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square, in which hundreds, or thousands, of pro-democracy demonstrators were killed in a government-ordered crackdown.

Ha Jin, born in China's Liaoning province in 1956, studied at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, before eventually settling outside of Atlanta with his wife and son.

"Waiting," he said, is based on a similar story out of the cultural revolution, but he added the theme resonates throughout the world.

"I'm sure there are men, especially decent, good-hearted men, incapable of loving others, and I think not only Chinese, there are other people like that as well," he said.

Critics have been hailing Ha Jin for opening a new chapter in English fiction to western readers. However, he never expected the success. In fact, he feared it might elude him.

"I think literature doesn't sell. To be honest, before the nomination for the book award, I was worried the publisher might lose money," he said.

"Waiting," published by Pantheon Books in October, won the National Book Award in November. Ha Jin has won literary awards for previous works. His first novel "In the Pond" was released in 1998.

His other books include two collections of short stories, "Under the Red Flag," that won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction in 1996, and "Ocean of Words," winner of the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for First Fiction in 1997.

"He's inventing a whole new genre of literature that really only he can write, because he's lived there. He grew up speaking Chinese ... but yet he is writing in English about these direct experiences," said book judge Jim Grimsley.

National Book Awards honor Oprah, year's top works
November 18, 1999
'Waiting'
November 11, 1999

Ha Jin page
Emory Magazine: Spring 1998: Ha Jin
PEN/Faulkner

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