Jin Xuefei (; born February 21, 1956) is a

Chinese American Chinese Americans are Americans of Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans have ancestors from mainland China, Hong Kong ...

poet and novelist who uses the pen name Ha Jin (). The name ''Ha'' comes from his favorite city,

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

. His poetry is associated with the Misty Poetry movement.

Early life, education, and immigration

Ha Jin was born in

Liaoning ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...

, China. His father was a military officer; at thirteen, Jin joined the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

. Jin began to educate himself in Chinese literature and high school curriculum at sixteen. He left the army when he was nineteen as he entered Heilongjiang University, later earning a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

in English studies. This was followed by a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

in Anglo-American literature at

Shandong University Shandong University (; SDU) is a public university in Jinan, Shandong, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Clas ...

. Jin grew up in the chaos of early communist China. He was on a scholarship at

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

when the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

occurred. The Chinese government's forcible crackdown hastened his decision to

emigrate Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

to the United States, and was the cause of his choice to write in English "to preserve the integrity of his work." He eventually obtained a Ph.D. One of his mentors was literary critic Eugene Goodheart.

Career

Novels and short writing

Jin sets many of his stories and novels in China, in the fictional Muji City. He has won the

National Book Award for Fiction The National Book Award for Fiction is one of five annual National Book Awards, which recognize outstanding literary work by United States citizens. Since 1987, the awards have been administered and presented by the National Book Foundation, bu ...

and the PEN/Faulkner Award for his novel, '' Waiting'' (1999). He has received three Pushcart Prizes for fiction and a Kenyon Review Award. Many of his short stories have appeared in ''

The Best American Short Stories ''The Best American Short Stories'' is a yearly anthology that's part of ''The Best American Series'' published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Since 1915, the ''BASS'' has anthologized more than 2,000 short stories, including works by some of the ...

'' anthologies. His collection ''Under the Red Flag'' (1997) won the Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction, while ''Ocean of Words'' (1996) has been awarded the PEN/Hemingway Award. The novel '' War Trash'' (2004), set during the

Korean War The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...

, won a second PEN/Faulkner Award for Jin, thus ranking him with

Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth (; March 19, 1933 – May 22, 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer. Roth's fiction—often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey—is known for its intensely autobiographical character, for philosophical ...

John Edgar Wideman John Edgar Wideman (born June 14, 1941) is an American novelist, short story writer, memoirist, and essayist. He was the first person to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice. His writing is known for experimental techniques and a focus o ...

and E. L. Doctorow as the only other authors to have won the prize more than once. '' War Trash'' was also a finalist for the

Pulitzer Prize for Fiction The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...

Teaching and academic work

Jin currently teaches at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. He formerly taught at

Emory University Emory University is a private university, private research university in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in 1836 as Emory College by the Methodist Episcopal Church and named in honor of Methodist bishop John Emory. Its main campu ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

. Jin was a Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow for Fiction at the American Academy in Berlin,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, in the fall of 2008. He was inducted to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2014. On July 28, 2021, an asteroid was named after him: (58495) Hajin.

Awards and honors

* Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction (1996) * PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel (1997) *

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

(1999) *

(1999)"National Book Awards – 1999"
.

National Book Foundation The National Book Foundation (NBF) is an American nonprofit organization established with the goal "to raise the cultural appreciation of great writing in America." Established in 1989 by National Book Awards, Inc.,Edwin McDowell. "Book Notes: ...

. Retrieved 2012-03-27.
(With acceptance speech by Jin and essay by Ru Freeman from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog.) *

PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction The PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction is awarded annually by the PEN/Faulkner Foundation to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living Americans, Green Card holders or permanent residents. The winner receives US$15,000 and each of ...

(2000) *Asian Fellowship (2000–2002) *Townsend Prize for Fiction (2002) *

(2005) * Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006) * Dayton Literary Peace Prize, runner-up, ''Nanjing Requiem'' (2012) * PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award for ''A Distant Center'' (2019)

Books

Poetry

* ''Between Silences'' (1990) * ''Facing Shadows'' (1996) * ''Ways of Talking'' (1996) * ''Wreckage'' (2001) * ''Missed Time'' * ''The Past'' * ''A Distant Center'' (2018, Copper Canyon Press)

Short story collections

* '' Ocean of Words'' (1996) * ''Under the Red Flag'' (1997) * '' The Bridegroom'' (2000) * ''A Good Fall'' (2009)

Novels

* '' In the Pond'' (1998) * '' Waiting'' (1999) * ''The Crazed'' (2002) * '' War Trash'' (2004) * '' A Free Life'' (2007) * '' Nanjing Requiem'' (2011) *
A Map of Betrayal
' (2014) * ''The Boat Rocker'' (2016) * ''A Song Everlasting'' (2021) * ''The Woman Back from Moscow: In Pursuit of Beauty'' (2023)

Biographies

* '' The Banished Immortal'' (2019)

Essays

* ''The Writer as Migrant'' (2008)

References

# John Noell Moore, "The Landscape Of Divorce When Worlds Collide," The English Journal 92 (Nov. 2002), pp. 124–127. # Ha Jin, ''Waiting'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 1999). # Neil J Diamant, ''Revolutionizing the Family: Politics, Love and Divorce in Urban and Rural China, 1949-1968''(Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2000), p. 59. # Ha Jin, ''The Bridegroom'' (New York: Pantheon Books, 2000). # Yuejin Wang, Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews 13 (Dec. 1991). # Ha Jin, "Exiled to English" (New York Times, May 30, 2009).

External links

* *
Listen to Ha Jin on The Forum from the BBC World ServiceBoston University staff pageAuthor interview in Guernica Magazine (guernicamag.com)Audio: Ha Jin in conversation on the BBC World Service discussion programme
''The Forum''
"Ha Jin's Cultural Revolution" - New York Times Magazine profile (2000).

Ha Jin
at

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

Authorities — with 20 catalog records {{DEFAULTSORT:Jin, Ha 1956 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American poets 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American poets American male novelists American male poets American male short story writers American novelists of Chinese descent American short story writers of Chinese descent Boston University faculty Brandeis University alumni Chinese emigrants to the United States Chinese male novelists Emory University faculty Exophonic writers Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction winners National Book Award winners PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winners Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award winners Postmodern writers Misty poets Shandong University alumni Heilongjiang University alumni Educators from Liaoning Poets from Liaoning Writers from Liaoning Novelists from Massachusetts Novelists from Georgia (U.S. state) 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Charter 08 signatories