A Historic Cultural Change Through China
Throughout the novel Waiting by Ha Jin, the Chinese culture is ever so changing through time. The main character Lin Kong is a doctor at an army hospital. He left his village at the age of sixteen because he didn't know anything about farm work. Mr. Kong has been married to Shuyu, a very small withered woman, with bound feet. Lin is quite embarrassed of her because of this, she is not very smart and is illiterate. Lin doesn’t want to be married to his wife anymore because he fell in love with a co-worker from the hospital named Manna Wu. In Chinese culture, it is forbidden to have a love affair so Lin and Manna are unable to see each other until he divorces Shuyu. Lin for years has been trying to get a divorce but his wife keeps changing her mind. Throughout the novel we get to see Lin Kong's side of the story and how he struggles with himself when trying to please both his wife and the woman he loves, Manna Wu. The novel is contrasting Chinese culture through the countryside and city life. It demonstrates the restrictions that the Chinese culture had on its people. Ha Jin wrote the novel based on a story his wife told him when they were visiting her parents in China. Before Jin wrote Waiting he joined the army then left at nineteen and entered a university to earn his bachelor's in English then went on to earn his masters. The book begins in 1963 and continues through a twenty year period with Lin trying to divorce his wife Shuyu.
The novel is set during the start of the Cultural Revolution and spans over a period of time when the revolution is nearing its end. The lens or the point of view in which to look at the book is through a historic culture lens. The reason for that is simply because the book is based on the cultural change in China and the characters experiences in which they evolve because of their hardships in life. In the novel the main character Lin Kong lives at the hospital in the men’s dormitory. In his room he has books about socialist and capitalist ideals, during that time they were not allowed to have these kinds of books because “The Red Guards criticized the conversational teaching materials that [teachers] had authored as poisonous weeds and typical talk of capitalists. These [people] had to be exposed and criticized” (Wen). When Lin is at the Army Hospital and is one of the only three graduates there people began to think highly of him. But Later on he was criticized because he didn’t stand during their national anthem when he was in the bath house pool, and also his hair grew long and was parted down the middle which made him look intellectual so he had to cut it short like everyone else. If Chinese people didn’t have the right haircut you were criticized and made a mockery of. Another example in their culture is that people were not allowed to have relations with other students while on the hospital grounds or on campus. Manna Wu wanted to be with Lin but couldn’t for multiple reasons being that he was married and they both were not allowed to have a relationship while there. The lens that fits best is the historic cultural lens because each decision each character makes is based on the Chinese culture and society. Manna wants to marry Lin because she is getting old and doesn’t want to wait forever, Lin can't marry Manna because he is married to Shuyu. He cannot divorce her because of what society will think of him for leaving a poor young woman who has taken care of his family for her whole life. This connects greatly to the cultural lens because the culture in the countryside rarely has divorces. There are at most one divorce in the villages and that’s I cheating was involved. The reader can appreciate that even in modern times the Chinese culture was still so very profound in modern society. The other lens do not offer this kind of outlook on the novel and how it portrays the Chinese ways of life.
There are alternate point of views in which the novel can be looked at. For example the psychological view works because throughout the book each character is learning something about themselves and experiencing different events. In the novel there was a tragic event in which Manna Wu was raped. In this situation it can cause PTSD and long term depression. PTSD is (Posttraumatic stress disorder) " is a debilitating psychological condition triggered by a traumatic event, such as rape, war, a terrorist act, sudden or violent death of a loved one, natural disaster, or catastrophic accident" (McNulty). Manna Wu could experience PTSD from this event which the reader would likely see this novel through the psychological lens. She could possibly even become depressed from traumatic experience this. Rape victims can often "suffer from post assault depression, feelings of betrayal and humiliation, problems with trust and intimacy, guilt, anxiety...fears" (Peterson). Manna after a couple of months was fine and back to her normal life with Lin. This lens is good for some aspects of the book but not as a whole. Another example is Lin Kong, he married his wife because of social value and stayed with her for twenty years and never even loved her. He then finds love in a younger woman and repeatedly tries to divorce his wife for the younger women. He can’t find sympathy or empathy for his wife except that she isn’t worth anything to him. But later on in the novel things began to change and Lin starts to feel guilty and horrible for even thinking about divorcing his wife. He begins to suffer inside about what he should for Manna while keeping his wife happy and making a fool of himself. He begins to become depressed after his parents die. He isolates himself from Manna because he doesn’t want to upset her, he does not want to divorce his wife after his parents die because of everything she has done for them up until their untimely deaths.
Another point of view in which a reader can view this novel is from an autobiographical one. One reason for this is because in Ha Jin's life his parents were army doctors and his childhood was during the 1960's. Jin denies that any of his works are related to his life and later he says in an interview
"When you construct a piece of work, a novel or a story, you need a lot of drama and a message..."But when you write an autobiographical piece, you cannot create a happening. If this has not happened, you cannot say it happened. It is not faithful to reality, and so that is the limitation. In addition to that, I want to make my work better than myself."
Reading the novel then reading about Jin's life the reader could come to the conclusion that he is writing about his life but there is not much to go to conclude that an autobiographical lens is the best to view the novel. There are bits in pieces that could support this claim but there is not a sufficient amount to back it up. Also Jin states the book is based on a story he heard while visiting China with his wife, so its basis is on a story of others’ lives.
Waiting by Ha Jin is a cultural experience in which the reader to get immersed in and can get a general idea of what Chinese culture was life during the Cultural Revolution. A great amount of change has occurred throughout the novel, which spanned over twenty years. Being that, the lens that fits best is the cultural one because it works well with the dynamic characters in the novel and how they had their experience living in China with its overbearing laws and way of life. The psychological and autobiographical lens work for different aspects and parts of the book but not the book entirely. It does not give the reader the full look on what the book is really about and what it is trying to portray. Thus the reader should look at it, while reading, through a historic cultural point of view.
Works Cited
McNulty, Mary, and Fran Hodgkins. "Post-traumatic Stress Disorder." The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine. Ed. Laurie J. Fundukian. 4th ed. Vol. 3. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale,
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PETERSON, ZOË D., and CHARLENE L. MUEHLENHARD. "Rape." International Encyclopedia of
Marriage and Family. Ed. James J. Ponzetti. 2nd ed. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference
USA, 2003. 1293-1297. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 9 Dec. 2015.
Oakes, Elizabeth H. "Jin, Ha." American Writers, American Biographies. New York: Facts On
File, Inc., 2004. (Updated 2005.) Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web.9 Dec.2015
Wen, Zhengde. "A Chinese-American Woman's Plight During The Cultural
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