bridegroom

The Bridegroom

One of Ha Jin's banned books in China.

"Only here can I say this is a complete work." -- Ha Jin's complete collection of two lost masterpieces: "The Saboteur" and "A Ridiculous Joke"

"—I think comedies are often a sign of a writer's maturity because they are more difficult to handle than tragedies."

Following his National Book Award-winning novel "Waiting," Ha Jin revisits this book, set in the fictional city of Muji. Composed of twelve simple yet startling short stories, they chart the lives of ordinary people disoriented by the transition from the Cultural Revolution to reform and opening up. Ha Jin captures the confusion and anxiety of the Chinese people during this period, as they navigate the deeply ingrained ideologies of the old society and suddenly shift towards the money-first capitalist way of life. Despite the liberalization of policies, taboos persisted within collective thinking. During the Cultural Revolution, sexuality was particularly perceived as a capitalist practice, and censorship of it became a key focus of both speech and thought. For example, in the essay "Broken," the book depicts the collective male fantasies about women, where repressed sexuality manifests as sexual discipline.

Therefore, "The Bridegroom" isn't a story of masculine high spirits; rather, it depicts the distortion and perversion of masculinity under such secular repression and discipline. The male characters in the book include the vain Wu Song, a husband with amnesia, a wealthy but childless nouveau riche, and a head of household arbitrarily assigned children by the government after a devastating disaster. Political and ideological censorship manifests itself in sexual censorship, serving as a disguised outlet for repressed sexual desire. The confusion and anxiety of men caused by sexual repression contribute to the underlying concern of social instability.

The book contains twelve captivating stories: "The Saboteur," "Just Live," "In Kindergarten," "Wusong Is Hard to Find," "Broken," "The Bridegroom," "The Story of the Upstarts," "Old Love," "A Ridiculous Joke," "A Business Letter," "The Woman from New York," and "Cowboy Fried Chicken Comes to Town." These stories depict the rigidity of old Chinese feudal society and the ideological and cultural impact of communism on the new society. Through humor and wit, they eloquently portray the joys and sorrows of life, as well as its helplessness. Many of these stories were recognized as the best short stories of the year in the United States in 1997, 1999, and 2000. "The Saboteur" and "A Ridiculous Joke" respectively depict ordinary people who unintentionally offend state authority and are imprisoned and interrogated. Why would someone be held accountable if they had done nothing wrong? These two novels remain unpublished in simplified Chinese editions. The former, in particular, is the most frequently included in anthologies of outstanding short stories and is widely considered Ha Jin's representative short story. It perfectly captures China's anxiety about the incompleteness and uncertainty of sexuality and politics. Just as Kafka depicted the absurdity of people turning into insects, Ha Jin's characters embody the absurdity born of totalitarianism and its system of ideological censorship in China. Ha Jin believes that while these stories are fundamentally tragic, they also possess a more comedic element.

"The censorship system will create a kind of literature that does not touch upon the core consciousness of the times, resulting in the 'absence of art'." - Ha Jin

■New Chinese version of "The Bridegroom" commemorating its 20th anniversary■
Specially included is the author's new edition preface and Yan Zeya's special article introduction.

Award-winning record

★Won two major awards: the Asian American Literary Award and the Townsend Literary Award

Celebrity recommendations

Yan Zeya/Article Introduction

Yang Zhao, Luo Yijun, Shan Dexing, Li Youcheng, Yan Lianke - highly recommended

"Every story in 'The Bridegroom' is of a high standard. It's supposed to end in a comedy, but the protagonist suffers a tragic fate. Ha Jin is a master at writing about the logic of Chinese society. The book depicts the bizarre phenomena of Chinese society since the Deng Xiaoping era. Although China has changed greatly since June 4th, this book remains an excellent window into Chinese society today." -- Yan Zeya (introduction, full text included in the book)

"Ha Jin's greatness lies in the fact that in his writing he never strays from using words to embrace the humanity and sentiment of literature. Even these short stories, each one of them focuses closely on the entanglements and struggles of the human soul." - Yan Lianke

2020-01-21

時報出版

272

9789571374611