好兵

by Ha Jin, 卞麗莎 (Translator)

Set on China's bleak northern border in the 1970s, when Russia and China were close to war, these short stories describe the life of soldiers, professional officers, and raw recruits, living in constant proximity. In this hierarchical and politically charged world, there is even less privacy than normal in China, highlighting a fundamental difference between Chinese and Western societies. The book provides an unusually brilliant insight into the Chinese psyche, with its preoccupations with food, family, and political standing, and its ambivalent attitudes toward women and animals.

Yet Ocean of Words also makes us aware of the common humanity that we share with Ha Jin's characters. Hunger, fear, sexual embarrassment, curiosity about the outside world are universal emotions, and we find ourselves caring deeply about these men. The title refers to a treasured dictionary in a story that brings together a maladjusted young man and an elderly officer. Ha Jin obviously cares deeply about words; his writing is spare, penetrating, and often funny, as when he describes the embarrassment of the officers at the "politically incorrect" earthiness of an old survivor of the Long March, who by definition must be considered an archetypal revolutionary. In this book, Ha Jin has done for the Chinese army what Zhang Xianliang did so powerfully for the prison camp in works like Grass Soup. -- John Stevenson

Genres: Short Stories, China, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Asian Literature, Asia, Literary Fiction

207 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Ha Jin is the pen name of Jin Xuefei, a novelist, poet, short story writer, and Professor of English at Boston University.Ha Jin writes in English about China, a political decision post-Tiananmen Square.

Ha Jin grew up in mainland China and served in the People’s Liberation Army in his teens for five years. After leaving the army, he worked for three years at a railroad company in a remote northeastern city, Jiamusi, and then went to college in Harbin, majoring in English. He has published in English ten novels, four story collections, four volumes of poetry, a book of essays, and a biography of Li Bai. His novel Waiting won the National Book Award for Fiction, the PEN/Faulkner Award, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Ha Jin is William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor in English and Creative Writing at Boston University, and he has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His writing has been translated into more than thirty languages. Ha Jin’s novel The Woman Back from Moscow was published by Other Press in 2023.

Reviews

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good collection, compelling enough for me to tear through it in less than 24 hours, although the quality is a bit uneven. Highlights: "Love in the Air," "Dragon Head," "My Best Soldier." All stories involve soldiers of the People's Liberation Army and take place on the border of China and Russia during the 1970s.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ha Jin shows how the communist army is so focused on infiltration that might destroy their ideology that they erase human emotion and in a sense destroy their humanity. In communism, reason is king and emotions are besides the point even in matters of love. The book also showcases the effects of fear and suspicion and its effects on morale in communism. In the end, this was a good book with insights to the communist way of thinking.

TOO LATE:

Communist soldiers were not allowed to have affairs with village girls b/c they believed it would decrease morale by distracting soldiers from their purpose. Kong was voted a womanizer after he fell in love with An Mali. Kong was a romantic and believed in universal love. So even though An Mali belongs to the bourgeoisie class, Kong thinks that a proletariat like him can still love a bourgeoisie like her. Commander Deng tries to disavow Kong of the notion that people of different classes can fall in love with each other.

The Communist Party tells its soldiers who they can fall in love with certainly not a Capitalist woman like An Mali if Kong hopes to have a career in the Communist Army. So, faced with either giving up his love for An Mali or quitting the Communist, he chose to leave the party and elope with his beloved living in poverty but having a happy family life. Commander Chen Jun spit in the photograph that Kong sent him of his happy family life. But Chen Jun did not want to report the issue to his superiors b/c it would cast a bad light on him thereby highlighting the difficulty on a closed system where fear thrived b/c the correct information never reaches its intended spot.

BIRTHDAY DINNER'S

Even dinners in private spaces are subjected to rules by party leaders. Jin says that people in occupied territories cease to have rights b/c their rights are subjected to the occupiers whims.

Luv in the air:

The Chinese Cultural Revolution banned even children books that they considered too bourgeois for their sensibilities. Kang talks to a woman in the battle field and tries to imagine what she looks and what her personality is like. He tries to match the unknown girl with the voice with an actress that he thinks is beautiful. He found that he was in love with a voice he heard over the radio. When the voice did not return the following nights, Kang pined for the lost love he never possessed. He dreamed her to be pretty cosmopolitan and him the rustic bumbling idiot that had no chance but hoped nonetheless.

I guess for someone who has never been in love before his being in love feels like a sickness that he cannot get over. I think he pining over a voice is cute and his jealousy over Shi who rich, good-looking comrade and has multiple girlfriends is cute. Kangs obsession over the woman affected his sleep and his work. Although he knew he had to stop thinking about her, he did not know how. Shi got caught sending love messages to Lili and got punished for it since having feelings of love was considered bourgeois liberalism and thus was feelings against the Party. Shi and Lili got kicked out of the Party b/c they had flirted on the radio. Kang imagining that Shi and Lili would get married wanted to think of Lili as a common whore but continued to be haunted by her voice. So he quit his job so he would be far from the memories of Lili and her voice.

Dragon Head: This Chapter is about the corruption b/c of the lack of trust that occurs in a society ruled by fear. The chapter is also about under Communist rule the punishment does not fit the crime that the communist kill people b/c they just want to execute to send a message whether it be theft or political message.

He is a small time warlord who is aligned with the Chinese army. The army is sent into battle without the proper supplies. Dragon Head is the head of the local militia which served as the infantry for the Chinese army while the regular army was charged with the artillery. For a modern army, the fact that the Chinese had to use the militia does not bode well for them in preparing for war.

Due to hunting, Dragon head was the best marksman in the whole army. Gao feels sorry for the woman that Dragon Head had married b/c Gao feels that Dragon Head is not reliable as a husband and cannot be trusted. Dragon Head is a belligerent who is itching for war and was told that even though he is a hot head and should war erupt he would probably die, he would probably be christened a hero of the war versus Russia. Whereas Gao liked order and discipline especially when it comes to military thinks, Dragon Head takes whatever he wants from whomever he wants. Dragon Head caused problems by preemptively attacking the Russians with the Chinese military responding by confiscating the weapons of the militia.

Instead of using Dragon Head's skills appropriately, the Communist pegged him as a trouble maker and subsequently executed even if he was ready to give his life for China. Dao undermined Gao to the political authorities by making it seem he was incompetent in not dealing with Dragon Head as problem arises. Dao strategically cast doubts on Gao ability to lead b/c he is the only one who knows about his family's past. In a army in which the once past can destroy the future, trust b/w colleagues appear non-existent.

Miss Jee:

Jee is an effeminate male soldier who does not have the physical strength to fight though he has love for the motherland to give his life to defend China against Russia. B/c of his effeminate nature, his fellow soldiers made fun of him, constantly. I wonder if all effeminate soldiers undergo the scrutiny that the protagonist feels inside the military.

THE LECTURE:

The idea of turning in one's comrades for counter-revolutionary activities is very pervasive and dangerous to overall cohesive to morale of the group. Si Ma Lin laments that today's revolutionary hero's are tomorrow traitors.

THE RUSSIAN PRISONER:

The story is about how words are able to allow enemies to come together around a shared piece of literature or poetry. Lev the Russian prisoner yearned for the Russo- Chinese interpreter Mr. Wang when he died of appendicitis b/c of their love for Russian literature. The fear of being branded an enemy of the state drove these soldiers to obey and scare them into submission and divided them into suspicious people. No matter how well one treats a prisoner without freedom it means nothing. For example, the Chinese army expects Lev to be grateful toward them b/c they treated him well but he escaped the first chance he got since freedom is just as important as basic survival. This is the reason why Israel will not feel peace as long as they continue to occupy Palestinian lands b/c no one wants to be treated as a second class citizen especially someone who has brains.

The soldier does not like to see the slaughter of his food so he refuses to eat meat b/c of the slaughter.

THE FELLOW TOWNSMEN:

Within this chapter, one realizes despite political ambition and personal antagonism; there remains an unsaid humanity in everyone.

The problem with totalitarian state is that there is no check on power so when there is power abuses like sexual harassment and the doctor in charge reports then their is no recourse so they just call him a counter-revolutionary instead of investigating the power abuse.

Chen gave to the doctor who was branded a reactionary b/c Chen wanted to look great in front of his men, have the doctor remain grateful, or despite his political ambitions he had an ounce of humanity left in him and felt sorry for the doctor's sick boy.

Best Soldiers:

This chapter showcases the impossibility of erasing human nature in favor of a made up ideology of Communism.

Chinese soldiers were subjected to "mind modeling" (Ie: brain washing) in order to think the same way. The Chinese Communist party thought they could wash away human nature by reprogramming the mind with their ideology. That is why, the competent Liu Fu future was hazy b/c he visited prostitutes. Of course, the Chinese have a point in war situations the soldiers should concentrate in being combat ready situations instead of being preoccupied with women. Liu Fu being a horny teenager fucked a mule to get off since the Chinese authorities closed access to prostitutes off from him. B/c the Chinese did not want to allow human nature to flourish, they had to kill Liu Fu, their best soldier b/c he defected since the Russian were reported to allow his lust to flourish.

OCEAN OF WORDS:

The importance of ideas in any concrete and political change. The army had to have a strong ideology in order to defeat Chiang's lukewarm but well-armed army.

Zou Wen was a man who was criticized b/c of his learning and thus separated from himself from his comrade which further alienated him. Until Ziang a commander who was illiterate end up defending him since his illiteracy caused many deaths. Zou wanted to join the communist party b/c it is only through communism that one gets a good job. Ziang helped him b/c he charged that the communist needs brains to shape policy and ideology as well as guns to enforce the ideology.

[Ortegast · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't love this one but it is definitely worth reading. A series of short stories, told from the point of view of a Chinese soldier stationed on the Russian border during the 1970s (Author may have actually been stationed there at about this time - before he left for the US and became an Emory prof)Stories complicate our stereotypical understanding of the Cultural Revolution. Told from the standpoint not of the intelligentsia but of peasants, also concerned with demonstrating they are not counter revolutionaries but many of whom also long to read and have relationships with women (banned essentially by Mao for soldiers). In any event, a couple of the characters will linger for a long time.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I definitely enjoyed some stories more than others, but all were compelling, and at least a couple were sublime.

[MaryKai Boulton · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I started reading this, I wasn't impressed and did not think I'd enjoy it. But by the second story, I was hooked! So well written, just pulls you in!

[Andrew Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice collection of short stories that slowly gained on me. The first few short ones were okay at best, but Ha Jin's longer stories really make it worth reading. All of the 12 short stories, none of which are longer than 45 pages and most are 15 pages, center around Army units on the Chinese-Russian border in the 1970s, likely in the northeast of China.

While the lesser stories drone as a little monotonous among themselves, the latter stories, especially Ocean of Words which provides the last of the short stories, seem to shine brighter than the rest. Good for a short read, and while Ha Jin isn't a short story master such as Chekhov or Poe, he poses good stories worth the read of the 1970s Red China Army.

[Nat Olson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful compilation of short stories about soldiers on the Chinese-Russian border during the 1970’s. Ha Jin has a firm grip on the souls of men, and this book is an expo of those talents.

[Michael Steger · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impressive collection of stories, all set among Red Army troops stationed along the Russian border. The stories are told in a deceptively modest style (deceptive in the sense that there doubtless was a tremendous amount of editing and whittling-down that went into these stories' making), and they range in tone from the comic to the brutal. Jin is able to evoke ambiguous psychological states, subtle relationships, and bleak landscapes in prose that never shows off or calls attention to itself. At their best, these stories recall the stories of Hemingway, Chekhov, and, from time to time, Nabokov.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ha Jin the author of Waiting also shows a create use of mutiple short stories in one book. He discuss the hardships that soldiers had faced during that time between the Russians and the Chinese.

Each chapter discuss how each soldier feel and interact with certain things during the war. The war brought many hardships and problem to many people. There were also corrupted government officials that lead people into the wrong path. Each story is unfold in a way that describes an event of the People's Army (Chinese) went through and the challenges they face through their life time.

[globulon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at random at the library and am glad I did. The stories are interesting and take me to a place and time remote from my own. At the same time they don't feel foreign at all. There is a little bit of moralizing about the cultural revolution but for the most part it's not heavy handed and the stories are about the people involved rather than about politics. I would definitely like to read a novel by Ha Jin.

The style of the writing didn't wow me. I would also say I thought the arrangement of the stories was well chosen.

[tartaruga fechada · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Grandma was right: The most wicked creature on earth is man. That ox had worked for its master till it was old; when it couldn't work well the master sold it to the slaughterhouse for money. The ox had wept just now, begging the fat butcher in silence for its life, but people wanted to eat beef, so they ignored its tears and butchered it. Man is a true beast."

[南山见我 · Rating 5 out of 5]

As I read through this piece of art, I almost touched the apparition of the mid 20 century. All these images and protagnists are so vivid that as if they were truly there. And I venerate what Ha Jin had done for these once lost figures, they should not be forgotten.

It is a well-written novel as well as a crucial historical document of that specific period of time.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I did not read all of the stories in the book, the ones I did read I really enjoyed. The prose was beautiful and I found the stories of those living in the opressive world of communist China fascinating.

[Terri · Rating 4 out of 5]

a wonderful collection of short stories set on the russia/china border during the 1970s. all told from the perspective of soldiers in the chinese army, what was most intriguing to me was how familiar their thinking and motivations were with my own.

[Gaile Wakeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interestign perspective on a perverted period of Chinese history. I like this writer and his style--very engaging, I thought. The story is an eye opener about this time and I has a feeling of "being there".

[Antonio Baclig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't find this collection of short stories notable for an overarching storyline or beautiful prose, but it gave a valuable glimpse into the lives of young men on the front lines in Cold War China. Another testament to how important words, and who controls the words, are.

[Trina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this initial book by Ha Jin. He sheds light on a particular kind of Chinese experience, as I recall, namely, being a soldier in the Red Army. His writing is tight, and he knows how to craft stories well.

[Susan Messer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories interconnected by place--people (many of them soldiers) along the Chinese-Russian border. Reminds me of The Orphan Master's Son in terms of the privation and the dangers and especially the diet of sorghum.

[Leslie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Among Ha Jin's books, this one is the best. Of course, this is just my opinion. The book is about soldier's life. Many songs in Chinese have been eloquently translated into English. And what is the best about the stories? Irony.

[Tabbitha Rivera · Rating 2 out of 5]

For me this was just an okay book. I had a really hard time getting in to it and I had to force myself to read it. It was a short book so I finished it quickly but it was difficult to keep reading it.

[Leif Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better short short collections I have read. Ha Jin has a talent of finding the humanity in the most impersonal of bureaucratic constructs.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent writing as always but I wasn't that engaged by any of the stories.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Half stars because I've only just begun. They are short stories exquisitely written.

[David Marxer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good collection of short stories, this time dealing with the all too human PLA on the Russian border during the 1970s...A great companion book to Ha Jin's 'War Trash.'

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent stories-- definitely explored a different world view in this.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book reminded me of Tim O'Brien's Vietnam War masterpiece "The Things They Carried."

[Bryan Neuschwander · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of these stories. "Love in the Air" and "Ocean of Words" were two of my favorites.

[Jerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy moly, I don't know if I'm just too easy please or something, but this is amazing.

The title and a titular short story within this collection alludes to Cihai, the first dictionary of Standard Chinese. I find this book to be incredibly complex and deep. It tells of powerful messages through seriously beautifully written language (very very aesthetic) within the many stories taking place in the 70s.

It, in some ways, is a Hulanhezhuan but more blatantly sad and thought-provoking. I'm not going to spend too much time talking about the tough way of life has been manifested through certain ideals of the government at that time.

I absolutely loved the passage where Liang was reprimanding Secretary Sima on his ignorance of how important the Pen was. I think regardless of whichever school of thought you believe in, the effects always trickle down to the people and some things are just undeniable and painfully obvious.

Thinking back on such colorful stories, I think every single one of them were so memorable. Props to Ha Jin.

[Matt Nyman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book I have read that was originally written in Mandarin, and it is fun to see how the writing is done. This is a highly critical collection of stories about the silliness that comes from propaganda and one party rule. It is interesting and insightful. For me, I have to wonder whether the way this is written is more about how the Chinese are, or more about how the Chinese Army was. It reads a LOT like soviet literature, which I am more familiar with. But in China, I don't know enough to know a lot of the references. But Ha Jin is a good story teller and the way he writes the characters, as they move through their days and discover things is pretty fun. He does a good job of putting himself in the place of a wide variety of characters and writing from their perspective. I enjoyed this, even though it is pretty far outside my normal reading realms.

[Jing · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some absolute bangers in this collection. The ones that stood out the most to me were, The Russian Prisoner, Dragon Head and Miss Jee.

I think Dragon Head best captures the period in which Ha Jin set these short stories. It’s also interesting as it’s the first time we witness the protagonist as a man with sizeable authority. A battalion commander for the artillery unit stationed at the border between the USSR and China. It’s a really good insight into managing civil-military relationships, especially with local militias. Which, might seem quite irrelevant to us readers on our iPads and in cafes. Yet, it strikes me how influence can change as conflict dies. What was tolerable is soon eroded as the winds turn.