Ha Jin, the pen name of Xuefei Jin, is a Chinese - American poet and novelist. Currently a professor at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, where he teaches literature and creative writing. Jin was born in Liaoning Province in northeast China in 1956 where he grew up during the Cultural Revolution. This was the era of Chairman Mao Zedong 's campaign to revolutionize a social, political, and economic restraint of Western influence. As a young student, Jim decided to emigrate to the United States in 1985 to attend Brandeis University. The Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 was the defining moment that leads to his decision to become a writer. His writings became widely accepted in literary circles that resulted in numerous awards. Jin …show more content…
The novel follows the experiences he faces as the Chinese became involved in the war, his eventual capture, and the years he spends as a prisoner of war in UN/American POW camps. This story is told by a now seventy-three-year-old Yu Yuan as he writes his memoir about this time in his life. While visiting his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren who live in America, Yu reflects on his story; a story that he wants to leave to his family before returning to mainland China. One lasting scar from the war is an anti-Communist tattoo that was forced on him. This memoir is intended to explain its backstory and why it was kept hidden from his family until …show more content…
Now called the People's Volunteer Army, originally assigned to protect the Manchurian border, orders were sent to discard insignias and IDs, cross the Yalu River to assist North Korea. After three months fighting while faced with little support, starvation, and exposure, Yu and his surviving comrades were captured by American soldiers. Moreover, Yu sustained a serious injury to his leg during his capture. During his confinement at a POW medical center in Pusan, Yu identified himself as Feng Yan. This was a ploy commanded by Commissar Pei to always lie to the
Robert leaves from London to Waterloo where he rides by train and reaches a town called Magdalene Wood. It is here when he realizes that he has been separated with his bag. Robert is now left without rations, clean clothing, and his gun. Magdalene Wood lies about 12 miles from Bailleul. Robert decides he wants to make it before sunrise so he must walk the remainder of the way. Soon Robert joined two horsemen and rode the remainder of the way.
Jonathan D. Spence weaves together fact and fiction in his book The Death of Woman Wang. Approaching history through the eyes of those who lived it, he tells a story of those affected by history rather than solely recounting the historical events themselves. By incorporating factual evidence, contextualizing the scene, and introducing individual accounts, he chronicles events and experiences in a person’s life rather than episodes in history. Spence pulls together the narrative from a factual local history of T’an-ch’eng by scholar Fenge K’o-ts’an, the memoir of magistrate Huang Liu-hung, and fictional stories by writer P’u Sung-ling. The book closely resembles an historical fiction while still maintaining the integrity of an historical reconstruction.
An article called, “The Real War,” written by Roger J. Spiller, begins with a quote by Walt Whitman, “The real war will never get in the books.” The author writes about an interview with Paul Fussell, who was a soldier in World War Two and has written many books about World War One and World War Two. Fussell is very opinionated and critical about other books written about these wars, asserting they are not realistic or portray the true essence of what really occurred by soldiers and other people participating in the wars. I claim that it is impossible to convey the actual personal feelings and emotions of those involved in a war in books or any other forms of media.
Ah Xian born in Beijing in 1960 left china following the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989, also known as tank man incident, and moved to Sydney Australia. Having moved from his native country, Ah Xian wanted his work to represent that “cultural identity is permanent and no matter what other places and influences one
Teenager, an age of rebellions is offered the perfect opportunity: to falsely testify against their parents, and became the educable children of Chairman Mao. But for many, the choice is not easy. Specially for the kid from "black" family, similar to main character Jiang; they have to choose between siding with their family, consider a disgrace, going against Chairman Mao's idea, or to be an honorable red guard,and side with the communist party."' Why don't you stay home with him? In case...' 'I've thought about that.' She looked away from my face to the litter on the table. 'But we can't allow personal matters to interfere with revolutionary duties. Especially for an important political assignment like the exhibition.'"(205). That's the idea chairman Mao encouraged, and it clearly separate family from politics. From this other girl point of view, she valued her policies and belief overtook her love for her brother. The action of this girl makes a strong contract to Ji-Li, bother third action define who they are.
Much of Ai Weiwei’s activism and artwork has been influenced by his experiences growing up. Ai Weiwei lived through a tumultuous time in Chinese history, with the Cultural Revolution, the Tiananmen Square Massacre and the Opening Up of China by Deng Xiaoping. Ai Weiwei’s father, Ai Qing was a famous poet during the Cultural Revolution. However, he was targeted in the Anti-Rightist campaig...
The Cultural Revolution in China was led by Mao Zedong, due to this Liang and many others faced overwhelming obstacles in many aspects of their life such as work, family and everyday encounters, if affected everyone’s families life and education, Liang lets us experience his everyday struggles during this era, where the government determined almost every aspect of life. The beginning of the book starts out with Liang’s typical life, which seems normal, he has a family which consists of three children, two older sisters and him the youngest, his two sister’s reside in Changsha 1. his father has an everyday occupation working as a journalist at a local newspaper. Things start to take a turn early in life for Liang Heng, his family politics were always questioned, the mistake made by one of his family members would impact his entire family and it would be something they would have to suffer through, it was impossible for them to live down such a sin.... ...
There is no better way to learn about China's communist revolution than to live it through the eyes of an innocent child whose experiences were based on the author's first-hand experience. Readers learn how every aspect of an individual's life was changed, mostly for the worst during this time. You will also learn why and how Chairman Mao launched the revolution initially, to maintain the communist system he worked hard to create in the 1950's. As the story of Ling unfolded, I realized how it boiled down to people's struggle for existence and survival during Mao's reign, and how lucky we are to have freedom and justice in the United States; values no one should ever take for
...ear and listen. That’s why most of the Chinese youth were inspired to join the army due to the books that were sold and the song that was written just for the Red Guards army. The book’s name is “Little Red Book.” The song’s name is “Red Guard Song.” For the members, the “Red Guard Song” reminds them of their purpose of why they joined the Red Guards. To add on, two young women had wrote their own memoirs to explain what their life was when the Cultural Revolution was happening and how their life was changed when they joined the Red Guards and started to rebel against their parents and their own teachers. As they grew older, they soon realized that everything that they’ve been doing the whole entire time was wrong and regret joining the Red Guards. They realize that all these time, they were killing innocent people that clearly was doing nothing to harm the country.
Eileen Chang’s works are extraordinarily dense in imagery, meaning, and social description, even in translation. She was able to draw from her own vast experiences in order to enrich her writing with authentic detail from turning points in history. This is very true of Sealed Off, which is placed in 1940s Shanghai, during the occupation of the Japanese. However, instead of focusing on the Japanese occupation and its political realities, which she experience first hand, although in Hong Kong instead of Shanghai, the sealing off of downtown Shanghai instead serves as plot device and setting for the odd “romance” of Lu Zongzhen and Wu Cuiyuan. Just as the Japanese occupation
Wei Hui’s proper upbringing, compared to a contemporary writer Mian Mian, has often had critics wondering if Shanghai Baby, the novel she claims is semi-autobiographical, is authentic. Wei Hui was the daughter of an army officer and was raised in a strict household in Shanghai. She went through a year of military training and graduated from Fudan, a top university in Shanghai, in 1995 earning a degree in Chinese Literature. This vastly contrasts with Mian Mian who was a high school dropout and was clearly active ...
“Whenever she had to warn us about life, my mother told stories that ran like this one, a story to grow up on. She tested our strengths to establish realities”(5). In the book “The Woman Warrior,” Maxine Kingston is most interested in finding out about Chinese culture and history and relating them to her emerging American sense of self. One of the main ways she does so is listening to her mother’s talk-stories about the family’s Chinese past and applying them to her life.
Sun Tzu was a Chinese military general but most importantly a philosopher that lived in the 6th century BC. He is the author of The Art of War, a book about military strategy. The Art of war contains thirteen chapters all delivering keys to military strategy for success. It is a famous work of art that is used nowadays in many fields including business, sport and diplomacy. Business leaders develop strategies inspired form Sun Tzu ideas to reach their goals.
The translation of the “Sun Tzu: The Art of War” ancient Chinese text has been given by many different writers. Samuel B. Griffith, Brigadier General, retired, U.S. Marine Corps; is a proven strategist that studied the English commandoes war fighting skills as a Captain. As a Major, Griffith was hand picked to serve as Executive Officer under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Merritt Edson of the 1st Raider Battalion, one of the battalions that perfected the amphibious landings during World War II. Samuel B. Griffith gives his in-depth study on “Sun Tzu: The Art of War” and how Mao Tse-tung used the strategies and teachings of Sun Tzu while commanding the Red Army of China. Griffith’s translation of Sun Tzu’s work is written in three parts: Introduction, Translation, and Appendix.
Lu Xun’s general view of China is expressed through the illustration of everyone around Kong Yiji as a society lacking any type of kindness or compassion for him. People enjoy making fun of Kong Yiji for his personal failures and disappointments in his lifetime. The 12-year-old boy, narrator of the story, only notices him because of what he hears when the wine-shop patrons make fun of Kong Yiji, and the only reason that people at the bar still remember him is because he still owes the manager ‘nineteen coppers.’ When writing this, Lu Xun is clearly not telling the story of one individual’s difficulty, rather he is showing the apathy, cruelty, dishonesty, and selfishness that describe the ways in which his society operates and devours human beings whole, which is his prediction of China’s social flaws that eventually destroy the nation. For many, personal success through a classical education is a dead-end in the age when people began questioning Chinese cultural