- AROUND C-TOWN (26)
- CHINATOWN CALENDAR (42)
- LIFE AND STORIES OF ASIAN AMERICANS (8)
- THE CHINATOWN BEAT (5)
- The PU PU CHATTER (2)
- WORD ON THE STREET (88)
- October 6, 2008: Seeking Candidates for Chinatown Master Plan 2010 Oversight Committee
- September 26, 2008: Peach Farm - Chinatown's Finest Seafood Basement Restaurant
- September 21, 2008: Oak Street Fair 2008
- September 19, 2008: Archstone: A Catalyst for Revitalizing Chinatown?
- September 17, 2008: Sonia Chang-Diaz Wins State Senate Seat
- September 17, 2008: Oak Street Fair - Saturday, Sept. 20th
- September 16, 2008: Welcome Back Royal Palace!
- September 9, 2008: Personal Reflections on the Housing Crisis
- September 2, 2008: What Are People Saying About Parcel 24?
- August 27, 2008: Selling Public Infrastructure and Privatized Chinatown?
Conversation with Author Ha Jin
Asian American Resource Workshop and Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center present:
A Conversation with Ha Jin
Saturday, May 31, 2008
2:00-4:00 pm
Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center
38 Ash St. (off Oak St., between Harrison Ave. & Washington St.)
Boston, MA 02111
Directions: www.bcnc.net.
Free Admission. RSVP to: (617) 635-5129 or info@bcnc.net.
Award-winning author Ha Jin will read from and discuss his latest work. A Free Life. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signing.
Short Synopsis:
From the acclaimed, award-winning author of Waiting and War Trash comes a new novel that eloquently re-imagines the American immigrant saga. Jin tells the story of the Wu family, that sets out on a journey through contemporary America in search of a sense of belonging.
About the Author:
Ha Jin was awarded the PEN/Faulkner Award for Waiting and War Trash; Waiting also won the National Book Award. His other books include the novel The Crazed; three short story collections: The Bridegroom, which won the Asian American Literary Award, Under the Red Flag, which won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction, and Ocean of Words, which won the PEN/Hemingway Award; and three books of poetry.
Publisher’s Comments:
From Ha Jin, the widely-acclaimed, award-winning author of Waiting and War Trash, comes a novel that takes his fiction to a new setting: 1990s America. We follow the Wu family — father Nan, mother Pingping, and son Taotao — as they fully sever their ties with China in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and begin a new, free life in the United States.
At first, their future seems well-assured — Nan’s graduate work in political science at Brandeis University would guarantee him a teaching position in China — but after the fallout from Tiananmen, Nan’s disillusionment turns him towards his first love, poetry. Leaving his studies, he takes on a variety of menial jobs while Pingping works for a wealthy widow as a cook and housekeeper. As Nan struggles to adapt to a new language and culture, his love of poetry and literature sustains him through difficult, lean years.
Ha Jin creates a moving, realistic, but always hopeful narrative as Nan moves from Boston to New York to Atlanta, ever in search of financial stability and success, even in a culture that sometimes feels oppressive and hostile. As Pingping and Taotao slowly adjust to American life, Nan still feels a strange, paradoxical attachment to his homeland, though he violently disagrees with Communist policy. And severing all ties — including his love for a woman who rejected him in his youth — proves to be more difficult than he could have ever imagined.
Ha Jin’s prodigious talents are evident in this powerful new book, which brilliantly brings to life the struggles and successes that characterize the contemporary immigrant experience. With its lyrical prose and confident grace, A Free Life is a luminous addition to the works of one of the preeminent writers in America today.