Under the Red Flag [Paperback]

Ha Jin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1998

Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Award for short fiction, Under the Red Flag features twelve stories which take place during China's Cultural Revolution--stories which display the earnestness and grandeur of human folly and, in a larger sense, form a moral history of a time and a place.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A peek behind the Bamboo Curtain, where Chinese poet Ha Jin, winner of the latest Flannery O'Connor Award, works out the conflicts between tradition and constraint that animate his second collection (after Ocean of Words, 1996). Ha Jin, who writes in English, is a Chinese veteran of the People's Liberation Army and, although he doesn't address political dissidence directly in his work, the 12 stories here all contain that undercurrent of cynicism in the face of authority that's common to military (as well as Communist) societies. Thus, the soldier of ``A Man-to-Be,'' who holds back from taking part in a gang-rape, not only finds himself defensive about his own manliness but is eventually shunned by his fianc‚e's family, who doubt his ability to father children, whereas the hooligan boys who terrorize their fellow classmates in ``Emperor'' discover that their popularity and status increase ever higher with each new atrocity they perpetrate. The abiding tensions of peasant life prove themselves again and again to be deeper than the Party's ideal of the New Communist Man, as in ``New Arrival'' (where a childless couple refuses to adopt a beloved young boy entrusted to their care because of their fear of bad luck) or ``Fortune'' (in which an old man's faith in fortune-telling remains so absolute that he becomes willfully deluded rather than admit that his life has been ruined). Honor remains a powerful primordial force as well, best illustrated in the predicament of the dutiful Party member who disobeys his dying mother's wish for a traditional funeral and is promptly denounced by his comrades for filial impiety; or in the public degradation of a prostitute (``In Broad Daylight''), which, however harrowing, remains a less vivid spectacle than the degradation of her accusers. Splendidly fluid and clear: Ha Jin has managed to make an utterly alien world seem as familiar as an old friend. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Ha Jin is a master satirist, not so much of Chinese politics as of the human psyche when it's being twisted and pummeled by some higher authority" -- The Chicago Tribune

"Mr. Jin's haunting portraits of life in China, particularly during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, are shattering conventional expectations of what it is to be a 'Chinese writer,' and at the same time attracting torrents of praise" -- The Asian Wall Street Journal

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Product Details

• Paperback: 207 pages
• Publisher: Zoland Books; 1 edition (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581950063
• ISBN-13: 978-1581950069
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.5 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #531,549 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Collection of Short Stories, April 16, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Mt. Dora, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Under the Red Flag (Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction) (Hardcover)

Ha Jin has created a collection of stories that are absolutely remarkable. "The Emperor" is a short story that ranks right beside The Lord of the Flies. With a ferocity not seen much these days, Ha Jin's short stories are forged in the same class as Dubliners by James Joyce, especially Joyce's "The Dead," but with a voice crossed between Hemminway and Dostoevsky

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars He can do better, July 27, 2001

By 

Sai Li - See all my reviews

This review is from: Under the Red Flag (Paperback)

Ha Jin excels in writing vignettes that are simply refreshing to the non-Chinese reader. There are, however, better choices. I recommend the other collections like Ocean of Words and Bridegroom, which are more original and better written. Skip his novels, they tend to drag with unnecessary descriptions.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!, December 20, 2011

By 

DM2015 (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Under the Red Flag (Paperback)

I am a huge fan of Ha Jin. I've read A Good Fall, A Free Life, and Bridegroom. I'm currently working on finishing my Ha Jin collection - this is the latest addition. I really enjoyed the collection of stories which chronicle the lives of various Chinese citizens during Mao's time in a rural town. I recommend it to anyone who would like to read about how the other side lived.