Between Silences: A Voice from China

by Ha Jin

"Mixing autobiography with invented other voices, this book is an extraordinary meditation on what it means to have lived the history of China in the second half of the twentieth century. At its best, Ha Jin's language is as accessible, penetrating, and mysterious as Pound's Cathay . This is a profound book, an event."—Frank Bidart

"In these poems Ha Jin gives voice to the millions whose lives were altered and whose tongues were silenced by the Cultural Revolution. . . .If Ha Jin speaks in tongues in these poems, we feel him behind those voices—the hidden director behind the scenes—never as a presence filled with stridency and self-congratulation; he brings a great empathy and compassion to his depiction of the fallible men and women whose acts and attitudes together make up history."—Roger Gilbert, Hungry Mind Review

Genres: Poetry, China

72 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 1990

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

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

i admire ha jin, his history, his choice of language when he writes, his quiet voice that evenly seals and contains his anger, sadness, regret and hope.

[Rob Coyle]

Excellent. Just what I have come to expect from Jin.

[Chang Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love! One of my favorite authors...

[Rebekah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ohmygosh. This book of poetry will haunt me for a very, very long time.