Asian American Poet

I have chosen Ha Jin for my Asian American poet for this unit in our class. He was born on February 21, 1956 in Liaoning, China. His real name is Jin Xuefei, Ha Jin is the pen name he has chosen for himself. "Ha" comes from the name of his favorite city, Harbin. When he was 14 he served in the People's Liberation Army in China, until he was 20. His father at that time was a solider as well. When he was released from the army he decided to teach himself English while working the night shift as a railroad telegrapher. He then later got his BA and MA from Chinese universities. It was in 1985, that he decided to move to the United States to pursue graduate work in English at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Ha Jin decided to stay in the U.S. after the Tienanmen Massacre in 1989. The poems he has written since he began his studies in America deal mostly with the experiences of people in China during the Cultural Revolution- "experiences," as he writes, "not strictly personal, although in most cases ... stimulated by memory of hard facts which cannot be worn away by time."

In many of his poems we can hear the people of China concerned about their fate, one that no one can understand or change. Ha Jin remarks: " If not every one of these people, who were never perfect, is worthy of our love, at least their fate deserves our attention and our memory. they should talk and be talked about." The motivation behind many of his poems are letting silenced people's voices be heard. He wants to bring attention to people who are oppressed and too afraid to let their voices be heard. By bringing attention to these people, we can all learn the mistakes of the past and not allow it to repeat itself. Many of his poems also deal with the theme of individuality and how they matter more than the collective whole. Rather than just a nation, a nation of individuals who are all equally important.

I chose Ha Jin to be my author because it did not really matter to me that much who I picked as my author at first, so i just googled Asian American Poets. His name caught my eye because it had a nice ring to it. As started to research who he was and such I was glad I picked him because half of my family is Chinese and their parents came from China to American to escape all the chaos that was happening. I thought it would be good to see what their lives were like back then and as well as their lives in America today.