Individualism, Tradition, Silence, and Masculinity in Waiting by Ha Jin

Individualism, Tradition, Silence, and Masculinity in

Waiting by Ha Jin

The novel follows the fortunes of Lin Kong, an army doctor who waited eighteen years for a chance to pursue a relationship with his girlfriend, Manna Wu. I have to say that when I read the novel I thought to myself I had never ever encountered such a non self-aware character–if there is such a term– before.  Lin Kong seemed absolutely clueless. He only knew he was unhappy in his marriage. He  married Shuyu out of a sense of filial duty so she could take care of his parents in his absence.  He had not met her till he came home from Muji City where he worked as a doctor at the military hospital.  He was mailed a photograph of the girl, “and he agreed to be engaged, feeling she was a fine, normal girl.” When he did see her before the wedding,  he found her old and ugly with bound feet that are only four inches long. However, his parents were adamant; they called her “suitable” and he agreed to marry her.  

  Once a year, Lin returned home from Muji City hospital, and asked his wife for a divorce.  The wife never consented to it.  At times, she elicited the support of her brother Bensheng, who was only too glad to accompany them to court to save the family’s honor and give testimony on behalf of his sister to prevent a divorce. Eighteen years is the period Lin would have to wait to get a divorce without his wife’s consent. So the novel is about the passage of time; each day is described in its minute detail while the years go rushing by not just without resolution but bringing a host of other devastating problems. First is the suppression of individualism and emotional life by the communist regime.  Then there was a clash of traditional and modern values and Lin, trapped in the loveless marriage, was forced to wait in silence. The man seemed to lack any passion;  however,  it was the social, psychological and intellectual “paralysis” of the period during the Cultural Revolution that impacted him.  And when Manna urged him to get a divorce, he was uncertain because to follow his heart seems just as frightening.  He is coerced all over again. 

Divorce was rare in Goose village.  And it was a small close knit community and folks were shocked that Lin would leave his hard working, self sacrificing wife to marry his “mistress”.  He even gets severely reprimanded by the judge presiding over his case, “Comrade Lin Kong, you are a revolutionary officer and should be a model for us civilians. What kind of a model have you become? A man who doesn't care for his family and loves the new and loathes the old – fickle in heart and unfaithful in words and deeds. Your wife served your family like a donkey at the millstone. After all these years, the grinding is done, and you want to get rid of her. This is immoral and dishonorable, absolutely intolerable.  Tell me, do you have a conscience or not?” (12) It was not just the rural community that is steeped in tradition, the city is hidebound as well. 

Waiting  deals with issues of masculinity; in this case, the masculinity crisis in which Lin Kong is trapped.  Lin, a tall quiet man, was “different from most young officers…seemed mature for his age which was thirty.  His glasses made him look urbane and knowledgeable.  People liked him, calling him Scholar or Bookworm, and every year he had been elected a model officer.” (31) He was careful about his image, his only transgression was hoarding books that would have been consigned to bonfires by the Red Guards.  Manna, who would borrow his books, stopped after some were confiscated.  Neither joined any revolutionary organization but they “dutifully participated in  political activities.”(58) They never broke any rules–they walked inside, never outside, the hospital compound; their conduct never revealed any intimacy.  His friend Ran Su made him promise that he would not have an “abnormal” relationship with Manna unless he divorced his wife. “By “abnormal” he meant “sexual”.” (59).  Lin was warned.

Manna, egged on by her friend Haiyan, gained access to an empty apartment in the city for an illicit rendezvous with Lin. She was both excited and apprehensive herself and the whole plan was crushed by Lin who scolded her for risking their careers and lives over something that could brand them as criminals. Soon after this, Manna issued Lin an ultimatum–he should get a divorce.  Lin had never considered this.  He had to now look within himself and find what he truly wanted. What was his reaction? “Love did not help.  The possibility of love only filled him with despondency and languor, as though he was sick in the soul.  If only he had never Known Manna; if only he could get back into his old rut again; if only he could return to an undisturbed, contented life.”(80) Lin failed to feel deeply, to be passionate enough to make changes to his life and be confident in his decisions.  Manna thought “Lin was too much of a gentleman, good tempered and studious, with little manly passion” (176) and wished he were more like Geng Yang who “...was more like a man to her, strong, straight-forward, fearless, and even coarse.” (176)  He was unscrupulous, a go-getter, and watched her with “hungry eyes”, all of which showed passion and sex-appeal.  She admired all this in him till she was raped.  Geng Yang represents the moral decline during the economic reforms  in the post Cultural Revolution period.  He had the same “lustful” look when he talked in a television interview about his construction company and the profits he made .   

When Lin did go back to his home that year, he realized what Shuyu did for his family, the sacrifices that she made on his behalf and so did not have the heart to bring up the subject of a divorce. Lin used silence as a strategy to avoid confrontation and conflict.  “Are you a man or not? You have a fearful heart like a rabbit" (85) When Manna accused  him, Lin implored her to wait, afraid to think about how such an act would change his life.  

Lin was not a man of action.  “He felt as if there was some force beyond his control, of which he merely served as a vehicle, that would realize the divorce and start him on a new life" (214) When he brought Shuyu his wife over to the city, he was separated from Manna of necessity for a few days. “To tell the truth, he didn’t miss Manna, though he felt sorry for her.  Is this what love is like? he asked himself.  No wonder people say marriage is the death of love.” (214)  It wasn’t just his marriage he had to take care of.  After years of waiting, he finally communicated to his daughter via letter that she should come to the city where there were more opportunities for her. When Hua rejected his offer, he went back to his village one last time  to persuade her. When he finds out from a blushing daughter that she is in love, he is amazed that she was so confident in herself to know it.  “Could love be so simple and so easy?  Didn’t it take time to achieve mutual understanding and trust?”(225) Waiting helps Lin on his voyage of self-discovery and he admits to himself at the end of the novel that he is not made to love but to be loved.  "Maybe I've read too much, he reasoned, or maybe I'm too rational, better educated. I'm a scientist by training-knowledge chills your blood" (252).  What is interesting about this novel is that the reader is not sure whose story it is.  Is it Lin’s, Manna’s or Shuyu’s?  Shuyu adapts to a life in the city with her daughter, becomes more of her own person, discovers herself just like Lin. 

In a deceptively simple, minimalist style of writing, the author withholds his comments just as the characters restrain themselves, leading the reader in unhurried movement through the oppressive regime and seeing China through their eyes. Lin, at the end of the novel, when weary from the waiting, and weary with life, looks at his twins “..somehow,,,began to imagine trading places with them, having his life start afresh.  If only he himself had been carried by someone like this now; then he would have led his life differently.  Perhaps he would never have had a family.”(275) Absolutely free, under no one’s control.

Jin, Ha. Waiting. New York, Vintage Books, 1999.