Shortly after the end of the Second World War, at the conclusion of the 1940s, Mao Zedong became the chairman of Communist China. Being that it was, and still is, the most inhabited country in the world, China becoming a communist country affected millions of people almost instantly. Many of the traditional traditions and practices of the Chinese people were left behind as Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” was instituted across the country in 1966. During the Cultural Revolution of China, the country and its citizens experienced strict authority control with the military and the state functioning together to govern the people. The switch from traditional China to this Cultural Revolution was swift and hasty, causing much death and trouble for the Chinese people. Because of these facts, there are many people who judged the New China governed under the socialist ideas of Mao. One of these critics is the Chinese-American novelist, Ha Jin, who denounces the Cultural Revolution of China in his novel entitled Waiting. In his novel, Ha Jin addresses and brings to light the affects of Mao’s rule on the Chinese people and the country as a whole. The novel starts in 1966 and takes place during the Cultural Revolution. “Cultural conflict is the center of this novel, where two worlds collide in the story of a man seeking a divorce from his wife by an arranged marriage: the ancient feudal culture of China and the world of the Cultural Revolution led by Chairman Mao” (Moore, 124). Through the locations, settings, and characters, Ha Jin illustrates the differences between the Old China and the New China for his American audience; there are many places and people in “Waiting” that represent these two divergent times in Chinese history. One way in which Ha Jin develops this idea is through the characters of Shuyu and Manna Wu, the two women Lin Kong must decide between throughout the novel. Shuyu, who lives in the countryside, is Lin Kong’s wife through a prearranged marriage and represents the conformist China of earlier years. Differing, Manna Wu is the nurse Lin meets in the city in the hospital where they both work; she represents the educated, modern woman influenced by the Cultural Revolution. Being that Shuyu dwells in the countryside and Manna in the city, these locations also become symbols used by Ha Jin to express his views of the times changing. “The novel reveals how the collision between the old world of rural China, where divorce is rare, and the new world of the Cultural Revolution thwarts Lin Kong's best efforts and creates the life we experience…”(Moore, 124). In using the countryside town of Goose Village, Ha Jin is able to show his inexperienced American readers how different life was before Mao. “Throughout the novel Ha Jin gives readers many opportunities to see the rural world and its cultural value systems untouched as yet by the Cultural Revolution” (Moore, 125). He shows how distinct different life was in Old China when Lin Kong is visiting his wife and daughter, Hua, in Goose Village; life in this village is always depicted as being calm and simple. In one scene, Shuyu prepares Lin’s parents’ favorite meals for him to deliver to their grave sights (Jin, 92-93). Such customs were long forgotten and never again practiced once Mao took control of the country. Also, in various parts of the book it is mentioned how divorces were hard to come across in the country. Ha Jin writes, “Divorces were rare in the country. The court could handle about a dozen cases a year, and only two or three would end in a divorce” (Jin, 10). Later on, the character Geng Yang is quoted as saying, “Divorces are rare in the countryside. I heard of only one divorce in my hometown…”(Jin, 166). These passages from the novel deliver how the mindsets and lives of the people in rustic China differed from those of the people in the city. Unlike Goose Village, life in the Muji city was changed drastically for women and men living under the watchful eyes of the Chinese military and government. “That change is set in the context of the Cultural Revolution, where the relationship between married military men and unmarried women is strictly controlled” (Moore, 124). Because superiors and those who worked for Chairman Mao, were extremely afraid to break the rules set in place, even if those rules upset their happiness. At the beginning of the novel, Jin explains the circumstances under which Lin and Manna were allowed to meet: “…they couldn’t live together and could only eat at the same table in the mess hall and take walks on the hospital grounds. The hospital’s regulations prohibited a man and a woman on the staff from walking together outside the compound, unless they were married or engaged” (Jin, 16). Even though Lin and Manna had projection to be married one day, they were not allowed to meet outside the hospital because Lin was a married guy. The heads of the hospital synchronized everything their employees did, making it unattainable for Lin and Manna to have a real relationship because they were “fearful of being punished”. The whole idea of the arranged marriage between Lin and Shuyu exemplifies this traditional role of women. “His father wanted Lin to get married soon so that his bride could look after his mother” (Jin, 8). This shows that Shuyu was simply needed by Lin’s father to take care of his ill wife while he worked in the fields; the entire marriage was instituted so the Kong’s could utilize Shuyu for their own benefit. Probably the most shocking aspect of this situation is Shuyu’s enthusiasm and eagerness to be married. She was never loved and never cared about by her husband, and yet never complained. It is deduced that these arranged marriages were typical occurrences in Old China. However, situations and arranged marriages like this never took place after the Cultural Revolution, when marriages were no longer arranged. Also, from the start of the novel, the readers are told that Shuyu’s feet are bound, even though the practice of binding a woman’s feet had ended a generation earlier: “This was the New China; who would look up to a woman with bound feet?”(Jin, 8). Despite this fact, Shuyu took great pride in her bound feet and would not take off her small shoes when visiting the hospital later on in the novel to show the young nurses her feet because “only her man’s allowed to see them” (Jin, 205). “The nurses at the hospital are amazed at her deep loyalty to her husband” (Moore, 126), which exemplifies other characteristics of traditional women: devotion and dedication. Shuyu’s entire life spins around her husband and the family they have. She saves some of the small amount of money Lin sends to her each month in order to give it back to him for his own personal use, even if it means living with less herself. She goes to him one night and offers to have a son for him, so that there is someone to take care of him in his old age. These actions of Shuyu show how committed she was to Lin and how everything she did was to help him and their family. Such reliability and affection was lost as the Cultural Revolution took effect. Ha Jin also points out another different attribute of women of Old China: their dependences and strong link to their husbands. He shows how dependent Shuyu is on her husband by elucidation that Shuyu doesn’t work and only lives off the money Lin sends her once a month. It is also said that Lin’s mother’s stone “carried only ‘Kong’s Wife.’ His mother had never had her own name” (Jin, 93). Both of these instances prove how much women used to depend on their husbands and how emotionally involved they really were to them. This is a huge contrast to the newfound independence of the women of the Cultural Revolution. Women of the New China, as it was under the Cultural Revolution, became products of the state; this is exemplified in the character of Manna Wu. Through the fictional city of Muji, where Lin and Manna live and work, “Ha Jin gives us in- sight into the mechanistic and dehumanizing world of the military that governs the lives of Lin and Manna Wu” (Moore, 125). Around this time, all women in China were “supposed to marry, even the retarded and the paralyzed were not exempted” (Jin, 99). Manna Wu was the exception, however; she was one of the oldest women working in the hospital, and who had yet to be married- behind her back people called her ‘a typical old maid. She was too old to marry any of the young, single men working in the hospital and found her last chance at marriage in Lin Kong, but because he was already married they were still talked about and scrutinized for their relationship. In the city, in such close immediacy to the government officials, Manna was trapped and stuck living under these rules and criticisms, which were set in place by the Cultural Revolution. The effects the Cultural Revolution had on the women of China are especially depicted in the section of the novel where Geng Yang rapes Manna Wu. The reader finds out that the only reason he does this despicable deed is because he knew Manna was a virgin. He took advantage of her knowing that he would never be punished for it because she Manna would never tell anyone of what happened to her out of fear. Geng Yang tells her that no one will ever believe her and she agrees with him saying, “I went to his room on my own accord. Wouldn’t they say I offered myself to him?” (Jin, 183). Manna was clearly afraid of revealing what happened to her to any sort of authority, knowing completely well that no one would take what she said seriously. When she eventually decided to confide in her friend, Haiyan, she is told, “It will be very hard to prove that you didn’t have a date with him unless Geng Yang admits the crime himself. You know a date rape is rarely treated as a rape” (Jin, 187). The women who lived under the rule of Mao and his Cultural Revolution grew to fear those around them to the point where they would not stand up for themselves because of fear of being judged and condemned. Being that Manna was already looked down upon by her superiors and peers because of her relationship with Lin, she refuses to allow him to inform anyone of the rape saying, “if people know of the rape, I’ll become cheaper in everyone’s eyes, and I’ll belong to a different category, lower than a widow” (Jin. 194). The Cultural Revelation obviously rattled the women who lived so close to those who governed their country, making them fearing their power and influence of those people above them; they worried more of what those around them those around them thought, than their own personal and individual wants and needs. In conclusion, Ha Jin’s Waiting explores the changes that took place as a result of the Cultural Revolution in China by comparing characters and settings throughout the novel. “In Waiting, Ha Jin continues his mission of dissecting society in "the Old Country"- that is, China as he left it, fifteen years ago. Waiting begins with an absurd impasse of the sort the author excels at creating, quintessentially Maoist but also universally human” (Kinkley. 579). The author develops this idea by presenting the two different locations of Goose Village, representing Old China, and Muji City, representing the New China. He illustrates life in Goose Village as serene and effortless, being unscathed by the influenced of the Cultural Revolution instituted by Mao. However, in contrast, life in Muji city is completely regulated, making causing all those who live there to be fearful of the power of those above them. Ha Jin also addresses the change from the Old China to the New China, caused by the Cultural Revolution, through the characters of Shuyu and Manna Wu. Mao depicts Shuyu as the traditional Chinese woman almost completely oblivious to the changing times around her, while the Cultural Revolution would forever influence Manna’s life put in place. Ha Jin, being a critic of many aspects of the New China, wrote about his views in this novel, showing his audience how much the Old China differed from the New China he was brought up in. In the end, “this Waiting “is a saga on how the country and city, … can conspire to perpetuate dull misery” (Kinkley, 579).

Works Cited

Jin, Ha. Waiting. New York, NY: Vintage, 2000.

Print.Kinkley, Jeffrey C. "World Literature in Review: Asia and the Pacific." World Literature Today 3rd ser. 74 (2000): 579-80. JSTOR. Web. 7 Feb. 2011

Moore, John N. "The Landscape of Divorce: When Two Worlds Collide." The English Journal 92.2 (2002): 124-27. JSTOR. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.