CHAUTAUQUA - Ha Jin, an award-winning Chinese-American author, spoke to the Chautauqua Institution about the writing process and how his immigrant experiences shaped his works.
Jin came to the United States to do graduate work at Brandeis University. He was living in America when the Tiananmen Square incident in 1989 prompted him to stay here permanently. Having felt betrayed by his country, Jin started writing exclusively in English.
He presented his book "A Good Fall" to the Institution, Thursday, as part of the Chautauqua Literary & Scientific Circle's book club. The book is a collection of short stories, all pertaining to Flushing, the largest Chinese community in New York City.
"For the short-story connection, I asked myself where I should set these stories," he said. "I was trying to figure out a way to unify them."
He visited Flushing in February 2005, and knew immediately it was where he was going to set the book.
"There were so many immigrants hustling to work, and it dawned on me," he said.
He visited Flushing more then 20 times to observe the people in their habitat, he said. Many stories came about from his observations.
Jin said that writing short stories is much different than writing a novel.
"Most fiction writers begin with short stories," he said. "You always have to be flexible, and with a novel you cannot. In a short-story collection you can add stories that provide context to other stories and make them stronger."
However, with a novel, the author must have the complete picture in his or her mind, he said.
"In a short-story collection it is not as painful to subtract some things," he said. "Failure is always part of the writing process."
For those who have full-time jobs, the short story is a good way of writing because they are quick.
"I love the short story as a form," he said.
For Jin, writing in the English language is a big challenge.
"It took me a year to decide to write in English," he said. "I knew in the language there was a great tradition."
In translation, the language of the story can become misshapen.
"I revise constantly so that is they are translated back-and-forth from English to Chinese that it makes sense," he said.