War Trash is a novel written by Chinese author Xufei Jin, who writes under the pen name Ha Jin. Ha has lived in America for decades, and writes in English, so his novels are not "lost in translation", even though some of the Chinese history and traditions are still part of our learning curve as a reader.
The novel takes the form of a fictional memoir by a Chinese man by the name of Yu Yuan. He is on the cusp of his adult life when the People's Revolution takes place, and this changes the course of his life forever. He becomes a soldier in the Chinese People's Volunteer Army and is sent to fight on the Communist side in the Korean War. This experience forms the majority of Yu's memoir. The book interesting from the historical perspective, since the majority of our knowledge of the Korean war naturally comes from the Allied side. The author cleverly shows how the majority of the soldiers fighting on the Communist side were not particularly enthusiastic Communists; fighting was mandatory, and dying for the cause preferred. Yu's memoir, particularly his reminiscences about his mother and fiance and his determination to ally with any side that would get him back to them more quickly definitely humanizes the face of the archetypal Chinese Communist. In the end it is not so much a story about the Allies versus the Communists, or even the Nationalists versus the Communists, but it is a story about a man who loves his fiance and wants to reunite with her as quickly as possible.
Ha Jin is better known as a poet, and is associated with the Misty Poet movement. The Misty Poets are a group of Chinese who reacted against the restrictions placed on the arts during the Cultural Revolution. They are so named because their work was denounced as "obscure" and "misty" (in translation one could probably add "shady" to the list because this is how the Communist leaders tended to view them.) However, the poets themselves describe their work as subjective realism in that they are reacting to what they see going on in the world around them.
Ha is also well known as a short story writer and his work has appeared many times in The Best American Short Stories anthologies. He has been the recipient of many awards. War Trash was awarded the PEN/Faulkner Award, his second, making him one of only four authors to win this award more than once. War Trash was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
