Waiting

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

A Tale of Arranged Marriage submitted by deets on August 22, 2015, 11:31am Waiting is the tale of an arranged marriage between Lin and Shuyu, and the separate lives they lead; Shuyu remains in their rural village and Lin works in the city as an army doctor, only retuning home for 10 days out of each year. The novel is about what a loveless marriage can be like, and yet, throughout the entire book, Shuyu remains both loving of Lin and faithful; she raises their own daughter, as well as caring for Lin's ailing parents.

There is both a cultural and generational clash, made worse by the fact that Shuyu's feet were bound, positioning her as a relic of the past traditions, and not the current, urban ideal. When a fellow nurse in the hospital falls in love with Lin, the restrictions of their supervisors become evident in every facet of life.

Waiting is a glimpse into Chinese culture and expectations in the 1970s. It is a time of great transition for the Communist party; what was once forbidden gradually becomes idealized, and what was once considered ideal begins to be seen as "backwards", and does not deserve a role in the modern China. WIthin the characters' lives we see in what ways, both big and small, the regime controls every aspect of daily life.

Ha Jin writes with a simple, straightforward style that allows the reader to observe the character's lives with the same sort of detachment the characters themselves seem to possess. There is a feeling that it is just "the way it is", and yet a very deep sorrow emerges as it becomes clear that acceptance does not bring true contentment. I would recommend Waiting to anyone looking to have a better sense of what Chinese culture of those times was like for the everyday man and woman. Unfortunately, the story does a much better with the main male figure, Lin, than with any of the female characters. The female characters of the story still seem rather shallow, caricatures of the different "types" of women. Being forced into those roles, however, is still a part of the overall sorrow I have described.