A Study Of Trauma Writing In Ha Jin’s Works

As the first generation of Chinese new immigrant writers,Ha Jin is known for writing about the traumatic memories of his homeland and Chinese descent,and his works have received widespread praise,thus entering the mainstream Western literary world.This article attempts to systematically examine Ha Jin’s creations from the perspective of trauma writing,analyze the formation mechanism and manifestation of trauma writing,explore what textual strategies Ha Jin uses to attempt trauma treatment,and reveal the cultural significance,practical value,and future inspiration of Ha Jin’s trauma writing.The formation mechanism of Ha Jin’s trauma writing includes various factors such as psychology,ethics,society,and culture.From the perspective of creative psychology,Hakim adheres to the “realistic” style while invisibly conforming to the mainstream American society’s perception of the suffering of Chinese American culture;On the ethical level,although Ha Jin abandoned the traditional Chinese statism values and showed a catering attitude to the American individualism ethics and the universal value advocated by the West since modern times,in this process,he inevitably felt the pain of alienating his mother country.In terms of social mechanisms,on the one hand,Hakim was unable to identify with the survival situation of Chinese intellectuals in his home country,and on the other hand,he was anxious about the marginal position of Chinese American literature in the context of foreign cultures,which made him in a dilemma and difficult to further break through the national narrative logic.As a result,trauma writing became his helpless choice.Finally,in terms of cultural mechanisms,although Ha Jin initially established his identity as a “spokesperson for Chinese culture”,he was also influenced by the competition for American cultural hegemony discourse.In order to gain recognition from mainstream American society,he intended to lean closer to his reading preferences.His works in the middle and later stages showed distorted emotions and sorrows after being “disciplined”.The essence and strategy of Ha Jin’s trauma writing is to present the trauma experiences and history of individuals and ethnic groups through witnessing,narrating,and memorizing.Its manifestations are mainly reflected in four aspects: firstly,reflecting the growth trauma of adolescents in special historical backgrounds from the perspectives of body,spirit,and values;The second is to describe the trauma in love and family relationships from the perspectives of the harm of bad habits and social cognition to love,misaligned love and sadistic love,and bitter love;Thirdly,through the depiction of historical events such as the Korean War and the Nanjing Massacre,the psychological trauma caused by war and social unrest can be seen through perspective;The fourth is to convey the nostalgia of individuals and ethnic groups through three types of traumatic feelings towards home: “returning is not home”,“freedom without homesickness”,and "having a home but not returning".Hakim brought new hope to build a dual identity of Chinese descent through trauma writing.Firstly,Hakim developed a unique “Ha Jin-style English” through the use of“synthetic language” in English writing,which not only ensured its readability in the English speaking world,but also maintained some of the characteristics of ethnic language,providing the possibility and operability for speaking out for the trauma of vulnerable groups;Secondly,the image of modern and contemporary China portrayed by Ha Jin in his “translation” works,as well as the image of new immigrants portrayed in his“immigration” works,break the stereotype of mainstream culture towards Chinese Americans and expand the horizons of American readers by narrating ordinary people and their daily lives.The essence of Ha Jin’s trauma writing involves the portrayal of“marginal space”,and the construction of a new spiritual home and the establishment of a new cultural identity will become the ultimate path for Chinese Americans to break free from psychological trauma and “move towards rebirth”.Ha Jin’s works depict the obstacles faced by the construction of Chinese American identity and the integration into mainstream space from the “marginal space”.At the same time,he is also pondering how Chinese Americans can escape the harm of social and cultural violence and fundamentally heal cultural trauma.Therefore,in future creations,Ha Jin can further try the following two aspects: first,transform the creative perspective from the “livelihood perspective” to the “ethnic perspective”,and construct a loose mixture of ethnic identities;Secondly,the purpose of clarifying trauma writing is not only to “present” and “reveal”,but also to include “healing” and “identification”.Trauma healing is a continuous,dynamic,and unfinished process,and the structural contradictions that exist in American society are still prominent.Although Ha Jin has made certain contributions to wound healing in his unique way,as an ethnic writer,facing many cultural differences and barriers,he still faces difficulties.For Ha Jin,how to deal with the discourse competition between the middle and the beauty,the edge and the center,and the other and the subject will become an eternal and difficult proposition,and this may also be an inexhaustible source of inspiration for his trauma writing.