Nearly 300 people came to the University of Delaware to hear Award-winning author Ha Jin talk about his perspectives on the immigrant and the exile, reported UDaily.
Jinn who came to the United States almost three decades ago, spoke as part of the writer’s series called Transnational Encounters: World-Renowned Authors.
Jin said the exile’s view of the world is shaped by an important moment from the past while the immigrant is focused on starting a new life for himself and his family in a new place, according to UDaily.
Jin wrote his first novel Waiting based on his personal experience as a soldier. As a writer, Jin was struggling with the tension between the exile and the immigrant in himself.
“I struggled to get away from China,” he said, “although eventually I realized that I would always have an emotional entanglement with the old land. I couldn’t get away from my past completely, but I saw that I could use it as a source of energy.”
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