> Skip to content
  • Published: 1 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407020297
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 240

The Bridegroom




The Bridegroom explores the lives of ordinary Chinese as their constricted society begins to open up to the West, from the author of Waiting, confirming Ha Jin's reputation as a master storyteller.

This new collection of short stories by the award-winning author of Waiting confirms Ha Jin's reputation as a master storyteller, as well as a master of the miniature.

In The Bridegroom, the twelve stories capture a China in transition, moving from Maoism towards a more open society. For these men and women, starting to feel the influence of the West, the daily dramas of a system that still struggles to control their every move and thought are made all the more painful. As his characters, from an entrepreneur, transformed from black-market criminal to free market hero, to the workers at Cowboy Chicken, to the professor mistaken by the police for a saboteur, continue to struggle against petty injustices and heartbreaks, Ha Jin celebrates their lives and humanity with the understated humour and simplicity that has won him widespread acclaim.

  • Published: 1 September 2010
  • ISBN: 9781407020297
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 240

About the author

Ha Jin

Ha Jin left his native China in 1985 for the USA. He is the author of six novels, including Waiting – winner of the 1999 National Book Award for Fiction, and the 2000 PEN/ Faulkner Award – In the Pond, The Crazed and his latest, Nanjing Requiem. He has also published four collections of stories and four volumes of poetry. He lives near Boston and teaches at Boston University

Also by Ha Jin

See all

Praise for The Bridegroom

Ha Jin has the kind of effortless command that most writers can only dream about

New York Times Magazine

Ha Jin's eye for detail, his great storytelling talent, suffuse his work and make The Bridegroom a genuine pleasure

New York Times Book Review

Beautifully understated short stories-Some of them are likely to break your heart

People Magazine

A genuine pleasure

New York Times Book Review

The Bridegroom...showcases [Ha Jin's] mastery of craft, the consummate restraint and nearly telegraphic objectivity with which he paints difficult truths

Boston Globe