Jin War Trash Sparknotes

Ha Jin, the pen name of Xuefei Jin, is a Chinese - American poet and novelist. Currently a professor at Boston University in Boston, Massachusetts, where he teaches literature and creative writing. Jin was born in Liaoning Province in northeast China in 1956 where he grew up during the Cultural Revolution. This was the era of Chairman Mao Zedong 's campaign to revolutionize a social, political, and economic restraint of Western influence. As a young student, Jim decided to emigrate to the United States in 1985 to attend Brandeis University. The Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989 was the defining moment that leads to his decision to become a writer. His writings became widely accepted in literary circles that resulted in numerous awards. Jin

is now a two-time PEN/Faulkner Award winner that also includes other distinguished literary awards such as the Fellowship of American Academy of Arts and Sciences among others. This novel, War Trash, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005.
War Trash chronicles the life of a young Chinese volunteer soldier, Yu Yuan, during the Korean War.

The novel follows the experiences he faces as the Chinese became involved in the war, his eventual capture, and the years he spends as a prisoner of war in UN/American POW camps. This story is told by a now seventy-three-year-old Yu Yuan as he writes his memoir about this time in his life. While visiting his son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren who live in America, Yu reflects on his story; a story that he wants to leave to his family before returning to mainland China. One lasting scar from the war is an anti-Communist tattoo that was forced on him. This memoir is intended to explain its backstory and why it was kept hidden from his family until

now.
Yu Yuan was a sophomore in 1949 at the Huangpu Military Academy, located in Chenghu the capital of Szchuan Province. The Communist government had taken control over Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist's regime. Consequently, Huangpu cadets were assimilated into the People's Liberation Army. Yu became an interpreter because he had been taught English from a missionary. This unique talent was pivotal to his survival during his impending years of captivity. Although Yu did not resist the Communist movement, he did not consider himself a Communist. This junior officer's ambition was to marry his fiancé, Tao Julian, and to take care of his mother, but it is now 1951 and the Korean War has begun. To his comrades and superiors, Yu was considered a quiet man but an intellectual. Most of his comrades were illiterate.
Yu was eventually assigned to a division as the interpreter under the command of Commissar Pei Shan.

Now called the People's Volunteer Army, originally assigned to protect the Manchurian border, orders were sent to discard insignias and IDs, cross the Yalu River to assist North Korea. After three months fighting while faced with little support, starvation, and exposure, Yu and his surviving comrades were captured by American soldiers. Moreover, Yu sustained a serious injury to his leg during his capture. During his confinement at a POW medical center in Pusan, Yu identified himself as Feng Yan. This was a ploy commanded by Commissar Pei to always lie to the

enemy.
Eventually, Feng Yan was moved to the POW camp on Koje Island where Commissar Pei was also detained. Commissar Pei continued to command the communist prisoners to covertly defeat the enemy. Although imprisoned, Pei's objective was to use his captured troops to create propaganda signaling unwavering loyalty to his superiors in mainland China. However, it was the imprisoned Taiwanese Nationalists who were their greatest enemy, intimidating, assaulting, and executing communist prisoners. Intimidation was the primary tool used by the Nationalists manipulate the volunteer repatriation process. It was known at the time that talks of an armistice was underway although it would eventually take another two years to negotiate. At stake is the choice to repatriate back to mainland China or the Nationalist ruled Taiwan. In an act of intimidation, the Nationalist prisoners tattooed an anti-Communist statement on Feng Yan's stomach. This would surely taint his allegiance to his comrades and spoil his chances to return to his mother and fiancé.
During his years imprisoned, Feng Yan remained completely loyal to the communist cause because he needed the endorsement from Commissar Pei to return home. However, it was here when he came to the realization that he is just war trash. He and his comrades are only pawns of the communist regime, expendables to the cause. Yet Feng continued to remain loyal as not to jeopardize his chances of going home. Under orders from Commissar Pei, Feng was instrumental in stealing a gun from an American officer. This provided a weapon for the Korean Communists prisoners to successfully kidnap the camp commander, Gen. Bell. Coercing the General to sign a confession of crimes committed against the prisoners became an enormous propaganda blunder for the Americans.
Feng Yan was also commanded to impersonate an officer with a similar name, Feng Wen, who was being sent to Pusan to face the repatriation process that would force him to face the pressure of interrogation. Not only did he have to face the Communist interrogators who could take him back home or the Nationalists who offered freedom from communism. By now, Feng has become secretly apathetic towards his Communist superiors. He is faced with making a life changing choice.