The Bridegroom

“I hereby admit that on July 13 I disrupted public order at Muji Train Station, and that I refused to listen to reason when the railroad police issued their warning. Thus I myself am responsible for my arrest.” 

This passage is from the statement that the professor must sign that admits his crime of sabotage. The author of the statement is not the professor, but the policemen, writing from the point of view of the professor. The language of the statement, and the fact that someone wrote it on behalf of the professor, demonstrates the degree of control that the Chinese Communist state has over its citizens.

“A jolt from below shot him upward and tossed him out of the room. With a crash he landed in a puddle, covered with bits of glass. Meanwhile, a chimney tumbled down the roof and crashed to the ground; a large brick hit his left wrist and smashed his Seagull watch.” 

This quote describes the crucial moment in “Alive” when the earthquake strikes and leaves Guhan with amnesia. It serves as a solid demonstration of Ha Jin’s skill in writing action in clear, direct sentences without unnecessary flourishes or adverbs. Rather than dwelling on Guhan’s pain and sensations, Ha Jin focuses on the details that surround him during a chaotic moment.

“Since this was an emergency measure, love wasn’t always taken into account; so long as a couple didn’t dislike each other, a marriage certificate would be issued to them.” 

Many Western readers might find the marriage arrangements described in “Alive” after the earthquake as interesting and very different from their own. As this quote points out, in the rebuilding effort following the earthquake, the government considers marriage an institution with a functional role to play in society, rather than the natural expression of a couple’s love for one another. One of the strengths of the stories in The Bridegroom is to point out such cultural differences between China and the West. 

‘“I’m not scared,’ she moaned with her eyes shut. ‘I feel so sad, can’t shut my family out of my mind. I see him on your face. Even your voice reminds me of his.’”

Though the marriages in “Alive” have a primarily functional aspect, human emotion still shapes how they play out. In this passage, Guhan makes sexual advances on his new bride, and she responds with an emotional outbreak in which she expresses how much she misses her family. Such a reaction shows that the marriages of the rebuilding effort not only serve an institutional function but a necessarily emotional one as well.  

“The whole evening she was so excited that she joined the boys in playing soldier, carrying a water pistol, as though all of a sudden she had become a big girl. She felt that from now on she would not cry like a baby at night again.” 

The conclusion of “In the Kindergarten” shows a kindergarten-aged girl who has a burst of energy and excitement following a rebellious act. It acts as an example of a theme prevalent throughout The Bridegroom. In an authoritative state, acts of rebellion and revenge such as Shaona’s double as assertions of one’s will and self. 

“Full of anxiety, Director Yu suffered a case of inflamed eyes—they turned into curved slits between red, doughy lids.”

Throughout The Bridegroom, characters’ mental preoccupations manifest in physical symptoms. Here, Director Yu’s stress over successfully re-shooting the tiger-fighting scene results in eyes like “curved slits” (60). His ambition has disfigured him, giving him eyes that resemble a snake’s. 

“No matter how many comforting words we used, he wouldn’t come down from the tree. He squatted up there, weeping like a small boy. The crotch of his pants was wet.” 

In “A Tiger-Fighter Is Hard to Find,” Huping transforms from the handsome lead actor of a television show to a mentally unstable man disconnected from reality. This passage paints a vivid picture of the low state Huping descends to. Like a small child, Huping cries, wets himself, and people must talk to him with “comforting words.” 

“Who knows? She may already be broken.” 

As with other titles in The Bridegroom, the title of the fifth story, “Broken,” has several meanings. One of these meanings, as suggested in this quote, refers to Tingting’s virginity. Other meanings, revealed later on, refer to the way Tingting breaks under pressure of interrogation, and to the way her life breaks by the crimes she is accused of. 

“As he stopped retching, the thought came to him that he must follow her, find out who she was, and do something more. He rose to his feet and moved to the gate.”

This quote depicts a crucial moment in “Broken,” when the protagonist, Manjin, takes a course of action which will land him in trouble with the law. After a young woman sits next to him in a movie theatre and advances on him sexually, Manjin tries to discover who the woman is. After he winds up in interrogation, Manjin will have to explain the nature of this decision, one triggered by sexual desire.  

“A young man from the city’s Fifth Middle School raised his hand. He asked, ‘What do homosexuals do?’” 

In “The Bridegroom,” several men get arrested from suspicion of being homosexual. Their respective bosses come to the police station and learn of the situation. The question of one such boss, in the passage below, demonstrates the degree of ignorance surrounding the subject of homosexuality in certain circles of Communist China at the time. 

“What should I do? I was sick of him, but he belonged to my family, at least in name, and I was obligated to help him.”

This quote illuminates the internal conflict that rages in the narrator of “The Bridegroom,” after his son-in-law gets convicted of homosexuality. Although he is angry that Baowen has married his adopted daughter, and thereby cheated her of a “normal” marriage, he also feels that he has to help Baowen because, as he says, Baowen is family. In his response to this conflict, the narrator represents Chinese culture itself coming to grips with the fact of homosexuality. 

“What a wonderful husband he could’ve been if he were not sick.”

One detail the narrator is unable to absorb is the fact that both Baowen and Beina appreciate and enjoy their marriage with one another. Though unconventional, there are reasons why each person finds the arrangement beneficial. In this quote, the narrator sees only the potential for Baowen to be a good husband, while missing the fact that for Beina, he actually is. 

“I felt overjoyed and confused at the same time. The girl used to treat me like a bedbug, why should she deliver herself this way? Just because I was rich now?”

In “An Entrepreneur’s Story,” the entrepreneurial narrator tries to win Manshan’s hand in marriage several times but repeatedly fails. After becoming a rich man, however, Manshan suddenly treats him with respect and familiarity. Rather than feeling pure joy at finally realizing his desires, the narrator feels confused. Such a mixture of joy and confusion foreshadows the unhappy marriage with Manshan that follows.  

“Nimei locked the letter away in the middle drawer of her desk. She glanced across the office and saw nobody, so she stretched her arms. Again a pain tightened the small of her back, and she let out a moan.” 

This quote represents another example of a character’s psychological anxieties manifesting in physical symptoms. In this case, the pain in the small of Nimei’s back represents the unresolved tensions related to her relationship with Hsu Peng, whose letter she has just put away. Later in the chapter, it is while in physical pain, lying in bed, that she will make the decision to invite Hsu Peng to her home. 

‘“Who’s Deng Xiaoping? I never met him.’ He turned to his buddy. ‘Have you?’”

When police interrogate two peasants for spreading slander, they seem to have no idea who the Chairman of the nation is. The police must decide whether the two men are witty pranksters trying to avoid punishment, or whether they are in fact simply behind the times. The fact that the police believe the men to be pranksters, and go on to punish them, is one of the central ironies of the story. 

“Although you may have heard anecdotes and depictions of him—he is a fool, a megalomaniac, an incorrigible, lecher, a braggart, a charlatan, an opportunist, and so forth—none of those terms can adequately describe this unusual man.”

“An Official Reply” is from the point of view of one colleague assessing the character of another through a letter of recommendation. As this passage suggests, the character of the person in question, Mr. Fang, is complex enough that such an evaluation is not such an easy matter. In the end, the letter format provides Ha Jin a creative pretext for deeply exploring the psychology and behaviors of one man.  

“I also could tell that his English pronunciation was not as impeccable as I had thought. The tip of his tongue often missed the edge of his teeth when he pronounced the interdental th, which Chinese does not have.”

This is the kind of idiosyncratic detail which gives Ha Jin’s characters throughout The Bridegroom a sense of realism. Though Mr. Fang is a successful and mildly famous English professor, his English pronunciation remains imperfect. This makes him a sympathetic character for the narrator, who maintains his friendship with Mr. Fang after the professor’s sexual indiscretions. 

“He said that in America the self was absolutely essential, that one had to make every effort to assert one’s own selfhood, that a large ego was fundamental for any individual success, blah, blah, blah, all that kind of flatus.”

When the narrator and Mr. Fang hear an American professor speak on the importance of the self and selfhood in America, each interprets the speaker’s message differently. The narrator is annoyed by the speaker’s words, which he takes to be shallow, while they inspire Mr. Fang. Later, it is the lecture of this American professor that inspires Mr. Fang to act so selfishly and embarrass himself while in America. 

“Professor Pan, do not assume that this is his end. No, he is very much alive. There is one most remarkable quality in this man, namely that he is simply insuppressible, full of energy and resilience."

Throughout “An Official Reply,” Mr. Fang suffers many rises and falls in fortune. The narrator suggests in this quote that no matter what befalls Mr. Fang, he will always gather the energy necessary to rise again. For this reason, the narrator recommends, with reservations, Mr. Fang as a faculty member. 

“Come on, Jinli, aren’t most New Yorkers millionaires?” 

Cultural stereotypes play an important role in “The Woman from New York.” Here, the protagonist must battle assumptions about her wealth and lifestyle that have arisen strictly based off of the fact that she has lived in New York City for four years. Such assumptions ultimately cost Jinli her employment and her ability to reintegrate completely into her old life in China. 

“You think I came back for you?” 

In “The Woman from New York,” the neighborhood wonders why Jinli returned to China after spending four years in New York City. In the quote above, she suggests to her husband that she returned to be with her daughter, Dandan. Though Jinli later changes her story once more, it seems that she is being most honest here when she suggests that she returned to China in order to once more be part of her daughter’s life.  

“To tell the truth, I liked Peter better than Peihai.”

The narrator of “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” grew up with one of the managers, whose name was once Peihai. When he was a boy growing up in China, Peihai was weak and picked on by other boys. After living in the United States, however, Peihai appears more confident, and starts to go by the name Peter. In this passage, the narrator suggests that he likes the more confident, more “American” Peter than the weak small boy that had been known as Peihai. 

“Cowboy Chicken is so delicious. If I could eat it and drink Coke every day, I’d have no need for socialism.”

A central tension in both The Bridegroom and its final story, “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town,” involves the tension between capitalism and socialism. The narrator earns high wages while working for Cowboy Chicken but gets insulted as an “American dog” by local Chinese. In contrast, the narrator’s father receives no insults for his work with the Communist Party, but he earns lower wages and would trade his life for his son’s, as the quote above suggests.