49 pages • 1 hour read
The Bridegroom
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Summary and Study Guide
Overview
The Bridegroom (2000) is a short story collection by Ha Jin. The stories touch on themes involving Chinese social life, the intersection of Chinese and American cultural and economic customs, and authority and the individual. The Bridegroom is Ha Jin’s third short story collection, and first following the success of his 1999 novel, Waiting. Each of the stories in The Bridegroom previously appeared in journals, such as Harper’s and The Boston Book Review.
Other works by this author include The Crazed, War Trash, and A Free Life.
Plot Summary
The Bridegroom consists of 12 individual short stories which take place in the fictional city of Muji City, China. The first story, “Saboteur,” involves a university professor harassed by railroad police and subsequently made to confess to the crime of sabotage. “Alive” concerns a family man whose life faces disruption when an earthquake leaves him with amnesia. In “In the Kindergarten,” a young girl and her classmates pick purslanes for their teacher, who promises to prepare the plants for dinner but instead brings them home for her own use. In “A Tiger-Fighter Is Hard to Find,” a handsome young actor loses his mind when he’s made to fight a real-life tiger.
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By Ha Jin
