Commodification of Human Subjectivity in Ha Jin's Under the Red Flag

Abstract

This thesis, “Commodification of Human Subjectivity in Ha Jin's Under the Red Flag” focuses on stories of Ha Jin to show the issue of commodification of human values. The researcher shades light upon the miserable existence of proletariates on the one hand and the extreme form of domination by the bourgeois on the other. Ha Jin commences with the ingredients of capitalist society in order to prove his writing as a evidence of brutal acts of bourgeois and its effect upon the society. The research explores the stories such as "The Richest Man" which commodifies Li Wan materializing everything, even the norms of Mao; "Emperor" shows the commodification of labour value; "New Arrival" reduces Ning, the woman's values as commodity; "Fortune" promotes the utilitarianism depicting the misery of Tang Hu and "In Broad Daylight" shows the obligatory situation of women by providing the picture of a prostitute serving her master all the day and night. Thus, the researcher argues that Under the Red Flag exposes the horrors and evils of capitalism which has commodified everything and takes Ha Jin's critique of such commodification as critique of capitalism on humanitarian ground.