Representation of Subaltern women in Ha Jin's Under the Red Flag

Abstract

Well-acclaimed short stories of Ha Jin manifest the consequence of the Chinese Cultural Revolution under the command of the Communist Party. Ha Jin also writes about loss and moral deterioration with the keen sense of a survivor. His stories examine life in the bleak rural town of Dismount Fort, where the men and women are full of passion and certainty but blinded by their limited vision as they grapple with honor and shame, manhood and death, infidelity and repression. In “A Man-to-Be”, a militiaman engaged to be married participates in a gang rape, but finds himself impotent when he looks into the eyes of the victim. His fiancée’s family breaks off the engagement, not because of the rape, but because they doubt his virility. In “Winds and Clouds over a Funeral”, a Communist leader disobeys his mother's last wish for burial to keep his good standing in the party, but his enemies bring him down for being a bad son. “In Broad Daylight” is the story of the public humiliation of a woman accused of being a whore. Her dignified defiance is gradually stripped away as she is dragged through the streets, cursed and spat upon by strangers and family alike. His descriptions of daily life and typical frustrations are refreshing. This is not a book about prison camps or starvation. Stories Under the Red Flag is not a book about the tyranny of communism or of escape to freedom. It is simply a book about a man who wants his wishes to be fulfilled, voice to be heard and life to be lived in an uncontrolled way. Anyone who has ever felt frustration by being a little fish in a big pond can identify with Shao Bin who, in spite of setback after setback just keeps on going. There is satire for Communist vi regime and to the so called bourgeoisies and the higher people who are engaged in enslaving the subalterns.