I am very late in reviewing this only because I'm fairly sure I either never got the mail for the approval or I sadly missed it completely. So when I noticed, I went on to actually read the book now.

A Song Everlasting was an interesting book to read. Firstly, I fell in love with the title. Secondly, it's my first book by Ha Jin and I deeply wish I loved this more. The read was interesting in a way of me being someone who knows nothing about the struggles described here - not the political problems, not the China/US problems or the life of an artist. The slower pace works well, taking you through Yao Tian's life but I think the book suffered a bit from "and then" syndrome. Still, I am glad I read it.

Tian is a celebrated Chinese singer but feels he has no option but to emigrate to America after falling foul of the Chinese authorities by outstaying his visa when invited to perform in the US. He abandons not only his successful career but also his wife and daughter. Freedom and artistic integrity are ranged against pragmatism as Tian has to make some very difficult decisions. He struggles to rebuild some sort of career in this new country and has to remain separated from his family, not even able to go back to China when his mother is dying. There’s a strong political message here about China’s repressive regime and Tian’s plight is convincingly portrayed. I very much enjoyed following his trajectory as he builds a new life and meets a range of characters who become part of it. Ha Jin’s style is quiet and unadorned, but curiously detached, and keeps the reader at a distance. In spite of the dilemmas and conflicts Tian has to face, we get little sense of interiority and I found it hard to truly to relate to him, to really get to know him. The narration is very much of the “first this, than that, then something else” type and the book could easily have been a biography rather than fiction. However, although I was struck by the style it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the book overall and I found the story compelling and no doubt all too common when artists are put into conflict with repressive regimes. Highly recommended.

Thank you Knopf Doubleday for the opportunity to read this book that tells the story of a Chinese Tenor who, through a series of decisions, finds himself unable to enter his homeland, leaving him separated from his wife and child.

I enjoyed the following the story and seeing how life unfolded in America, a country very different and the ramifications this had (and has) on immigrants trying to assimilate in a foreign country.

This is a lovely, moving story of an unwilling Chinese defector, and his attempts to make a life in the USA. Yao Tian, a famous CHinese singer, finds himself out of favour with the ruling dispensation. In a misguided attempt to call their bluff, Yao leaves China for America, expecting that to be a temporary move till he manages to regain favour. The best laid plans of mice and men, however, gang aft agley, and it's not different for him. The book explores the paths his life takes, his loneliness at being away from his wife and daughter, who can't move to be with him because his wife has a flourishing career as a lecturer, which she'll have to give up if she migrates. Ha Jin depicts the control exerted by the Chinese government starkly- from Yao's sister's persecution because of her adherence to Falun Gong, the revocation of Yao's passport in a petty attempt to assert power, and several other ways defectors' lives are made difficult-Ha Jin depicts the Chinese state's tentacles spreading far and wide, in insidious ways-Yao's fledgling music classes are disrupted by state agents issuing orders to other Chinese immigrants, to stay away from him, and he has to take up a job working construction instead. Yao is very clear-sighted about his position of relative privilege, and all the help he gets from friends and admirers of his to make a living. Throughout the book, though, Ha Jin never fails to emphasize the importance of standing up for the right thing, when you're in a position to do so-there's a poignant chapter where Yao's among the few at a memorial for the victims of the TIananmen Square killings, when it would have been easy for him to remain indifferent. Given how increasingly controlling many governments are, it's easy to turn a blind eye to things that don't directly affect you, which makes those who don't all the more commendable. I found the book very real, in its depiction of how difficult it is for Yao to access healthcare, till he's informed of his eligibility for ROmneycare-this seems like Ha Jin's way of emphasizing the importance of affordable healthcare while making it organic to the plot! The best part of the book, for me, was its realistic depiction of cancer-most boks where a character has cancer usually have the character dying, and there are very few that depict how hard it is to battle it and survive, the toll it takes on caregivers, the importance (and difficulty) of an empathetic oncologist. The book's absolutely excellent in that section, and what's more important, Yao survives to fight another day.
I'm knocking off one star for the one-note depiction of women-either subservient and perfect, or ambitious shrews. While the writing and the plot are beautiful, some of the conversations are stilted. However, the ending was beautiful, and moving, and had me smiling through my tears. This is a deeply rewarding read.

I was disappointed by Ha Jin's A Song Everlasting, the story of a Chinese tenor who travels to the U.S. when he begins to suspect that he may be facing a struggle with the Chinese government. The brief bottom line is this: the writing style holds readers at a distance, with a "this happened, this happened, this happened" narrative that offers almost nothing of the characters' interiority. The problems faced by Ha Jin's protagonist are significant and have the potential to be engaging, but I never felt connected to him or his story sufficiently to make my reading more eager.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.

By nature, Yao Tian is much like Václav Havel who negotiated his position in communist Czechoslovakia. He was a playwright who only wanted to create art and followed his instinct as an artist to create distinguished plays. Yet in the process, he unintentionally found himself in conflict with the authorities who sees his works as political and threaten the security of the state. Similarly, Yao Tian also did not think much when he decides to take the job singing at a concert in front of the Chinese diaspora during the brief visit of his troupe to New York City. At that time, he only thought of it as an easy way to make money, with $4,000 in a single performance that he considered will be useful for his daughter’s college tuition in the future. Upon returning to China, he found themselves labelled as a subversive element by the Chinese authorities and they attempted to confiscate his passport before he finally escaped to the United States.

Like Joseph Conrad and Vladimir Nabokov before him, Ha Jin was also cursed to write in English as an exile, even though, unlike his two exile predecessors, he still writes about China with the intention to spread his message to an international audience. He was a student at Brandeis University in 1989 when the Tiananmen incident happened, an eventuality that would hasten his decision to fully immigrate to the United States. Through the character Yao Tian, Ha Jin tries to embed his integrity into a character that seeks objectivity in his artistic pursuit as a singer. Prior to his exile in the US, Yao Tian was a famous and privileged singer in China, albeit most of his repertoires are propaganda songs. He is hardly a political man, yet it’s through this character that Ha Jin shows how even without any ill-intention, an artist could be in conflict with the state. Since anyway, who can guarantee what an artist intended to say when they perform something and who can guarantee how the audience’s interpretation will be? This has become the fear of Stalin too in the late 1930s during the Great Terror, in which many artists in the Soviet Union were sent into gulags.

Yet beyond the heavy political message in his writing, I find Ha Jin’s prose amusing, living up to the thematic symbol of this novel. Yao Tian’s life is like a song. A song could consist of many elements, but mainly sound and silence. The sound could strike a high tone and also a low one in some parts of the song. His first thirty-something years of life in China could be said as an uneasy negotiation between his position as an artist and the Chinese government position to keep the artists in the top position as long as they follow the official lines. Yao Tian’s life slowly went downhill after his arrival in the US as an exiled artist. His career was sabotaged, his passport was revoked by the Chinese authorities, and his reputation was tarnished by the media that kept feeding the world on his failure as a result of his prodigal action towards his warm Chinese motherland. Yet on a positive note, Ha Jin demonstrates to us that there are many ways humans could still amend their lives even after meeting consecutive failures, and I see Yao Tian’s character as the very nature of the human condition.

Some people might take the bait of Ha Jin’s tendency and see this novel as anti-CCP propaganda, but there are more positive aspects to this novel as well even if we discount the political message. Music has been regarded as a universal language and this might be another message that Ha Jin tries to elaborate on through Yao Tian’s character. If political discussion could lead to nowhere and even values could be compromised when money is involved, then probably with music we could have a more honest dialogue. Susan Sontag once wrote that art used to be regarded as a mimetic expression, to mirror what happens in everyday life during antiquities. It was recent that art took its turn as something that carried values and ideas, and thus required further interpretation to understand the hidden meaning. Yet not every artistic expression is political or carry hidden intention. Some artistic works are meant to be understood by using our senses, much like Humbert Humbert in Nabokov’s Lolita belongs to the realm of fiction, but not in a realist sense.

Published by Random House/‎ Pantheon on July 27, 2021

A Song Everlasting tells the story of the tumultuous middle years of a man’s life. Yao Tian is a celebrated singer in China. He performs with the People’s Ensemble, a position that ensures social status and a comfortable lifestyle. Tian is married to Shuna, who also enjoys status as a professor. They hope their daughter will attend an American college because “universities in China merely fed students with platitudes and jargons, manufacturing the sort of minds needed by the governing apparatus.”

When the People’s Ensemble performs in New York, Tian surreptitiously meets with his childhood friend Han Yabin. Yabin lost his residential status in Beijing after he began to keep company with a foreign female teacher. Yabin responded by traveling to New York and not returning to China. Tian is concerned that meeting with Yabin might be a black mark against his record. He’s even more concerned when he’s offered a good bit of money to perform at a Chinese celebration in New York. He rebooks his return flight and accepts the gig, only to find after his arrival in China that his indiscretion has not gone unnoticed by Chinese officials.

Realizing that his passport will soon be confiscated, Tian flees China. He wants the freedom to travel, and more importantly to perform, internationally. He also wants the freedom to choose the songs he will sing, rather than performing propaganda songs that are selected by government bureaucrats. Shua agrees that he should establish residence in the United States so that he can be happy.

The novel follows Tian’s successes and struggles in America for a period of years. He needs to find a way to remain in the country legally. He’s not sure whether it will ever be safe for him to return to China. His initial successes in America stem from his popularity with Chinese audiences. Chinese authorities try to bribe him to return to China, then conspire to undermine him. A brief dalliance with a Chinese woman doesn’t help his relationship with Shua, while being accused of physically abusing her undercuts the popularity that he enjoys with Chinese audiences. Tian faithfully sends money home to support his daughter, but he and his wife seem to be drifting apart. He needs to find other ways to support himself when his singing career seems to be in jeopardy.

The tradeoff between freedom and security is the novel’s strongest theme. If Tian had stayed in China, singing the songs he was told to sing and saying nothing critical of the government, he might have lost self-respect but his prosperity would have been assured. Living in America assures Tian only of an uncertain future, but it also allows him to control that future, if only to the extent that he can choose the songs he wishes to sing. Tian feels no particular desire to express political opinions, but he does feel a desire to grow as an artist, something that he would never be able to accomplish in China.

Ha Jin’s novel is heartfelt, filled with moments of quiet drama while avoiding melodrama. It is realistic in the sense that Tian’s life might not work out as he hopes or expects. That’s true of every life. We can control what we can control, but some circumstances, including health conditions and the actions of others, are beyond our influence. Tian learns to accept that his fate isn’t entirely in his hands, but he also learns the value of not giving up the fight for the life he wants to have. His relationship with his wife might change because of his extended absence, but that change might open up the possibility of a new and unexpected relationship. He might not always be able to perform for large audiences, but he might find other ways to use his talent. A Song Everlasting reminds readers that being resilient, living according to your values, and persevering in the face of hardship can create a satisfying life, even if it isn’t the life we once envisioned.

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Yao Tian is a very popular singer in China. He's at the end of a US tour when a friend invites him to extend his stay a few days to sign at an event. He returns to China to find out he has angered the government because he extended his trip. So he quickly flies back to the US thinking he will wait until things die down and go back to China. However, things do not go as planned, and he becomes blacklisted by China and is not allowed to come back. His wife and daughter are still in China, so he feels alone in a country he doesn't fully understand. It also doesn't help that the Chinese government has spies in the US, who seem to thwart him anytime he is making progress. A fictional look at what it's like to be an immigrant (written by someone who immigrated to the US from China) in the United States.

I enjoyed this unique story of Tian, a Chinese musician, who leaves his family in China to move to the U.S. hoping to continue his musical career on his own terms. The Chinese government considered him an outcast or defector and opposes him at every turn. His career stalled somewhat, but he was happy to be free in the U.S. to live his own life and plan his own singing career.

It was interesting to read how the Chinese government and its people felt about Chinese citizens who moved to the U.S. and how they fared while living there. Living in China under Chinese rules with a government that is oppressive is a difficult life. Tian believed in staying true to his music, his beliefs, and his freedoms and found that he was able to do that while living outside of his homeland.

Writing: 5/5 Plot: 4/5 Characters: 4/5

A beautifully understated and surprisingly engaging book about a Chinese tenor struggling to make it on his own in the US after finding himself on the wrong side of the Chinese party. I appreciated the picture of modern China and an individual Chinese artist through Tian’s experiences with the Chinese government, friends, and family as he is bribed, blacklisted, and receives appeals to his love of and duty towards his country. Where some of the government techniques were things I had heard of, many were not, and I was surprised at the insidious nature of government manipulations outside of China through local operatives, foreign newspapers, etc. Tender and reflective, this is the story of Tian’s life, not a political treatise or call to arms. Tian in some ways is a bit of an innocent — decidedly apolitical and consistently working to maintain artistic integrity and personal principles. I learned a lot and was surprised that the book kept pulling at me as it isn’t my typical fare. Definitely worth reading.

A few quotes:

“This new understanding threw him into a peculiar kind of excitement, because it indicated that the citizens and the country were equal partners in an agreement. Tian gathered that this equality must be the basis of democracy. Now he could see why the Constitution meant so much to the United States. It was the foundation of the nation. With such a realization he became willing to defend the Constitution, even to bear arms if he was called upon, simply because he believed in noble ideas and was willing to sacrifice …”

“He realized many immigrants were in varying degrees of the same situation: They were attempting to break loose from the grip of the past and to start over in a faraway place, but few of them could foresee the price for that new beginning, or the pain and the hardship that came after.”

“In the context of the Tiananmen massacre, China seemed to him more like an old hag, so senile and so ailing that she had to eat the flesh and blood of her children to sustain herself. In the back of his mind lingered a question to which he didn’t yet know the answer: If a country has betrayed a citizen, isn’t the citizen entitled to betray the country?”

Several remarkably naive decisions change the life of Yao Tian, a talented Chinese singer. Ha Jin uses this often slow novel to explore the separation of a family and of expectations. Jian, faced with loss of the ability to travel as punishment for his performance in the US at a private party hosted by supporters of Taiwan, opts to leave China altogether, leaving behind his wife and daughter. HIs life, so full of promise, devolves over the next seven years as he finds himself working as a laborer rather than singing to support himself. But it's also a journey of self discovery as well as political understanding with a positive message about the freedom of life in the US. Thanks to netgalley for the ARC. Ha Jin has explored these themes before but the character is unique. A good entree for those who have not read his previous novels.

I was glad for a chance to read a new novel by Ha Jin, although it has been a long time since I read anything by him. I read The Crazed and Waiting, and it had left me with a good, if hazy, impression (that was before I started this blog, so we’re speaking of decades now). I especially remember The Crazed, which I must have read in Beijing or in Hong Kong around 2002-2004, and it was such a shocking enormity at that time to read about Tiananmen events. It is even worse now for sure, and I do wonder if Ha Jin’s books can be bought in foreign languages bookstores there now.

When the novel starts, Yao Tian is a professional and renowned singer in mainland China and he tours the U.S. with his (state) choir. A friend in N.Y.C. asks him to come and sing one night on his own for an overseas Chinese concert. The gig pays well and Yao Tian needs the money to save for his daughter’s U.S. college. He accepts, but upon his return in Beijing, he learns that the concert was funded by Taiwanese organizations and his participation is therefore treated like a treason. The scandal boils over and Tian, fearing that his passport will be confiscated and refusing to abandon any future prospects of singing internationally, takes the first flight to the U.S., leaving his wife and daughter behind.

What feels first like a temporary situation is actually a big turn in Yao Tian’s life. The Communist government tries several times to make him apologize and come back, but he refuses every time. Branded an enemy of the motherland, he won’t be able to return, even for tragic family circumstances. In the U.S. Yao Tian has to make himself a new life, find jobs, and try to never forget his passion for music.

I personally read the book like a page-turner. The writing is plain, and sometimes too detailed, but I really rooted for Yao Tian and I wanted to know if he could succeed in his new life and what would happen to him, his friends and family. Odds really seemed stacked against him, and his story is that of a determined person who discovers by chance how much freedom means to him. At the very beginning he says that politics is not important to him. In fact, he sings at the Taiwanese concert essentially by personal greed, and he leaves China because he feels that his career will be stifled without a passport. But the more he endures, the more he understands that he needs to choose freedom over and over again (every time the Chinese Embassy’s contacts make a proposal, or every time there’s something or someone back home that calls for his presence).

In the context of current US/Chinese tensions, this is a very interesting novel. It is squarely, almost naively pro-America, from a Chinese-born writer who has been living in the U.S. since just before the Tiananmen events in 1989. Of course it makes me wonder how autobiographical this whole story is, but it is most probably a mishmash of things that Chinese emigrants have lived through. As a European reader, I cannot help to find that his vision of the U.S. is a bit too idealistic, especially when Yao Tian gets good healthcare and keeps on being lucky with jobs opportunities and being so successful and adaptable. It’s almost as if Ha Jin was making a side-by-side comparison of the two countries over the course of a life (more like 7 or 10 years). The unforgiving position of the Chinese authorities is quite believable I’m afraid. And it’s also interesting to see how people change over the course of the book, although Yao Tian is probably not the one who changes the most.

This book changed a bit my perception of Ha Jin because I didn’t remember the previous books I read to be so rooted in mundane details of life, but I still enjoyed it a lot. It opened my appetite for more Chinese or Asian books!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley. I received a free copy of this book for review consideration.

Ha Jin brings his lean insightful writing to the story of a Chinese singer who comes to the United States. He’s known for his dissent about the Chinese government and eventually Tian has his Chinese passport revoked and he is in a no-man’s land, waiting for his seven year US residency to end so he can become a naturalized American citizen. He can’t leave America. His wife and teenage daughter remain in China, and the physical distance between husband and wife help lead to an emotional disengagement between husband and wife. The feeling of powerlessness pervades the story. Tian leaves New York City for Boston when he works in house building to supplement the meager income he makes from singing. While the story meanders at times, Ha Jin’s ability to pull out the true essence of characters shines through making Tian and the other characters, people with whom the reader can sympathize.

I really appreciated the subtle intensity of this book. It is written in such straightforward, unemotional prose that it’s easy to miss how slowly some of the traps the author sets tighten around his character. The whole book had a different, almost detached tone that set it apart from other books I’m reading right now and made the individual scenes memorable and thought provoking. A great read.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing a copy of this book.

Ha Jin tells a compelling story of Chinese singer Yuo Tian, who leaves China for the United States to gain the freedom to sing where and what he wants. In doing so in deceptively lyrical prose (with some poetry included), Ha paints an unflattering picture of contemporary China and of some of the people who choose to stay despite their means to leave, including his wife. We read of Tian's struggles and his triumphs, yet the novel falls flat to me in its portrayal of Tian. Yes, we read and live his story, but I never felt as if I inhabited his skin. Similarly, many other characters in the book, while not necessarily generic or stereotypical, dart in and out of the story and seem to be there to serve Tian's needs rather than to have fulsome lives of their own. It is unclear what Tian gives to them except for a chance to be near someone who was a rising celebrity in China. While this is a novel worth reading, it shows flaws that, had they been overcome, could have been a masterpiece.

By disposition Tian abhorred politics, but he had his principles and believed in justice and personal freedom.~ A Song Everlasting by Ha Jin

He was just a singer who wanted to sing the songs that he loved. He sang with great soul and feeling, the music carrying him away emotionally. He was tired of the proscribed patriotic songs.

Tian was an acclaimed singer from the People’s Republic of China, on tour in America, when he was asked to sing at a commemoration concert for National Day. The rest of the troupe returned to China on time, while he stayed over a day for the concert. After returning home, his action makes him suspect and Tian learns that his visa was to be impounded by the state. Tian talked it over with his wife, a beautiful professor, and he decides to leave China before he lost his visa.

It is the start of a journey Tian did not envision, his actions precipitating China’s endeavor to bring him home, to silence his singing by threat when bribery failed. Tian remains idealistic and sure over years separated from his wife and daughter, staying faithful and sending the bulk of his earnings home, Tian’s career faltering under political pressure.

“Freedom is largely an illusion,” the Chinese Ambassador told Tian, noting that freedom is nothing if you are powerless and hungry. The state can provide all your needs, he advises. He could be wealthy. But Tian did not want more, he did not want fame, he only wanted to “be an artist following my own heart.”

Ha Jin’s novel shockingly reveals life in China, how corruption and control is tolerated through the provided essentials. In America, Jin is completely self reliant. Until Romneycare, he rarely had health insurance, which becomes essential when he discovers he has cancer.

Tian may have eschewed politics but his situation forces him to consider the politics of China and America, the cost of freedom and the lure of security. Learning the truth of the Tiananmen massacre, and knowing his sister was imprisoned for being a part of a religious group, leading to her unnecessary death, he is changed, forced to reconsider his motherland where the truth is hidden and greed fuels graft and power abuses the people.

A fellow Chinese musician asks, “What if your country is an evil power,” that has ruthlessly harmed your family, and reduces humans to tools? His friend from Beijing, searching for the American Dream, notes “we have been caged by all sorts of rules…adopted as our way of life,” as if coded into their DNA. “You call me a traitor to China,” Tian writes, “but China betrayed me first.”

If a country had betrayed a citizen, isn’t the citizen entitled to betray the country?~A Song Everlasting by Ha Jin

Tian is notified that he is considered a defector. He will never be able to return. The cost of his freedom is risk. It was frightening to Tian, but he continued to work hard and accept the challenges. And in the end, becoming an American saves his life and brings him happiness.

Ha Jin’s style of writing is without embellishment, there are no ornate verbal mechanisms to elicit an emotional response. It is straight forward storytelling. Still, I found great humor and developed an emotional attachment to Tian.

I noted the mention of poetry throughout the book, Tian reading Mark Strand or The Best American Poetry 2012. Ha Jin is a poet, a man who came to America for education and stayed after realizing the cost of the motherland. In his poem I Sing of an Old Land, he wrote,

I join those who fled and returned,
who disappeared in other lands
bearing no hope but persistence, no honor but the story,
no fortune but parents and children,
singing a timeless curse,
a curse that has bound us together
and rooted us deep in the wreck
of our homeland.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

Ha Jin's upcoming novel is a character-driven, reflective tale about a Chinese singer forced out of his home country, taking refuge in the United States and hoping to become naturalized. You can really tell that the author drew from his own experiences as a man who moved from China to the States, rejecting mainland politics and forging a different life.

The writing style is very straightforward, with short, simple sentences that methodically get the story across to the reader. That isn't to say that the language itself is plain. Quite the opposite: the author constantly uses poetry and verse in his writing, elevating it to a degree. At first I thought I wouldn't be able to get used to such a writing style, but one chapter in and I stopped noticing it entirely, drawn in by the plot, characters and setting.

Neither NetGalley nor Goodreads specify this anywhere, but I'm pretty sure this is fiction, regardless of how realistically it has been written. (You could have fooled me into thinking that Ha Jin was writing Yao Tian's biography. I would have believed you.) The author really takes you into the minds of the characters and the reasons behind every tiny action, leaving no detail unmentioned.

I felt that a lot of this book managed to relate to current affairs as well. No matter the year, there is always a government in the world that the people find controlling and oppressive, and that truth has not changed even today. I found that many of the poems Ha Jin quoted, or the lyrics Yao Tian wrote, perhaps unintentionally could easily be used in reference to countries that aren't China but would fit just as well. I won't be quoting them, though, regardless of how much I want to, because at the end of the day this is still an ARC. If you want to see what I'm talking about, read the book when it comes out next month :)