The short story, “In the Kindergarten” was written by a Chinese-American writer, Ha Jin. He started to write when he studied in America. Ha Jin was born in 1956 in the northern Chinese city of Jinzhou. He has grown up during the Cultural Revolution 1960s. He joined the People’s Liberation Army when he was fourteen-year-old and could only continue his studies at the age of 21 when the colleges were reopened. He furthered his studies at local universities and was majoring in English. He started publishing his works when he was studying in Brandeis University, America at Ph.D. level. He won several awards like Earnest Hemingway Foundation/PEN award and Flannery O’Connor award (Garner, 2000).
As regards to this short story, it is important to understand the historical and cultural context of China as the story portrays the life of people in China. For 4000 years, China was governed by the feudalists and later the communist took over the government (About China, 2013). Only in 1912, a revolutionary leader named Sun …show more content…
It is also regarded as “ten bad years” which showed the fight of Mao Zedong to reassert his values and faith in his people, when the capitalism is starting to be favored by some and thus exploiting the workers (Ogden, 1989, p.54). As a result of the capitalism, higher education was affected as many schools and university were closed. Not only that, but the economy was badly injured and it was recorded that around 500,000 died with many more suffered from trauma, torture and abuse (Lawrence, 1998, p.66-71). All these events might be the inspiration in the short story's portrayal of harsh environment ‘In the Kindergarten’ whereby economically; it could be seen that the teacher was struggling to find money, especially after the abortion. Moreover, sources of food also seen as limited when, Shaona mentioned about her same like the other days’
As regards to this short story, it is important to understand the historical and cultural context of China as the story portrays the life of people in China. For 4000 years, China was governed by the feudalists and later the communist took over the government (About China, 2013). Only in 1912, a revolutionary leader named Sun …show more content…
It is also regarded as “ten bad years” which showed the fight of Mao Zedong to reassert his values and faith in his people, when the capitalism is starting to be favored by some and thus exploiting the workers (Ogden, 1989, p.54). As a result of the capitalism, higher education was affected as many schools and university were closed. Not only that, but the economy was badly injured and it was recorded that around 500,000 died with many more suffered from trauma, torture and abuse (Lawrence, 1998, p.66-71). All these events might be the inspiration in the short story's portrayal of harsh environment ‘In the Kindergarten’ whereby economically; it could be seen that the teacher was struggling to find money, especially after the abortion. Moreover, sources of food also seen as limited when, Shaona mentioned about her same like the other days’