In the Pond
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In the Pond is a 1998 novel by Ha Jin, who has also written Under the Red Flag, Ocean of Winds, and Waiting. He has been praised for his works relating to Chinese life and culture.
This novel is about a character named Shao Bin, who has a wife called Meilan and a two year-old child, who is a downtrodden worker at the Harvest Fertilizer Plant by day and an aspiring artist by night. Passed over on the list to receive a decent apartment for his young family, while those in favor with the part's leaders are selected ahead of him, Shao Bin chafes at his powerlessness. When he attempts to expose his corrupt superiors by circulating satirical cartoons, he provokes an escalating series of merciless counterattacks that send ripples beyond his small community.
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[edit] Characters
Shao Bin: artist and 32 years of age.
Meilan Bin: Wife.
Shanshan Bin: Child and 2 years of age.
Liu Shu: Secretary of the plant.
Ma Gong: Director of the plant.
Secretary Yang Chen: Party Secretary of the province.
Chief Wang: Editor-in-chief of newspaper Law and Democracy.
Yen: A student of Bin for some time; lives in a different province; has connections to editors and high ranking people.
Jiang Ping: Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper the Environment.
Mrs. Chai: Jiang's aunt and works for the newspaper Law and Democracy.
Hou Nina: minor character that gets an apartment over Bin, could be because she has sexual relations with Liu.
Chairman Ding Liang: minor character that is party chairman of the province.
Hsiao Peng: Friend and co-worker who supports Bin's cause but never publicly.
Song Zhi: A reporter from the Environment who first published Bin's case.
Chinese Workers: The crowd that Bin is trying persuade to put pressure on their corrupt leaders.
[edit] Chapter 1
Bin is looking for an apartment through the Housing Committee. He does not bribe the leaders as others do. He is located in Dismount Fort near Gold County. Bin was denied an apartment. He curses first the leaders, then himself for not giving a bribe, then his leaders again. He is inspired to express his opinions from the ancient thinker Wang Chong. He decides to draw a picture that resembles his leaders with a caption "happy is the family with power."
[edit] Chapter 2
There was an uproar at the factory about the apartment scandal. The workers dumped huge amounts of human crap into the apartments in hopes that the privileged would move out. They did not. Liu and Ma keep the incident quiet to help ease tensions. Bin's picture was then posted in the newspaper, Luda Daily, several weeks later. The leaders took swift actions against Bin and deducted his bonus, demanded that Bin apologize, and Bin write a letter of correction to newspaper. Bin instead wrote about his leaders in 30 some-odd pages. He described the crimes and injustices that they had done. He delivered his paper to Secretary Yang, a person higher in rank then Liu and Ma, but he wasn't available so he left it to an aid.
[edit] Chapter 3
The town began to prosper because of the new people living in the apartments. New facilities were created to accommodate them but only the privileged enjoyed the benefits. Liu and Ma insisted that there is enough land for everyone and everyone will live there eventually. Bin went to get his pay but the clerk only gave him half. Bin protested and the clerk called him a lunatic. Bin then protested to Liu and Ma, then they called him a lunatic and beat him. Liu and Ma held a factory meeting were they publicly insulted Bin. Bin was now determined to write to higher powers.
[edit] Chapter 4
Bin becomes infuriated when he heard the Sec. Yang was running for congress; he was angry because Yang didn't take Bin's complaint in writing seriously. Bin made a slogan "Yang Chen always persecutes me!" He was determined to display it at the voting station. He got on a train and went to the voting station were Yang was located. He got on stage and displayed his message to the masses, chaos ensues. Yang loses the election and orders Liu and Ma to deliver a report on Bin.
[edit] Chapter 5
Bin was praised by the factory for ruining the election. Bin wanted to ruin Liu and Ma's spring festival so he drew another painting. He drew a picture illustrating the bribery and corruption the leaders have. It showed the leaders carrying home gifts and a caption "So hard to Celebrate a Holiday!" It was published two weeks later and the factory went into a riot. The leaders tried to calm down the crowd by lying and calling Bin a liar. Liu and Ma try to think of revenge; the report that Yang request returned nothing bad about Bin.
[edit] Chapter 6
There is a propaganda poster being put up in town and artist are needed. Bin tries, even though he knows he has made enemies with Liu and Ma. He gets denied the job and Yen gets it. Yen works in gold country as an artist; Bin taught Yen and Yen is not nearly as good as Bin. The men talk and Bin tells about the injustices that have taken place. Yen says and tries to put in a good word for Bin when he talks to Liu and Ma. Liu and Ma go against their promise to help Bin out and instead want Bin to leave the factory. Both Yen and Bin are angry; Bin starts to write applications for work.
[edit] Chapter 7
Bin started getting job offers, but Liu and Ma changed their mind once again. Liu and Ma want keep Bin in the factory so that he cannot speak out. They keep him in factory by writing that Bin is a lunatic to the perspective bosses. Bin agrees to take the college entrance exam in order to leave the plant. Bin has two things against him: his age, 32, and his education, 5th grade level.
[edit] Chapter 8
Bin studies for the test in two weeks then takes it in a middle school in a nearby town. He thinks he did poorly. When he arrives home, Meilan tells him that he got accepted in to college because a professor was impressed with his portfolio that he sent before the exam. They both celebrate but then Yang crosses into their minds and ruins the party. They try and take preemptive measures that will insure him that he will go to college. The college needs a recommendation to send Bin to college from the factory. They decided begging will not work so they try to go on an assault. Bin writes a letter to the provincial leaders about the evil deeds that Yang and the gang have done to Shao Bin.
[edit] Chapter 9
There is a conference about the benefits of methane, in the town, and some very high officials will be in town. Bin decides that he will deliver his message to the highest person there in person. On the way to the conference, Liu recognized Bin and told him to go home. Bin didn't, so Liu beat him and Ma came and joined in. He was sat on (on his face) and couldn't breath so he bit Liu's ass. Bin was brought home by Hsiao Peng. Bin was ashamed that he got kicked in the balls(which turned purple). Liu when to the local photographer to have his wound photographed.
[edit] Chapter 10
Liu and Ma held a meeting and showed every one the bite wound. Bin was made fun of since he didn't want to show his wound.
The letter about Bin's acceptance into college came to the factory and shocked everyone. Ma's daughter failed and so Ma had a new found respect for him (Ma's daughter spent 4 years studying while Bin did 2 weeks). Ma is seen as the lesser of the two evils. Bin and his wife go to Ma's house to ask if he can go to college. Bin's wife offers two apples for the kid but they refuse it. Bin is later called into a high ranking meeting, there he is told that they sent a letter saying that Bin has metal issues and not suitable for college. Bin got angry and wept, other felt his pain. Later Bin got angry and wrote to Yen.
[edit] Chapter 11
Yen told a reporter of Bin's story and the reporter, Song, went to Bin's house. Bin told his story to Song over tea. Song was moved by his story and Bin then drew a picture for Song. Bin thought it was his best work to date. It had a caption that read "Execute the devils." Song took it and brought it back to his work space at the Environment.
[edit] Chapter 12
The staff at the Environment put a huge, multi-page, article in favor of Bin. A commission was issued to investigate the legitimacy of the report and the bias. The editors were laid off and used Yen's house as a secret meeting place. Bin was asked to come as soon as possible to meeting place. When he did, they people decided the best course of action was to display the story to a higher press. Jiang, the editor in chief of the Environment, had an aunt who worked for the newspaper Law and Democracy. The men decided to have sent Bin to deliver a report to Jiang's aunt in Beijing. They would get a doctors note, from Dr. Sun, excusing him from work so that Liu and Ma wouldn't suspect anything. Bin agreed under strict circumstances. Everyone was happy.
[edit] Chapter 13
Bin got the train to Beijing and found the aunt's house. The aunt had knowledge of this before Bin arrived, via telegram. Bin gave them a gift, a stamp, and the aunt and uncle were very surprised by the quality and the message. The aunt gave bin some advice on how to present, cry and be dramatic. Bin presented his case to the editor in chief of the Law and Democracy newspaper. He became emotional and made a dramatic scene. He drew a crowd(of writers and editors) and loved his story. They agreed to do his story. Bin went home
[edit] Chapter 14
Bin arrived home and slept. Liu did not believe that Bin was sick, as the Doctor note said. Bin demanded that Liu call the hospital. Liu was going to deduct three day's pay. When Bin was going to get his money, he got the full amount. The reason why was a twofold. One, a person in a similar situation in another factory blew up a house when he didn't get paid in full; the factory that Bin works at stores TNT and Liu and Ma were afraid what Bin might do it as well if pressured. Two, Liu and Ma called Dr. Sun and confirmed the note.
[edit] Chapter 15
The article was printed and bin was very happy with it. Secretary Yang met with Liu and Ma to discuss what to do. Yang proposed that instead of fighting Bin, they appease him in order to calm him and stop him forever. The men agreed. Yang then met with Bin. Yang offered him a job in the propaganda officer, Bin accepted but under the circumstances that Bin stop fighting with Liu and Ma and Bin sends a letter to the Law and Democracy describing the results. Bin agreed.
Later, Bin got word that the Environment got reestablished and Yen gave advice to Bin about the housing issue. Meilan was angry because they would have to wait until Bin was an art cadre before they could be guaranteed housing. Bin wrote to the newspaper and asked to have his letter printed.
The story ends with Bin walking to his new job, happy.
