# The Bridegroom

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![The Bridegroom](https://quivercdn.com/covers/vintage/ha-jin/the-bridegroom_978-00-9942-217-4.jpg?v=2026-04-22%2006%3A30%3A22)

- Book: [The Bridegroom](https://www.bookquiver.com/ha-jin/the-bridegroom) ([The Bridegroom.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/ha-jin/the-bridegroom.md))
- Authors: [Ha Jin](https://www.bookquiver.com/ha-jin)
- Publisher: Vintage
- ISBN: 978-00-9942-217-4
- Pages: 240
- Published: 2001-10-04
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

This new collection of short stories by the award-winning author of Waiting confirms Ha Jin's reputation as a master storyteller, as well as a master of the miniature. In The Bridegroom , the twelve stories capture a China in transition, moving from Maoism towards a more open society. For these men and women, starting to feel the influence of the West, the daily dramas of a system that still struggles to control their every move and thought are made all the more painful. As his characters, from an entrepreneur, transformed from black-market criminal to free market hero, to the workers at Cowboy Chicken, to the professor mistaken by the police for a saboteur, continue to struggle against petty injustices and heartbreaks, Ha Jin celebrates their lives and humanity with the understated humour and simplicity that has won him widespread acclaim.