Ha Jin wrote “A Bad Joke” about two peasants who are on trial for slandering the Chairman. They both make comment when shopping about how prices grow but the chairman’s height doesn’t, and it gets misconstrued as an insult upon the Chairman of the Party. This kind of comment is punishably, but they need the peasants first to admit their wrongdoing.
Unfortunately for the peasants, their comment about a chairman’s height was not the chairman of the party, but of their local area. Through the rumor mill, the Chairman’s name was added and thus began the slanderous chain. While being interrogated, it is clear the peasants were only acting foolish and had no idea how their comment would be repeated.
The officer can’t let them go. He gives them the analogy of a writer whose words get misinterpreted. It’s not the fault of the reader that the writer’s language was unclear, and so the creators of the slander still needed to be punished. They were sent away to prison, and Chairman Lou who the joke was about wouldn’t defend them because the initial joke was about him.
I found this story to be much lighter than previous ones. Not only was it short, but it was very straightforward. I felt bad for the peasants because they were just telling a small joke and now their families will suffer while they are imprisoned, but I think it shows how freedom of speech is not the same in every culture.
I also found the analogy of the officer to be so wrong. An writer creates work to be interpreted. Not every part of a story will be received the same by an audience because everyone perceives things differently. This kind of shows why freedom of speech (within limits, i.e. hate speech) is important on levels beyond a political sphere.