He would later look to the same sources for Ocean of Words. When he published his first book, Jin saw himself as a representative of China's underclass, a Chinese writer working in English speaking for Chinese who had suffered misfortune.
出版第一本書時，哈金把自己看作中國底層的代表，定位自己是為不幸的中國人說話、但用英語寫作的中國作家。