He started learning English when he was 20 years old; 23 years later, he would win the National Book Award for his remarkable novel, “Waiting.”

Chinese emigre Ha Jin will lecture in Kleinhans Music Hall at 8 p. m. Friday as part of Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Babel series. “Waiting” –published 10 years ago –is Just Buffalo’s selection for “If All of Buffalo Reads the Same Book” for November. (Every author in the Babel series has one book chosen for the month he or she speaks here, with a downloadable reading guide produced by Just Buffalo with author information and discussion questions.)

“Waiting” is the engrossing tale of Lin Kong, a Chinese army doctor trapped in an arranged marriage to Shuyu, a woman from a small village who embarrasses him with her backward ways and bound feet. He wants to marry Manna Wu, a nurse at the hospital, but Army regulations forbid divorce without the wife’s consent.

After 18 years, Lin finally gets the divorce, only to discover that his love for Manna has diminished, while his feelings for Shuyu have grown.

Jin, who came to this country in 1985 to do graduate study at Brandeis University and has since become a U. S. citizen, teaches literature and creative writing at Boston University.

His own interesting life story includes signing up at 14 to serve in the People’s Liberation Army during China’s Cultural Revolution; his forced selection of an English major by decree of the Chinese university system; his early years in the United States busing tables and working as a night watchman at a factory.

He has written poetry, essays and short stories, including the just-published story collection, “A Good Fall” from Pantheon. His novels include “The Crazed” (2002); “War Trash” (2004), the harrowing story of a Chinese POW’s experience during the Korean War that won the PEN/Faulkner Award and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and “A Free Life” (2007), his only novel set in the United States.

Mike Kelleher, artistic director of Just Buffalo and host of the Babel series, said “Waiting” was chosen from among Jin’s body of work for “If All of Buffalo Read the Same Book” because “it speaks to a lot of people, it has a fable-like quality to it, a simplicity to it.”

Jin, whose first name is Xuefei (pronounced shu-FAY), spoke with The News in a telephone interview from his home in Foxboro, Mass.

Where did you get the idea for “Waiting”?

I heard of the story from my wife. It was based upon an actual happening, both her parents were army doctors. So this happened in that hospital.

You joined the army at 14?

My father was an officer. We could join the army at 16. A group of boys, we went together. I was the youngest. Basically I lied about my age because I wanted to go with them.

Did the army experience affect your work?

My first two books, a book of poems, short stories, they are about the military experience. I think it gave me a sense of the world, the remote provinces, how they lived.

When did you start learning English?

When I was 20, in 1976. I was a worker at a railroad company. I had a room to myself. At the time there was a learners program for half an hour a day on the radio from 5:30 to 6, so I followed it. That’s how it started. A year later, the entrance ex-am for college was reinstated so I passed the exam. Because I knew some English words, I was assigned to be an English major. It was my last choice. My first choice was classical Chinese literature.

You wrote a piece for the New York Times in May about the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Can you talk a little bit about the impact of that on your life?

Before that I had planned to return to China after I had finished my work at Brandeis. After that I was in shock for a long time. Gradually, I decided not to return, because I didn’t want to serve a government that was so brutal in suppressing the demonstrators. That was a turning point. It was very traumatic because mentally I was not prepared for immigration, I was kind of rushed to a decision. Also, my son had just come [to the U. S.] I realized he could become an American, so that was another major reason.

When did you begin writing?

In Chinese when I was in college. I joined a literary group. I mainly wrote poems, but I was not published.

Has any of your work been published in China?

Only “Waiting,” I think it was by a fluke by a provincial press. The other books are banned.

Have you been back to China?

My first 10 years I was very eager to go back. Later I became a citizen; somehow that desire was gone. I have been to Taiwan, Hong Kong, but not mainland China.

Do you write now in Chinese? Do you conduct your life entirely in English?

I read Chinese newspapers, Chinese news. I translate. This new book of short stories, I translated into Mandarin. I still view Chinese as my first language, I feel much more capable in Chinese.

You teach creative writing. What is the most important advice you can give a young writer?

Be more patient.

What are you working on now?

I’m working on a historical novel. It is set in China, but it is told from an American missionary’s point of view, so for me it’s something new.

In a nation that practices censorship, do you think literature achieves more importance?

Not really. China is a special case because capitalism has invaded China and has become dominant. A lot of people don’t pay attention to culture anymore. It used to be a major source of information, an outlet for public emotion, but now it’s not that powerful anymore. Censorship is still very severe.

AT SEM

New this time for a Babel author will be an afternoon visit to Buffalo Seminary, where all 160 students have read “Waiting” in English class. Barbara Cole, education director at Just Buffalo, said the school was chosen because “of the commitment Sem has shown” to the Babel series, buying blocks of tickets for their students and making books available.

Preview

Ha Jin will lecture at 8 p. m. Friday at Kleinhans Music Hall. Tickets are $35, $10 for students, $100 for patrons (which includes reserved seating and admission to a pre-event author reception). For more information, visit www.justbuffalo.org or call 832-5400. 2009-2010 Babel series subscriptions are also available, and include Ha Jin’s lecture and the lectures by Azar Nafisi on March 5, 2010, and Salman Rushdie on April 16, 2010.