Writing by & about non-Han Peoples of China
Press release for The Tragedy of the Modom House: . . . the gripping and tumultuous journey of Modom Lodro Chotso, the central character and her family, navigating the tumultuous landscape of Tibet under the Chinese occupation in the region of Kham Dagyab following the invasion. The book chronicles the harrowing account of Modom Lodro … Continue reading Tibetan Saga Launched in English: “The Tragedy of the Modom House”
Professor Mark Bender has brought to my attention the recent launch of the 422-page A World of Chinese Literature, which contains his short but fascinating article entitled Yi Literature: Traditional and Contemporary. It is an introduction to the "history, content and transmission of traditional and contemporary Yi traditions of written and performed literature." The Yi … Continue reading The Yi (彝族) of Southwest China: Transmission of their Written and Performed Literature, Old and New
Pedro Ceinos, a long-time resident of Kunming, Yunnan, informs me that his work on matriarchy in China has just been published in Italian, Il Matriarcato in Cina: Madri, Regine, Dee e Sciamane. Topics include matriarchy in ancient China, matriarchy among the Tibeto-Burman peoples, and matriarchy among the Turkic and Mongolic peoples. Ceinos is also a … Continue reading A New Work on Matriarchy in China
In Xinjiang Has Produced Its James Joyce, Ed Park reviews the first contemporary Uyghur-language novel to appear in English translation, by an author --- Perhat Tursun (پەرھات تۇرسۇن) --- now languishing in the Xinjiang Gulag: If his [the protagonist's] rural Uyghur upbringing was harsh, his life as a Uyghur man in Ürümchi can be downright brutal. … Continue reading “Backstreets,” the Novel: The Brutal Life of a Uyghur Man in Xinjiang’s Ürümchi
As of July 7, 2022, Penguin is launching a collection of novels "to change the way we think about — and act upon — the most urgent story of our times: the climate crisis": " VINTAGE EARTH is a collection of novels to transform our relationship with the natural world. Each one is a work of creative activism, a … Continue reading Last Quarter of the Moon: Re-launching as One of 8 Novels in “Eco-fiction” Genre
As your year-end holiday lockdown fast approaches, it’s worth noting a new series of books by non-Han writers launched this year by one of China’s best-known publishers, Yilin Press — lit., “translation forest” — that is normally associated with marketing popular foreign-language fiction in Mandarin for Chinese readers. The name of the series itself, Library … Continue reading “Multi-ethnic” Literature: Yilin’s 2020 Cache of Fiction by non-Han Writers
For those of you who would like to learn a bit about China’s pre-21st century experience in dealing with epidemics, I’ve woven together three topical items, all of which center around an epidemic that took place in early 1900s China. They include news about the upcoming launch of a French translation of a “plague” novel — 《白雪乌鸦》by … Continue reading China’s First 20th-century Epidemic: Brief Excerpts from Reportage and Fiction
In Fading Tones: The Slow Demise of Yunnan's Epic Songs, Matthew Walsh does a fine job of introducing meige (梅葛), the creation tale of Yunnan's Yi people (彝族), via on-the-ground research in Mayou village in Yao'an (姚安马游), interviews with master storytellers, and several short but moving audio clips of the saga as it is still sung: … Continue reading Under Threat: ‘Meige’ (梅葛), Creation Epic of the Yi People of Southwest China
For several years after I arrived in China, I was treated like the “Other,” constantly quizzed on my nationality, what my compatriots ate for breakfast and my impressions of China. When visiting small towns or the countryside, at times I was ogled, which made me feel I was somehow, well, odd. That was a new … Continue reading Backgrounder: Contemporary Ethnic-themed Fiction out of China
There are only 30,000 or so Evenki (鄂温克族) on the Chinese side of the Sino-Russian border. But this Tungusic-speaking, reindeer-herding people — particularly the group known as the Aoluguya Evenki — has been the subject of several award-winning documentaries and even a novel that won the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2008. According to an … Continue reading Reclaiming the Evenki Narrative: Last Shaman’s Daughter Tells her People’s 20th-century Tale
Ethnic ChinaLit 