Ethnic ChinaLit: What We’re Reading now — Journey to the End of the Empire

Over the next fifteen years [since 2004] I returned a dozen times to Tibet and southwest China. I witnessed transformations so shocking that I felt I was taking blows to my own bones. Massive dam systems killed rivers and displaced communities, mountains were raked apart to provide gravel for construction projects, and the region was … Continue reading Ethnic ChinaLit: What We’re Reading now — Journey to the End of the Empire →

Tibetan Saga Launched in English: “The Tragedy of the Modom House”

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” →

Xizang, not Tibet: Name Rectification Underway

名不正，则言不顺 In China is Slowly Erasing Tibet's Name, we learn that: The Chinese government is gradually dropping the name "Tibet" in official English-language references in favor of the region's Mandarin Chinese name —"Xizang"— with experts saying the move is in line with Beijing policies aimed at erasing Tibetan culture . . . For more … Continue reading Xizang, not Tibet: Name Rectification Underway →

Learning to be Chinese: Boarding Schools in Tibet

In a recently published research article, Learning to be Chinese: colonial-style boarding schools on the Tibetan plateau, James Leibold and Tenzin Dorjee examine this vast network where "Tibetan children are placed in around-the-clock state care with little access to their home communities." A few factoids they cite help to give an idea of what this really … Continue reading Learning to be Chinese: Boarding Schools in Tibet →

La littérature tibétaine comme le cinéma est en deuil

Bilingual author and cineast Pema Tseden passed away on May 8, 2023. Writes his French translator Brigitte Duzan: C’était une rumeur sourde, venant de l’autre bout de la terre, portée par le vent, dans le petit matin gris, Pema est mort, Pema est mort… Incrédules, nous n’arrivions pas à y croire et nous avions tort. … Continue reading La littérature tibétaine comme le cinéma est en deuil →

English Excerpt from “Prayers in the Wind” (祭语风中) by Tibetan Author Tsering Norbu

Excerpt from Prayers in the Wind A novel by Tibetan Author Tsering Norbu 节选:《祭语风中》（次仁罗布著） Translated from the Chinese by Joshua Dyer Edited by Bruce Humes Zhyiö Rinpoche’s body sat upright on a wooden bed wrapped in his frayed and faded robe. Peering through the thick veil of incense smoke, I could almost will myself … Continue reading English Excerpt from “Prayers in the Wind” (祭语风中) by Tibetan Author Tsering Norbu →

“Old Demons, New Deities”: Review of Collection of 21 Contemporary Tibetan Short Stories

In Off the Plateau, Lowell Cook reviews a new collection of 21 short stories penned in Tibetan, Chinese and English by Tibetan writers inside and outside the inauspiciously dubbed "TAR" --- the Tibetan Administrative Region in the PRC. Some of the stories "evoke how Tibet is not bound by a single language or region, and also … Continue reading “Old Demons, New Deities”: Review of Collection of 21 Contemporary Tibetan Short Stories →

“Leaving Fear Behind” Tibetan Documentary Filmmaker Dhondup Wangchen (དོན་གྲུབ་དབང་ཆེན་) Escapes from China

In 藏族制片人逃亡美国，曾因拍摄西藏纪录片获刑, the New York Times online Chinese edition reports that Dhondup Wangchen (དོན་གྲུབ་དབང་ཆེན་), earlier imprisoned for shooting the Tibetan documentary Leaving Fear Behind, has fled China for San Francisco, where he has been reunited with his wife and child: 据支持者说，一位知名西藏电影制作人在经历了一次 “艰难且危险的逃亡”之后从中国来到美国。这位制片人曾因拍摄关于藏人在中国统治下生活的纪录片而被捕入狱，他于三年前获释，但之后仍一直处于警方监视之下。顿珠旺青的表弟为推动让他获释而成立的组织“记录西藏”(Filming for Tibet)表示，现年43岁的顿珠旺青已于12月25日抵达旧金山与妻子和孩子团聚，他的家人已在2012年在美国获得政治庇护。 Click here for full Chinese text.

Language Policies Impede Tibetan Literacy in Tibetan Majority Regions

In Tibetans Fight to Salvage Fading Culture in China, Edward Wong explores how recent changes to China's language policy in areas populated mainly by speakers of Tibetan are --- intentionally, it appears --- making it much more difficult for many students to attain basic literacy in their mother tongue: When officials forced an informal school … Continue reading Language Policies Impede Tibetan Literacy in Tibetan Majority Regions →

Filling a Void: Five Contemporary Tibetan Novelists Published in Tibetan

In Mother-tongue Literature, I posed these questions about one Han scholar’s call for celebrating writing in China’s indigenous languages: Who is going to write in their native language — or read what is written for that matter — if they cannot receive a decent education in it? Those weighty questions remain unanswered, but happily, some … Continue reading Filling a Void: Five Contemporary Tibetan Novelists Published in Tibetan →