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 →

Bilingual Han Cadres: Coming Soon to Tibet Autonomous Region?

In Han Cadres Required to Learn Tibetan Language, the Global Times reports that Xi Jinping and company are getting serious about implementing the “bilingual policy” (藏、汉双语方针) that was legislated in Tibet way back in 1987: Mastery of the Tibetan language will become a requirement for non-native cadres in China's Tibet Autonomous Region. All seven prefecture-level … Continue reading Bilingual Han Cadres: Coming Soon to Tibet Autonomous Region? →

China & “King Gesar”: Challenges of Putting an Oral Epic to Paper

In a Q & A (艺人及其抢救) with Dr. Yang Enhong, Yao Hui of the Institute of Ethnic Literature (China Academy of Social Sciences) succeeds in extracting fascinating details about how Drakpa (གྲགས་པ།，扎巴), a master storyteller (说唱艺人) of the Tibetan oral epic King Gesar was discovered, and his performances preserved in audio recordings and in written form --- … Continue reading China & “King Gesar”: Challenges of Putting an Oral Epic to Paper →

Champa the Driver: Tibetan Candide Does Beijing?

Over at Chinese-shortstories.com, Brigitte Duzan has just published a backgrounder on Beijing-based Hong Kong writer Chan Koonchung (陈冠中). She details his works from 1976 to the present day, but in the excerpt below she is talking about his new novel, The Unbelievable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver, starring a Tibetan chauffeur in Lhasa who dreams … Continue reading Champa the Driver: Tibetan Candide Does Beijing? →

China’s Bilingual Writers: Narrative with a Difference

It began back in 2008 with Penguin investing heavily—$100,000 is the rumored price—to purchase Jiang Rong’s tale based in Inner Mongolia, Wolf Totem. In 2013 two newly translated novels joined China’s “borderland fiction” category: Fan Wen’s Une terre de lait et de miel, located in the gateway to Tibet straddling Yunnan and Sichuan, and Chi … Continue reading China’s Bilingual Writers: Narrative with a Difference →

“Champa the Driver”: Tibetan Dreamer in an Alien Land

Original Chinese novel: 《裸命》 English title: The Unbearable Dreamworld of Champa the Driver Author: Chan Koonchung (陈冠中) Translator: Nicky Harman Reviewer: Bruce Humes “Dreams are so good. Why do we have to make them a reality? ” What’s a young Tibetan stud to do for a living nowadays in a tourist hotspot like Lhasa? And what … Continue reading “Champa the Driver”: Tibetan Dreamer in an Alien Land →

China’s Tibet™: Brand Management with Chinese Characteristics

A thought-provoking piece over at a web site entitled "Rukor" (Creating China's Tibet): China’s home-grown orientalism, like the historic orientalism of Europe towards west Asia, ascribes fixed roles and identities to its exotic objects. The Tibetans are required to play their part in a Beijing based script. The scripted role for Tibetans is to be forever … Continue reading China’s Tibet™: Brand Management with Chinese Characteristics →

China’s Richest Authors, the “Tibet Craze” and Silenced Immolations

He Ma (何马) author of the wildly best-selling The Tibet Code (藏地密码), ranks 28th among the Top 30 in the just-released (unofficial) list of China’s Richest Authors (2012 年中国作家富豪榜). Back in mid-2011, I wrote about He Ma’s 10-volume series for Paper Republic (The Tibetan Factor, Marketing Smarts and Toilet Humor): It has hit the shelves … Continue reading China’s Richest Authors, the “Tibet Craze” and Silenced Immolations →

Alai’s “The Song of Gesar”: Abridged, Prose-driven Text and Lack of Annotations Disappoint

Here's one of the first reviews that I've seen of Howard Goldblatt's and Sylvia Li-chun Lin's rendering of Alai's The Song of Gesar, and one that I particularly enjoyed because reviewer Jim Murdoch is a Scottish writer who does his research, takes a stand and makes no claim to being a China hand: When this book … Continue reading Alai’s “The Song of Gesar”: Abridged, Prose-driven Text and Lack of Annotations Disappoint →