From the Bosporus to Lake Baikal
. . . il existait par exemple de très nombreux lieux sacrés qui, d’un village à l’autre et même au fin fond des montagnes, constituaient une sorte de réseau spirituel. Des lieux importants pour les femmes qui, dans cette société patriarcale, pouvaient s’y retrouver – pour demander un enfant, résoudre un conflit, etc. J’ai voulu … Continue reading Uyghur Cineast Mukaddis Mijit on her new film, “Nikah”
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
Political theorists in the early 20th century coined the term “state of exception” for an authoritarian state’s use of crises to normalize extraordinary extralegal measures — and keep them in effect indefinitely. In China, Mr. Xi first put Xinjiang in a state of exception, and more recently has used Covid-19 as justification to do the … Continue reading Quote of the Week: Xi Jinping’s Eternal “State of exception”
Global Voices reports: "As part of efforts to encourage tourism, [Uzbek president] Mirziyoyev has promoted various cultural festivals in partnership with international artists and litterateurs. In 2021, to promote Uzbek culture abroad he revived the Soviet-era Tashkent International Film Festival under a new name, The Pearl of the Silk Road. The Mirziyoyev-approved Silk Road Literary Festival, an event intent on … Continue reading Silk Road Literary Festival 2022: Relegated to the Web
Cultural Revolution: The Mogao Grottoes Miraculously Emerge Unscathed (Excerpted from 我心归处是敦煌 (My Heart Belongs to Dunhuang) by Fan Jinshi as told to Gu Chunfang) Translated by Bruce Humes Many people have asked me if the Mogao Caves in Dunhuang were damaged during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76). At the time, the Destroy the Four Olds, Cultivate the Four News campaign … Continue reading Archaeologist Fan Jinshi’s Memoir: Ancient Buddhist Cave-temples in the Desert, Red Guards & the Spirit of Peking U
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
“Mr. Zuma, you and your government don’t represent me. You represent your own interests. I am warning you out of love, one day we will start praying for the defeat of the A.N.C. government. You are disgraceful.” (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, speaking in 2011 during Jacob Zuma's period as President of South Africa, as quoted in … Continue reading Desmond Tutu: Speaking Truth to Power
. . . writing cannot be just about battling and polemics, however invigorating and comforting that can be. Writing is not about one thing, not about this issue or that, or this concern or another, and since its concern is human life in one way or another, sooner or later cruelty and love and weakness … Continue reading Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Nobel Speech: “A kind of beauty”
Mridula Nath Chakraborty on the controversy arising from the resignation of Amanda Gorman’s Dutch translator: Translators ferry across the meaning, materiality, metaphysics and all the magic that may be unknown in the mediums and conventions of their own tongue. The pull of the strange, the foreign, and the alien are necessary for acts of translation. It … Continue reading “Let a thousand translations bloom”
The New York Times reports: In China, don’t question the heroes. 在中国，不要怀疑英雄。 At least seven people over the past week have been threatened, detained or arrested after casting doubt over the government’s account of the deaths of Chinese soldiers during a clash last year with Indian troops. Three of them are being detained for between seven and … Continue reading Crime & Punishment for Online Speech in the People’s Paradise —— 中国文字狱事件
Altaic Storytelling 