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”
At Penguin's web site, Peter Hessler, author of River Town, has this to say about this novel by the Uyghur poet: Among our scattered glimpses of the Uyghur catastrophe in China — the digital surveillance, the mass arrests, the reeducation camps — it seems impossible to imagine the survival of any individual creative sensibility. But … Continue reading Ethnic ChinaLit: What We’re Reading now — “Waiting to Be Arrested at Night”
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
“In the world of rational thought, Genghis Khan is not a symbol of separatism,” said Christopher Atwood, professor of Mongolian and Chinese frontier and ethnic history at the University of Pennsylvania. “In the world of irrational paranoia, he might be.” (Cited in Xi’s Quest for Ethnic Unity Turns Genghis Khan Into New Danger)
After completing a record-breaking 151 sell-out performances at the Mongolian State Academic Theatre in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, a planned run of performances in Inner Mongolia's Hohhot were abruptly cancelled by the Chinese authorities in September 2023. Not to be deterred, the stage production, entitled The Mongol Khan for British audiences, began a two–week run at the … Continue reading “Tamgagui Tur”: Mongolian Theatrical Production Abruptly Cancelled in China
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 the recently released China: Mosques Shuttered, Razed, Altered in Muslim Areas report from Human Rights Watch, we learn that: The Chinese government is significantly reducing the number of mosques in Ningxia and Gansu provinces under its “mosque consolidation” policy, in violation of the right to freedom of religion, Human Rights Watch said today. Chinese … Continue reading Mosque “Consolidation” Campaign: Moving beyond Xinjiang into Gansu and Ningxia
The carriage soundscape was a veritable clash of the dialects; the Hui women gossiping in guttural, Central Asian-tinged Mandarin, the Hongkongers hiking through the octaves as they debated the issues of the day in tonal Cantonese. (Excerpted from the just-published Harmony Express by Thomas Bird)
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
Mysteries of the Western Regions Pioneering Zhang Qian & Han Dynasty Explorers (Excerpted from H.K. Chang’s Civilizations of the Silk Road) Translated from 丝路文明 15 讲 byBruce Humes in collaboration with the author In 119 BCE, Zhang Qian (张骞) was entrusted with a second mission to the Western Regions (西域), mainly to the Kingdom of Wusun (烏孫) in the … Continue reading “Civilizations of the Silk Road” (translated excerpt): Princess Xijun’s Exile to the Western Regions
Ethnic ChinaLit 