islandhippy

I'm down with a cold so I've been relieved of all baby duties, and for the first time in two weeks I'm able to return to reading "Wolf Totem" by Jiang Rong. I was waiting for the English translation of this epic Chinese tale for months so when I saw the Penguin edition in PageOne last month I grabbed a copy. The original 650-page tome, published in 2004, has sold over 4 million copies in China and translation rights have now been sold around the world. The story is set in 1960s China during the Cultural Revolution. Chen, a young Beijing intellectual, answers Chairman Mao's call for city dwellers to go "up to the mountains and down to the countryside" and spends ten years living with the nomadic Mongols on the vast plains of Inner Mongolia. The book praises the nomads for their freedom and independence and criticises the (Han) Chinese for their autocratic, sheeplike nature. Other themes portrayed in the book include respect for nature -- wolves are both feared and venerated by the nomads, they are predator and prey, they attack the livestock but preserve the ecological balance of the steppes -- and how the drive for productivity can damage the environment and tradional life, making the fable a relevant social commentary on China's current rush for industrialisation and economic growth. I'm only halfway through the book but I can certainly recommend it.