Wolf Totem: A Novel
by Jiang Rong
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jiang RongTranslator: Howard Goldblatt
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-27
ISBN: 1594201560
Number of pages: 544
Publisher: Penguin Press HC, The
Book Reviews of Wolf Totem: A Novel
Book Review: Reflections on Wolf Totem
Summary: 5 Stars
A good novel requires good characters and good story. This novel has both of these. This is not the type of story I would normally be drawn to; however I was drawn into it once I started. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. Then there are the historical and political elements of the story. Though I had some general knowledge about what happened in Mao's regime, this was fascinating, particularly knowing the author's past. I could really see what this meant to Mengda Shu and her friends who lived through this in China. Seeing this all through the eyes of Chen made history come alive. It also reminded me of some of the issues broiling up recently about Tibet.
The story is also one about the relationship between man and nature. Are we authorized to dominate nature or are we called to live in harmony with nature? Bilgee and his people live in tune with the rhythms and power of nature. They revere nature and are not separate from it. Though Chen is intrigued by that, he attempts to control nature in raising his cub. The Han government sees nature as something to conquer and is unwilling to comprehend the implications of their conquest.
After finishing the book and reflecting on it for our phone meeting, a deeper spiritual aspect of the book came to mind. This was influenced by my Zen Buddhist practice and study. It looks through the various characters at the different ways we can approach life. Bilgee and his people on one hand are cognizant of the interrelationship of all things, including themselves to nature. However they also seem attached to old ways, clinging and not accepting change, which is a constant. The Han government wipes out anything that gets in its way and thinks it can control life. Chen gets in trouble by being too intellectual and, in essence, steals the cub's life in his search for knowledge. He fails to listen to wisdom from Bilgee about not raising the cub and in the end kills the animal. Maybe the only ones accepting life as it is in each present moment are the wolves. They are not attached and are willing to move with change and do not attack except for their own survival.
I will have to review the book again and see if I can get more detail on these spiritual underpinnings.
Summary of Wolf Totem: A Novel
An epic Chinese tale in the vein of The Last Emperor, Wolf Totem depicts the dying culture of the Mongols-the ancestors of the Mongol hordes who at one time terrorized the world-and the parallel extinction of the animal they believe to be sacred: the fierce and otherworldly Mongolian wolfPublished under a pen name, Wolf Totem was a phenomenon in China, breaking all sales records there and earning the distinction of being the second most read book after Mao's little red book. There has been much international excitement too-to date, rights have been sold in thirteen countries. Wolf Totem is set in 1960s China-the time of the Great Leap Forward, on the eve of the Cultural Revolution.
Searching for spirituality, Beijing intellectual Chen Zhen travels to the pristine grasslands of Inner Mongolia to live among the nomadic Mongols-a proud, brave, and ancient race of people who coexist in perfect harmony with their unspeakably beautiful but cruel natural surroundings. Their philosophy of maintaining a balance with nature is the ground stone of their religion, a kind of cult of the wolf.
The fierce wolves that haunt the steppes of the unforgiving grassland searching for food are locked with the nomads in a profoundly spiritual battle for survival-a life-and-death dance that has gone on between them for thousands of years. The Mongols believe that the wolf is a great and worthy foe that they are divinely instructed to contend with, but also to worship and to learn from. Chen's own encounters with the otherworldly wolves awake a latent primitive instinct in him, and his fascination with them blossoms into obsession, then reverence.
After many years, the peace is shattered with the arrival of Chen's kinfolk, Han Chinese, sent from the cities to bring modernity to the grasslands. They immediately launch a campaign to exterminate the wolves, sending the balance that has been maintained with religious dedication for thousands of years into a spiral leading to extinction-first the wolves, then the Mongol culture, finally the land. As a result of the eradication of the wolves, rats become a plague and wild sheep graze until the meadows turn to dust. Mongolian dust storms glide over Beijing, sometimes blocking out the moon.
Part period epic, part fable for modern days, Wolf Totem is a stinging social commentary on the dangers of China's overaccelerated economic growth as well as a fascinating immersion into the heart of Chinese culture.
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