Ethnic ChinaLit

A government-sponsored project to publish translations of pre-1949 Xinjiang-related texts during 2012-2020 has been launched with the February 27^th announcement (首批) that the first sixty volumes will soon be available in print (albeit in small numbers and high-end editions) and in digital format.

Dubbed the “Xinjiang Archives” (新疆文库), it will consist of originals and translations in Chinese, Uyghur, Kazakh, Mongol, Kyrgyz and Xibe. Targeted domains include works of philosophy, sociology, history and geography, literature and technology.

As usual with wordy PR announcements from China’s state-run organs, it’s not clear just how much of this is genuinely “new” or easily accessible to the public.

The Xinjiang Archive web site (www.xjwenku.com) lists data about most of the 88 original documents that will appear in the new collection (出版书目), but most carry rather old publication dates. It may be that this new collection features updated, edited versions of originals that had gone out of print, so making them available in digital format would be much appreciated by scholars worldwide. Read the rest of this entry »

In 2013, it’s not easy to locate what I’d consider a good overview of Uyghur writing on the Chinese Internet.

Home to perhaps 10 million Uyghurs, the 1.6m sq km Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region accounts for almost one-sixth of China’s territory and borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.  The Chinese government is hyper-sensitive about most anything “Uyghur,” particularly their religion (Islam), and the language, which has Turkic roots unrelated to Han Chinese.

Even so, I’ve found two articles in Chinese which are fairly informative, if dated. One by 祖姆拉提 · 克尤木 that focuses strictly on Uyghur literature in Xinjiang during 1949-2005 (新疆维吾尔文学),  and another by 阿扎提·蘇勒坦 that looks at a broader topic, ethnic literature in Xinjiang (新疆民族文学五十年) since the founding of the autonomous region in 1955.

Here are some factoids cited from the latter essay—all based on the 1955-2005 period—that offer a glimpse of literary “output” of the various non-Han peoples in Xinjiang:

See below for my table listing a selection of Uyghur authors and their works. Read the rest of this entry »

The 24-strong group of judges has announced the shortlist for the “National Literature Magazine Annual Awards” (2012 《民族文学》年度奖), as follows (eligible works must have been published in 2012 editions of the magazine):

“2012 National Literature Magazine Awards”

《民族文学》年度奖

Published in Chinese Edition

Published in Minority Language Editions Read the rest of this entry »

Just a few weeks after 40 Uyghur masters of the rhymed epic tales known as dastan gathered in Hami to stage and talk about their threatened art form (Dastan Training Session), some 60-plus performers of traditional Kyrgyz songs have gathered for a similar get-together in Xinjiang’s Akto County (阿克陶县) bordering on Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

According to the article (约隆歌) re-published on the China Ethnic Literature Network, there are a large variety of these songs known as 约隆歌 (Yuēlóng gē in Chinese, and ïr in Kyrgyz, I think), including those reserved just for a man or a woman, satirical ones, or to welcome a guest. Similar renditions can also be found among other nomadic peoples of Central Asia such as the Kazakh, Altai, Tuvan and Khakas.

This traditional Kyrgyz musical form was designated an Intangible Cultural Heritage by China in 2008, and more than 800 songs have reportedly been collected in the Pamir region to date.

The powers-that-be in the Middle Kingdom have apparently decided that “ethnic writing” is the flavor of the month, as evidenced by literary get-togethers in the capital.  Not long ago the spotlight was on Chongqing-based Miao and Tujia Writers, and this week it was Xinjiang’s turn.

Tie Ning (铁凝), a Han who heads the national China Writers’ Association, chaired the Conference on Works by Xinjiang Minority Writers (新疆少数民族作家作品研讨会). Lest we forget who is in charge, 3 of the 5 paragraphs of the news item (新疆作品) commenced with “Tie Ning pointed out” or something similar, and then quoted her indirectly at length.

But we did learn that the works of 7 (not-so-young) authors were featured (first 4 are Uyghur, followed by 3 Kazakhs):

• 买买提明·吾守尔 (award-winning novelist and head of the Xinjiang chapter of the China Writers’Association)
• 博格达·阿布都拉 (71-year-old poet)
• 阿里木江·司马义
• 帕尔哈提·伊力牙斯 (author of travel guide to Xinjiang’s famous Loulan, 《楼兰古国的奇幻之旅》)
• 夏侃·沃阿勒拜 (journalist and poet who first published in 1954, but his Baidu Bio (中文介绍) shows no new works since 1998)
• 朱马拜·比拉勒
• 夏木斯·胡玛尔

I recently came upon what seems to be a fairly comprehensive look at novels by non-Han writers published since 1949 that deal directly with issues of culture and identity. Entitled Ethnic Minority Novels  (少数民族小说), the Chinese-language article is unfortunately not signed, but it appears to have been written by a scholar and published in one of China’s academic quarterlies.

I’d like to summarize parts of it here.

First, a few factoids:

• China officially recognizes 55 non-Han peoples as native to the PRC
• There are over 500 writers in the China Writers Association who consider themselves members of a minority ethnicity
• Since the 1970s, China has published over 300 novels by minority writers dealing with ethnic themes