Ethnic ChinaLit

If you don’t know Chinese and prefer not to read Chi Zijian’s classic <额尔古纳河右岸> about the twilight of the Evenki in English, later this year you can enjoy it in Dutch—Het laatste kwartier van de maan. It will be available from The House of Books beginning August. But please note: the Dutch is based on . . . my English translation.

You might like to compare this Dutch cover with that of the Italian edition and the English. The eyes (above) look distinctly Chinese to me, which is a bit odd; the Evenki are a Siberian people more closely related to the Manchu than the Han.

Bertrand Mialaret examine la traduction anglaise du roman chinois de Chi Zijian, Last Quarter of the Moon (额尔古纳河右岸, 迟子建著), l’histoire de la crépuscule des Evenki dans la dernière partie du XXe siècle (l’article français en entier):

Les Evenki ont de l’amour pour leurs rennes qui sont beaucoup plus qu’un troupeau, presque des partenaires. « In my eyes, white reindeer are clouds fleeting across the face of the earth. I’ve never encountered another animal that possesses the docile temperament and endurance of the reindeer . . . Reindeer were certainly bestowed upon us by the Spirits, for without these creatures we would not be.»

Les hommes et les rennes s’accompagnent mutuellement dans les migrations à la recherche des mousses pour les rennes et de nouveaux terrains de chasse. Ils sont libres avec leurs grelots mais reviennent chaque soir au camp. On ne mange pas leur chair, on boit leur lait et on les utilise pour transporter hommes et campements.

Les rennes sont l’obstacle majeur à une vie plus sédentaire. Comme dit la narratrice: « my reindeer have committed no crime and I don’t want to see them imprisoned either .»

Update: Mialaret has just put this piece up in English: Chi Zijian, the Death of Shamans and Reindeer Herders.

伦敦出版商 Harvill Secker 一月 17 日推出了东北作家迟子建的第一本译成英文的小说，《Last Quarter of the Moon》。为了《中华读书报》，慷慨先生找到我，进行了有关我翻译这本小说的初衷的采访：

《读书报》：为什么使用现在这个英译书名，而不是原书名《额尔古纳河右岸》的直译？

徐穆实 [Bruce Humes]：首先要明白一个事实：书名一般由出版方来定，译者甚至原作家的想法只是建议罢了。要知道，外文版权是外国出版社拥有的，当然是他们说了算。

我的建议本来是直译：The Right Bank of the Argun。这书名不仅忠实原作，也方便引起西方读者的好奇心。因为用“右岸”表达河流的方位有点莫名其妙，西方读者习惯用东南西北来表达。就算西方读者 不知道这条河是几百年以来中俄边境的界线，单凭这种奇特的表达方式，也会引起他们的好奇心。

但英格兰的出版人被早些出版的《额尔古纳河右岸》意大利译文的书名 Ultimo quarto di luna 所吸引，就把它译成英文的The Last Quarter of the Moon。

全文可以在此下载 PDF 版或者在线读。

Neat title (我的西域，你的东土) for a 473-page tome about the far west of China by a gutsy, if sometimes over-heated Han Chinese who certainly did his fieldwork. The “West Land” of the title conjures up images of the Silk Road, the Taklamakan Desert and Turkic tribes, all part of the Chinese empire. “East Country,” however, is a taboo term in today’s PRC, a homophone for the abbreviation of the short-lived East Turkestan Republic, whose legacy still gives Beijing splittist migraines. Both of these terms refer, of course, to what is known in the PRC as Xinjiang.

The title implies an even-handed, and therefore very politically incorrect stance on the “Xinjiang question.” To the best of my knowledge, the book is available only in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and has not been translated out of the Chinese.

“No one has ever. . .deciphered Xinjiang and the Uyghurs like this,” shouts the cover blurb. Author Wang Lixiong (王力雄) did travel widely in Xinjiang on several long sojourns during 1999-2007, often in the company of local Uyghurs, but that is hardly impressive. Arguably, it is the time he spent in jail—being interrogated for photocopying secret government documents about Xinjiang, and the friendship he strikes up with his cellmate, a Uyghur political detainee—that sensitized him to the plight of the Turkic minorities in Xinjiang.

After a tough time in detention during which he almost killed himself and at one point agreed to work as an informer in exchange for his freedom, Wang left jail and resolved to research Xinjiang and write a book about what he saw on the ground, as well as record his political discussions with Mokhtar, his former cellmate and an articulate spokesperson for Uyghur intellectuals.

Rather than write a book review, I’ve translated two brief excerpts. Mind you, it’s not illegal to be a practicing Muslim in Xinjiang. Well, not exactly. Check out Mosque Etiquette Primer and The 23 Illegals just so you understand the challenges involved. . .

The 6 Don’ts & 3 Limitations

(六不准，三限制)

The 6 Don’ts:

1. Government cadres, students and youths under 18 are not permitted to take part in any religious activities in the mosque
2. Do not promote jihad or instigate disputes among ethnic groups
3. Do not carry out propaganda aimed at dividing ethnic groups
4. Do not read or distribute books, magazines, or printed matter promoting jihad
5. Do not interfere with normal administrative work
6. Do not engage in religious activities that involve other districts.

The 3 Limitations:

1.  Friday prayers are limited to half an hour
2. Namaz [5 daily prayers] should be performed according to the original style and format, and these should not be altered
3. Youths under 18 may not enter the mosque.

These instructions were, according to author Wang Lixiong, found at the entrance to the Aitika Mosque in Keriya, Xinjiang (克里雅的艾提卡清真寺) during a visit there in 2003.

This text is my translation of an excerpt from the 473-page Chinese original, My West Land, Your East Country (我的西域，你的东土) by Wang Lixiong (王力雄). Page 158. Published by Locus Publishing of Taiwan (大块文化).

The 23 Illegal Religious Activities 

(非法宗教活动 23 表现)

1. Forcing others to believe in religion
2. Forcing others to fast
3. Operating a madrassa on one’s own
4. Holding a traditional marriage ceremony
5. Condoning prayer by students
6. Using tradition to interfere in modern daily life
7. Organizing a hadj outside of the official channel
8. Exacting a traditional tithe from believers
9. Establishing a religious venue without permission
10. Hosting religious activities without a government certificate
11. Religious activities involving several districts
12. Printing and distributing materials materials for promotion of religion
13. Accepting foreign donations for religious end-uses
14. Going abroad to participate in religious activities
15. Proselytizing without permission
16. Criticizing patriotic religious devotees
17. Infiltration by foreign religions
18. Instigating disputes between different sects
19. Promoting a cult
20. Circulating statements that dispute official policy
21. Congregating to march or demonstrate
22. Establishing anti-revolutionary bodies
23. Other activities that harm social order.

These instructions were, according to author Wang Lixiong, posted at the entrance to a middle school in the countryside near Subashi, a “lost” city in Taklamakan Desert near Kucha. He visited there during 2006. Drawings of the illegal activities were accompanied by text in both Chinese and Uyghur.

This text is my translation of an excerpt from the 473-page Chinese original, My West Land, Your East Country (我的西域，你的东土) by Wang Lixiong (王力雄). Page 232. Published by Locus Publishing of Taiwan (大块文化).

The Last Quarter of the Moon

(额尔古纳河右岸，迟子建著)

Afterword

From the Mountains

 to the Sea

The birth of a literary work resembles the growth of a tree. It requires favorable circumstances.

Firstly, there must be a seed, the Mother of All Things. Secondly, it cannot lack for soil, nor can it make do without the sunlight’s warmth, the rain’s moisture or the wind’s caress.

In the case of The Last Quarter of the Moon, however, first there was soil, and only then was there a seed. For this land that turns muddy as the ice thaws in the spring, is shaded by green trees in the summer and is covered by motley leaves in the autumn and endless snow-white in the winter, is very familiar to me.

After all, I was born and raised on this land.  As a child entering the mountains to fetch firewood, more than once I discovered an odd head-shape on a thick tree trunk.  Father told me that was the image of the Mountain Spirit Bainacha, carved by the Oroqen.

I knew the Oroqen were an ethnic minority who lived on the outskirts of our mountain town. They resided in their open-top cuoluozi (teepees) where they could spy the stars at night.  In the summer they fished in their birch-bark canoes, and in the winter they hunted in the mountains wearing their parka and roe-deerskin boots. They liked to go horse riding, drink liquor and sing songs. In that vast and frigid land, their small tribe was like a pristine spring trickling deep in the mountains. Full of vitality, yet solitary. Read the rest of this entry »

The audience erupted in laughter in Chieftain Khampu Dzongsar’s spacious salon.“You sang that wrong,” uttered someone to Tashi Gyatso, the troubadour. “Those last two lines were added on by you!” Read the rest of this entry »