Wisdom fills Wolf Totem (2008, Penguin Press, 527 pages), a reality-based novel by a Beijing academic pen-named Jiang Rong. The author gleans his sagacity from wolves, those “almost magical beasts”, the ultimate four-legged hunters and warriors.
Originally published in Chinese four years ago, Wolf Totem shattered sales records. A million copies left stores within a year. Black-market copies did well too. Now the English version, translated by American professor Howard Goldblatt, demands attention too.
It’s the 1960s. In China’s cities, the Cultural Revolution unfolds. But Chen Zhen and some fellow-students go to live and work with nomadic herders on Inner Mongolia’s grasslands. There, an ancient conflict pits hungry wolves against people.
“…the nomads were never far from being surrounded by wolves. Nearly every night he spotted ghostly wolf outlines…. From time to time, wolves break into the pens and fight the dogs. Bodies often thud into yurt walls, waking the people sleeping on the other side; twice that had happened to Chen Zhen, and all that kept a wolf from landing in bed beside him was that wall. Frequently, nomads are separated from wolves by no more than a couple of felt rugs.”
Jiang’s violent battle scenes surpass many about human armies.
“When the ambush was spring on the wolves, their ranks were thrown into chaos. They were caught in the sort of trap they themselves used with such skill and familiarity…. With reckless disregard for their own lives, they tore into the line of charging dogs, sending many of them tumbling. The snowy slope was turned into a site of terrible tangled warfare, with fangs – wolf and dog – ripping and tearing, sending snow and animal fur flying. Dogs whined, wolves howled, dog blood and wolf blood spurted from necks and heads. The horrified students, who had never seen such bloody warfare, were speechless.”
Yet the frequent deadly battles support the cycle of life and keep the grasslands viable. Some victories take surprising forms.
“Night watches were an important job for women on the Mongolian grassland. They stayed up all night watching the flock, then took care of their domestic chores during the day, which meant they seldom enjoyed a good night’s sleep…. The wolves turned the people’s days upside down, beating down the women in one family after another, generation after generation. That was why the women in many yurts were often sick and died young…. Wolves multiplied quickly, while the number of grasslanders increased only slightly…. The wolves controlled the gradual development of the human population.”
Herders fear the wolves, but also worship them, hence the book’s title. The nomads never bury their dead in coffins. They leave the corpses in isolated places for the wolves to eat. “It’s important to turn meat-eaters into eaten meat…. We grasslanders eat meat all our lives, for which we kill many creatures. After we die, we donate our meat back to the grassland. To us, it only seems fair. ”
Slaying wolves protects the herds, but killing too many could prove disastrous and lead to overgrazing by gazelles, rabbits and rodents. “…wolves are sent… to safeguard the grassland. Without them, the grassland would vanish. ”
Most outsiders fail to recognize this. Central planners aim to reorganize the grasslands by slaughtering all the wolves and using the rich soil for crops.
Fascinated, Chen studies the wolves. Daringly, he snatches wolf cubs from a den and tries to raise one in captivity as a “scientific experiment”.
“For the first time in his life, Chen was about to hold a living wolf in his hands…. The cub’s head was black and shiny, as if coated with tar. Its eyes were only partially open, but its tiny fangs were fully formed, sticking out ferociously between the lips…. In the eyes of Chen Zhen, this was the noblest, the most treasured, the most beautiful little creature anywhere.”
Wolf Totem works on many levels. It’s delightful and entertaining, but riddled by tragedy as the nomads struggle to defend their traditional lifestyle from a distressing influx of Han Chinese.
“People had gotten so caught up in the Cultural Revolution over the past couple of years that the traditional life of the grassland – a mixture of tending sheep and hunting wild animals – had been turned upside down, like a flock of sheep scattered in a blizzard.”
At unexpected moments, the readers catch telling glimpses of history: the nomadic routines, a few Communist-inspired passages condemning the “four Olds – old thought, old culture, old customs and old practices”, and theories that the great Genghis Khan defeated rival armies by using the tactics of wolves.
“…wolves are smarter than men. We Mongols learned from them how to hunt, how to encircle, even how to fight a war. There are no wolf packs where you Chinese live, so you haven’t learned how to fight. You can’t win a war just because you have lots of land and people. No, it depends on whether you’re a wolf or a sheep…. ”
The book’s an environmental study, one with dire warnings against toppling nature’s delicate balance. Readers in every nation, China more than most, should appreciate this.
“The grassland is a big life, but it’s thinner than people’s eyelids. If you rupture its grassy surface, you blind it, and dust storms are more lethal than the white-hair blizzards. If the grassland dies, so will the cows and sheep and horses, as well as the wolves and the people, all little lives. Then not even the Great Wall, not even Beijing will be protected.’ ”
Parallels emerge to China’s modern race for economic growth. The central planners still lack wolf-like wisdom. “Since China doesn’t have a competitive, scientific and democratic system for selecting top talent, honest and frank people are denied a chance to rise up.”
As Chen struggles to nurture, teach and protect his wolf cub, the author weaves a timeless and touching person-pet love story. Moments emerge to rival Jack London’s 1903 masterpiece, The Call of the Wild, and Fred Gipson’s 1956 novel, Old Yeller.
“His legs were so wobbly he couldn’t stand, and when he spotted Chen, he tumbled into his arms like a chick running for the mother hen after escaping the clutches of a cat. Chen, who was also trembling, held him tight, man and wolf a chorus of shaking.”
Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book still ranks as the most circulated book from China, but Wolf Totem’s a much better read. Readers who love the world around them should be thrilled again and again when reading this modern classic.
Approval rating: 94 per cent.
For more information: www.penguin.com
(April 11, 2008)
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