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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.
Penguin
April 2008
On Sale: March 27, 2008
544 pages
ISBN: 1594201560
EAN: 9781594201561
Hardcover
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Fiction
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 wolf
Published 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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