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Wolf Totem

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 1,018 ratings · 206 reviews

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...more 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.(less)

Hardcover, 527 pages

Published March 27th 2008 by Penguin Press HC, The (first published 2004)

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Jan 28, 2013 Sue rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those interested in Chinese history or natural history

Shelves: china, historical-fiction, around-the-world-in-52, read-2013

This has been a reading experience unlike any other for me. Through the eyes of a Chinese student, sent to Inner Mongolia as part of a volunteer program during the Cultural Revolution, we see a nomadic way of life as it has existed for centuries and as it is on the verge of it's death before encroaching masses of Chinese seeking land and food. (The author was involved in the same type of program for 11 years, beginning in 1967.)

Chen Zhen, and 2 or 3 like-minded friends in the student brigade, re...more

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Mar 01, 2010 gieb rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Serigala tiba-tiba menjadi harapan bagi Chen Zhen, pelajar muda dari Beijing yang akibat politik dikirim ke Olunbulag, sebuah daerah di pedalaman Mongolia. Dari seekor serigala, Chen Zhen tidak hanya belajar tentang pengetahuan, tetapi juga kearifan. Belajar tentang serigala, kita akan belajar tentang kehidupan. Saya merasa, pesan inilah yang ingin disampaikan oleh Jiang Rong dalam novel Wolf Totem ini.

Ada yang mengatakan nostalgia adalah rasa pedih yang mulia. Saya sependapat jika ada yang men...more Serigala tiba-tiba menjadi harapan bagi Chen Zhen, pelajar muda dari Beijing yang akibat politik dikirim ke Olunbulag, sebuah daerah di pedalaman Mongolia. Dari seekor serigala, Chen Zhen tidak hanya belajar tentang pengetahuan, tetapi juga kearifan. Belajar tentang serigala, kita akan belajar tentang kehidupan. Saya merasa, pesan inilah yang ingin disampaikan oleh Jiang Rong dalam novel Wolf Totem ini.

Ada yang mengatakan nostalgia adalah rasa pedih yang mulia. Saya sependapat jika ada yang mengatakan bahwa Wolf Totem adalah novel yang menyedihkan. Sebuah cerita yang akhirnya menyerah kepada perubahan. Olunbulag, sebuah tempat yang penuh padang rumput awalnya, akhirnya menjadi gurun pasir karena kegagalan ekosistem akibat keserakahan manusia. Sebuah permulaan untuk menyebut serigala sebagai legenda. Serigala, yang bagi masyarakat nomaden Mongolia adalah sebuah sosok yang ditakuti sekaligus dihormati, perlahan digusur oleh Revolusi Budaya yang cenderung menggerus akar budaya lokalitas.

Saya suka membaca novel ini karena dalam novel ini kita mendapatkan deskripsi rinci nomaden sehari-hari, adat istiadat dan kepercayaan yang sudah diubah dan menghilang. Novel ini memang semi otobiografis sang penulis yang pernah tinggal di antara penduduk di Mongolia. Rasanya, seolah-olah tidak ada detail yang terlewat dari kehidupan para penggembala yang diceritakan penulis. Hal ini bisa menjadi menarik karena kita dijejali pengetahuan yang selama ini mungkin kita tidak pernah mendengarnya. Terutama pengetahuan tentang serigala, kuda, dan beberapa hewan lainnya. Tetapi, detail ini kadang membawa frustasi karena membawa cerita seperti melambat.

Membaca ini, saya menyadari bahwa penulis sedang mencoba untuk melestarikan segala sesuatu yang menjadi saksi terkecilnya, karena ia tahu bahwa ia akan segera tidak ada lagi. Nostalgia tadi jika hilang membuat cerita dalam buku ini menjadi tak ternilai. Saya berharap bahwa ada informasi lebih lanjut tentang berapa banyak dari novel ini secara langsung berdasarkan pengalaman penulis dan berapa banyak dihiasi untuk efek dramatis.

Chen Zhen sang karakter utama memang representasi dari penulis. Hal ini mungkin membuat bagi sebagian pembacanya bertanya-tanya, apakah penulis dalam kehidupan nyata masih menyimpan keinginan dan rasa bersalah yang berkaitan di padang rumput. Karena seperti yang diceritakan dalam novel ini, ketertarikan Chen Zhen untuk memelihara serigala telah menimbulkan konflik. Terutama oleh Bilgee sang tetua yang dihormati penduduk setempat. Menurut Bilgee, memelihara seekor serigala sama saja penghinaan terhadap Tengger, Sang Dewa Agung, karena Serigala adalah makhluk mulia dan terhormat yang tidak pantas diperlakukan seperti budak.

Memang, tak banyak yang aneh yang bisa kita ambil dari kearifan sosok Chen Zhen ini. Bahkan mungkin tak ada yang baru. Intinya adalah kepasrahan. Tampaklah pada Chen Zhen: perlawanan terakhir bukanlah perlawanan terhadap sesuatu yang lebih kuat dan pasti menang: Chen Zhen memandang ke utara dengan rasa sedih. Serigala telah berubah menjadi sekedar legenda, dan padang rumput hanya tinggal kenangan jauh. Suatu masyarakat penggembala berpindah telah punah, bahkan jejak terakhir yang ditinggalkan serigala di padang rumput Mongolia –liang kuno di anak serigala- akan terkubur dalam pasir kuning (halaman 600). Perlawanan terakhir adalah terhadap kepedihan merasa kalah. Kita perlu menang atas godaan mengganggap kemenangan itu satu hal yang paling penting.

Wolf Totem memberikan kita sebuah dalil, ‘jangan-jangan hidup memang tidak pernah adil’, dengan itu kita bisa maklum dengan kehilangan. Atau sebaliknya, karena tidak pernah adil, kita bisa menjadi brutal. Revolusi Budaya yang terjadi kurun 1966-1976 menyerang masyarakat yang secara ideologis masih percaya kepada takhayul dan konservatif. Tak terkecuali masyarakat Mongolia yang secara geografis berada di pedalaman. Serigala menjadi semacam penanda atau metaforis bagi novel ini. Serigala yang gagah berani dan buas, setia pada kawan, dan menghormati lingkungan mereka menjadi simbol resistensi masyarakat Mongolia khususnya dalam menghadapi Revolusi Budaya ala Mao.

Serigala dalam novel ini sepertinya tahu bahwa ia menjadi harapan bagi orang-orang di sekitarnya. Meski dalam sederhana: harapan baginya adalah ketika ia memberi. Mungkin dengan sedih, getir, dan rapuh. Tapi akhirnya, ia memberitahu kita: tetap saja ada orang yang berbuat baik, juga dalam kekalahannya. Bukankah itu juga sebuah harapan?

Sekali lagi, ini adalah novel yang menarik dan menyedihkan. Sebaiknya Anda membacanya!

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Jan 19, 2010 Sandy Tjan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, chinese-literature, contemporary-fiction, china

"Old longings nomadic leap,
Chafing at custom's chain;
Again from its brumal sleep
Wakens the ferine strain."

The Wolf Totem, like The Call of the Wild, a book that it is often compared to, calls for a return to unfettered nature, with its individualism and harsh, but utterly logical values. The wolves don’t kill because they are cruel, but because, like all other living creatures, they need to eat to sustain themselves. The beautiful Inner Mongolian grassland which serves as the setting for this no...more "Old longings nomadic leap, 
Chafing at custom's chain; 
Again from its brumal sleep 
Wakens the ferine strain."

The Wolf Totem, like The Call of the Wild, a book that it is often compared to, calls for a return to unfettered nature, with its individualism and harsh, but utterly logical values. The wolves don’t kill because they are cruel, but because, like all other living creatures, they need to eat to sustain themselves. The beautiful Inner Mongolian grassland which serves as the setting for this novel is not a peaceful Eden; it is a fiercely contested battleground where humans, wolves and other animals have been waging war against each other since time immemorial. Nature has its own system, in which the constant warfare serves as a balancing measure that guarantees the survival of the grassland and all the species that depend on it. The traditional Mongolian herdsmen understand this and strive to maintain the delicate ecological balance on which their livelihoods depend. However, when ignorant outsiders (agriculturalists, mostly Han Chinese, with no regard for sustainable grazing) impose their production quotas and machine-gunned the wolves to virtual extinction, the ecosystem collapses and the grassland slowly turns into desert. An already familiar and distressingly common scenario all over the world, but which is perhaps even more pertinent for China, a nation that has suffered extreme environmental degradation in the name of progress.

But Wolf Totem is not just a stinging, yet well-meaning ecological fable --- it is also a strident call for Chinese nationalism. The Chinese, the author believes, has become a “sheep-like” race, the antithesis of the more dynamic wolf-like nomadic races. The sheep-like characteristics of the Chinese, particularly their lack of assertive individualism, had resulted in China’s humiliation before foreign powers, and allowed atrocities such as the Tiananmen Square massacre to be perpetrated against them. “There’d be hope for China if our national character could be rebuilt by cutting away the decaying parts of Confucianism and grafting a wolf totem sapling onto it. It could be combined with such Confucian traditions as pacifism, an emphasis on education, and devotion to study.” Jiang Rong, an academic who was jailed for his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen student movement, apparently sees no contradiction whatsoever between wolfish qualities and pacifism. He ardently believes that this is China’s way out of its current malaise and constantly preaches it through his characters. It becomes rather tiresome after a while, and one inadvertently begins to think of counter arguments. Didn’t the Chinese eventually assimilate the conquering nomadic races? How come China has endured for almost five millennia as a major power while the proud descendants of Genghis Khan are now merely one of its minorities? Haven’t the Chinese proven themselves to be adept at lupine tactics by becoming an economic juggernaut in less than a generation?

And what is the appeal of this novel, if it is merely an ideological tract disguised as fiction? It is surely not its (debatable) ideological message. Nor is it the human characters, which for the most part are merely mouthpieces for the author’s theories. It is the vivid, cinematic evocation of nature, red in tooth and claw that had me reading into the wee hours. The bone-chilling description of how a wolf pack traps and devours a herd of warhorses. The blood-curling account of an epic wolf hunt under the moonlight, with hundreds of riders with flaming torches and baying dogs. The harsh lives of the nomadic herders and their animals, told with convincing details and understanding that could only come from long familiarity. Oh, and the story of Chen Zhen and the wolf cub, both endearing and tragic. These are the meat of the story and they are substantial enough to outweigh the obvious flaws. For several days, I was transported into the distant Mongolian steppes, riding against the wind with a pack of hounds, scanning the endless horizon for sheep and wolves --- and that should be reason enough to pick this book up.
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Feb 20, 2010 Mery rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: semua pecinta hewan dan alam

Shelves: punya, lagi-dipinjem

Wolf Totem = Totem Serigala adalah sebuah buku semi autobiografi yang ditulis oleh Jiang Rong mengenai semasa hidupnya di sebuah Padang Rumput Mongolia, atau tepatnya di Olonbulag, Mongolia.

Dengan memperkenalkan diri sebagai Chen Zhen dalam buku ini, Jiang Rong mengupas tuntas misteri yang tersembunyi di Olonbulag dan bagaimana masyarakat Nomaden yang selalu berpindah tempat di alam liar tersebut bisa mempertahankan hidup mereka. Di buku ini kita juga diajak menyelami ajaran mistis para penduduk...more

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Mar 11, 2009 Boof rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Boof by: To read with RJ

Shelves: china, read-in-2009, my-current-top-10, my-most-amazing-books, animals

I finished this book 2 days ago, after having my head buried in it for 4 days and I just can't stop thinking about it. It is the most wonderful book and has shot straight into my Top 5 of all time.

From the very first page I was hooked. Jiang Rong creates such a vivid and compelling narrative that I found myself similtaniously gripped with the story yet trying to slow down and savour every word, so beautiful was each sentence.

Wolf Totem is semi-autobiographical and Jiang's passion for the Mongol...more

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Mar 17, 2013 Faisal rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: روايات

رغم أني استغرقت وقت طويل في القراءة وكدت أن أتوقف في أكثر من مرة ( خصوصاً في النصف الأول منها ) .. إلا أني بعد الانتهاء أشعر برضا تام عما قرأته .. رغم تحفظي على الإغراق في التفاصيل والإسهاب في أكثر من موضع بلا داعٍ ..
لا أبالغ إن قلت أن تجربتي مع سهوب منغوليا في هذا الكتاب تحمل ملامح كبير من تجربتي مع رسول حمزتوف في جبال داغستان .. نفس المشاعر الصادقة للمكان لمستها في الكتابين ..
الكتاب يهتم بتحليل الشخصية الفريدة التي يتمتع بها الإنسان البدوي .. المميزات التي جعلت البدو المغول يغزون العالم يوماً...more

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May 11, 2009 Whitaker rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, e-book, china, 2009-read

I loved it. Heartbreaking and pertinent.

Setting aside any reservations one might have about style (one reads for many things, style being only one of them), I enjoyed the book most for its depiction of the social and bureaucratic processes of the Great Leap Forward and how these brought about the destruction of a culture and of an ecology. The story has an urgent poignancy with its lessons wrapped in a nice little tale along the lines of Born Free, but with a less happy ending. Chen’s love for...more I loved it. Heartbreaking and pertinent.

Setting aside any reservations one might have about style (one reads for many things, style being only one of them), I enjoyed the book most for its depiction of the social and bureaucratic processes of the Great Leap Forward and how these brought about the destruction of a culture and of an ecology. The story has an urgent poignancy with its lessons wrapped in a nice little tale along the lines of Born Free, but with a less happy ending. Chen’s love for his Little Wolf and his agony at what he has done gripped me.

For those who think that the ecological destruction wrought is a uniquely communist/Chinese problem, instead of communal farming, think “large corporation”; for section head, think “Director” and the parallels with rampant capitalism are clear: When we seek to increase short-term profit with little thought for long-term sustainability, our children suffer.

Interestingly, the book triggered a strong debate in China for its view of the Chinese people as sheep-like (read agricultural) and hence doomed to be defeated by more wolf-like (read nomadic) cultures. Its popularity stemmed from this controversy. This was a perspective that I found less interesting and too much of a simple dichotomy. Life is rarely that simple.

An Aside on the Language:

I am not sufficiently well-versed in Chinese to read the text in its original language so I’d be interested to hear from someone who has. I read the English translation and I would agree with reviewers who have remarked that the English text is somewhat plodding and pedestrian. If this is something that elicits strong negative reactions from you, then you have been warned. However, it is probably somewhat unfair to judge this novel on that basis.

The question of translation is always thorny in any work but the problem is perhaps more acute in a language like Chinese which is both tonal and highly compressed. This is most evident in its poetry but is also the case in ordinary prose. Here’s one very rudimentary illustration. A very common phrase in Chinese used to describe a large crowd is ren(2) shan(1) ren (2) hai(3) (rendered into pinyin with the numbers representing the tonal pitch used when pronouncing the word). A literal translation would be “people mountain people sea”. A somewhat more liberal translation would be to say, “There was a veritable sea of people [in the plaza:], looking like a mountain of flesh [had been crammed in:].” This translation gives you the sense of the meaning, but you lose the musicality of the phrase (the pitches disappear, as does the balance of the symmetry) and the compression of the imagery (18 words instead of four). This phrase is ordinary school-boy Chinese by the way and any primary school child will know it. Literary Chinese is ten- to a hundred-fold more musical and imagistic. How much of that was lost in the translation I can't say, but I suspect quite a lot.
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Jun 11, 2008 Xarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, chinese-authors

I enjoyed reading about the Mongolian herders and how they view themselves and the animals living around them. It was really interesting to learn how the wolves play such an important part in helping to maintain the fragile environment. The story itself is about a Chinese student who learns, hands-on, about living with the Mongolians and becomes fascinated with the wolves. He decides to capture a cub and raise it to learn more about the nature of the wolf, unfortunately, this doesn’t go as plann...more

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Jan 12, 2009 Joannie rated it 2 of 5 stars

This is the tale of a young Chinese student, Chen, who spends years in Mongolia, living with its people and studying the culture-- in particular, the Mongols' mythical fascination and reverence of the wolf. Then Chen does the unthinkable: he brings home a wolf cub to raise on his own -- a science experiment – he calls it. The decision brings forth much controversy: the wolf is meant to be free and its innate purpose cannot be ignored for long… It's generally well-written, but ridiculously long a...more

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Dec 25, 2008 Arthur rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've read some of Wolf Totem. It's a bit long for my taste. I read most of the first chapter and the epilogue. It's a heartbreaking and nostalgic tribute to the old nomadic life and the role of wolves in both the spirits of the people and the ecology of the Mongolian landscape. It's also an oblique, but pointed criticism of the environmental destruction that the Chinese government is facilitating in their rush to modernity.

I'm not surprised that this book is very popular in China, though I'm a b...more

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Apr 02, 2013 Kathryn Au rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book artfully combines two of my favorite topics: wolves and Mongolians. More broadly, it illustrates the dynamics of indigenous peoples with their environment. The historical aspect is very fascinating, as it posits that the grueling life of nomads on the grassland was a major factor in the success in battle of nomadic people throughout history. It also compares the nature of nomadic peoples versus agricultural peoples. Most importantly, it warns against wholesale disregard for the environ...more This book artfully combines two of my favorite topics: wolves and Mongolians. More broadly, it illustrates the dynamics of indigenous peoples with their environment. The historical aspect is very fascinating, as it posits that the grueling life of nomads on the grassland was a major factor in the success in battle of nomadic people throughout history. It also compares the nature of nomadic peoples versus agricultural peoples. Most importantly, it warns against wholesale disregard for the environment; despite the Chinese mantra of "everything in moderation" the examples in the book show that greed often blinds authorities, and the result is destruction. The novel is an interesting lens through which to view the Cultural Revolution in China, when young Chinese urbanites were forced to live in the countryside and work. Through the eyes of a Chinese student you see the parallel decline in nomadic life on the grasslands and degradation of the grasslands ecosystem (beginning with the extirpation of wolves, a keystone species of the Inner Mongolian grassland). It's a very sad novel.

This book presents multiple layers of fascinating discussion material. Even if the people are fictitious (the book is 'semi-autobiographical,' so chances are it's based in a lot of true events), the story feels universal. It applies not just to Inner Mongolia in the days of the Cultural Revolution; any society struggling with traditional versus modern lifestyles can draw parallels.

As an environmentalist I found the ecology of the grassland to be very similar to that of the North American prairies. There are notable differences in the history, and many discussions ought to occur on the comparison. This book is very exciting to me because there are so many things about it I could discuss with other readers. (The trick now is to FIND others who have read it.)

A side note: Having studied wolves as well as wildlife ecology in college, I will say that I am skeptical of the author's portrayal of the wolves (social structure and indiscriminate killing behavior)--although I can't pinpoint any specific details that I can say are outright inaccurate. Perhaps Mongolian wolves operated differently than North American wolves. But it could all be believable. I'd have to ask a wolf biologist....(less)

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Mar 03, 2013 Debbie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2013

At first I forced myself to keep reading. It seemed to be long worded and boring. That changed at some point, but Im not sure when. Perhaps it didn't change at all; I just became interested. This was a tough read due to its violent, frank, and raw descriptions of the natural life of the wolf and the other grassland inhabitants, including the humans. In Jaing's life time he witnessed the end to a way of life and an ecosystem. It is ultimately a sad, very sad story, but interesting. The people of...more

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Jan 21, 2013 Peggy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: recentreads

I was eager to read this but found it fairly slow going. Maybe the translation? The writing is very stilted although his descriptions of Mongolia can be stunning and sometimes he ramps up the tension and excitement in his action sequences. I found his capture and imprisonment of a wolf cub to be selfish and the end of that story strand was heart-rending for me.

But this is not a book to read for the pleasure of the writing. It is a clear condemnation of our near-universal disrespect for balance--...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Stephen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Trying to balance my comments about this book is something of a challenge. From a literary perspective, "Wolf Totem" is weak. The dialogue is highly contrived and tiresomely didactic. What is being preached is fairly simple: the Mongols carry the spirit of the wolf, and it was this that enabled Genghis Khan to build his great empire. By contrast, the Chinese agriculturalists are sheep whose spiritless lifestyle makes them passive victims even as their ever-growing population means that they will...more

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Apr 28, 2010 Irawan Senda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Judul Buku : Wolf Totem
Penulis : Jiang Rong
Penerjemah : Rika Iffati
Penerbit : Hikmah
Nilai : 5/5 (Versi Komunitas Baca Buku)

Sudah lama saya tidak meresensikan buku yang bermutu, karena itu kali ini saya akan meresensikan buku terjemahan baru karya Jiang Rong. Mau tahu seperti apa seluk beluk novelnya? Mari kita bahas satu persatu.

Ini adalah sebuah novel tentang pengalaman penulis sendiri meneliti prilaku Srigala Mongol. Dengan mengganti karakter menjadi karakter Chen, penulis sepertinya berupaya...more

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Feb 11, 2010 Randall Rebman rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: china-literature

Wolf Totem is a semi-autobiographical account of Chinese author Lu Jiamin’s ten years of living in Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution (he took the pen name Jiang Rong to escape political persecution). Chen Zhen, the book’s main character, is sent to be a shepherd on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia as part of China’s “reeducation campaign.”

Chen becomes captivated by the Mongolian wolves and grassland’s nomadic way of life while living there, but he later laments that the devastation...more

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Dec 07, 2009 Ethan Cramer-Flood rated it 2 of 5 stars

Apparently moving to China has slowed down my reading considerably.

Wolf Totem was a massive best seller here in 2005; despite being somewhat literary it broke every sales record the country has, short of Mao's little red book. It was also made into a movie that did equally well. I decided to check it out to get a feel for modern pop-literature zeitgeist in China, but I think I suffered from a culture gap.

It's about a Beijing student sent to inner Mongolia during the cultural revolution in the 1...more Apparently moving to China has slowed down my reading considerably.

Wolf Totem was a massive best seller here in 2005; despite being somewhat literary it broke every sales record the country has, short of Mao's little red book. It was also made into a movie that did equally well. I decided to check it out to get a feel for modern pop-literature zeitgeist in China, but I think I suffered from a culture gap.

It's about a Beijing student sent to inner Mongolia during the cultural revolution in the 1960s. He's there to be "re-educated" by working with the nomadic herders, part of Mao's nation-wide wacky strategy against the "elite". While the main character is out on the plains with his Mongolian-Chinese hosts, he immerses himself in local wolf-centric spirituality and even raises a wolf cub. He also learns a lot about living in environmental harmony with his surroundings.

The story is interesting on the surface but in execution the author made it boring and monotonous. I was extremely engaged in the first 100 pages and the final 50 pages, but for 300 pages in between it was nothing but repetitive tales of wolf-hunting, raising sheep, riding horses, and other excessive details of the nomadic life. Also the character development was amazingly shallow. I never felt that I knew or understood the protagonist, Chen, or any of his friends. We rarely were given a glimpse of his thoughts or feelings at a deep level until the very end. The best developed "characters" were the various wolves and wolf packs, and the grassland, which he examined so intensely it became a presence itself.

One interesting surprise was how critical the author was of China and Chinese people in general. If this were written by a Westerner the critics would talk about how "self-hating" the narrative is. Wolf Totem is basically a 450 page indictment of Chinese character traits and values and how inferior it is to the character traits and value systems of pretty much every other group the author can think of. He admires the character traits of -- in order -- wolves, Mongolians, nomadic people all over the world in general, and even Westerners. But the Chinese personality/mentality he is quite ashamed of. And the author is very much a Han Chinese. Why such a China-hating book was a record-breaking hit here is something to think about.

The book is also, not surprisingly, highly critical of the behavior of Chinese people and the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution. In modern China it's OK to criticize this period to I can see how he got past the censors, but what the modern government missed is what's between the lines in the narrative. The book is also a major attack on current Chinese environmental policies and a blistering critique of the Chinese administrative system and philosophy; and it quite clearly blasts the foolish, corrupt, and short-sighted political leaders that the system produces. How the censors missed these subtleties I do not know. They must be losing their touch.(less)

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Jul 12, 2009 Philuptuous rated it 5 of 5 stars

Reading this book explains a lot of what I saw last year on a trip to Inner Mongolia - how the way of life on the grassland is influenced by modern technology and the pressures of China's agrarian society:

I saw not the glorious herds of horses used for combat, scouting, and protection, but broken down ones used for carrying tourists like me. Instead of horses, the shepherds ride loud/smelly motorcycles. The grass has been so overused that in an effort to let it grow back before turning into a s...more

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Jul 03, 2012 Chris Craddock rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

Wolf Totem was officially released in China in 2004, and has since become a bestseller, in fact, only Mao's Red Book has sold more copies in China. Before its official release it was also popular, though it was banned by the government. Surreptitious copies were passed around, and the author was identified only by his pen name, Jiang Rong. The book was critical of the communist government, and the fact that the once banned book is now a best seller signals a sea change in China.

Wolf Totem begins...more Wolf Totem was officially released in China in 2004, and has since become a bestseller, in fact, only Mao's Red Book has sold more copies in China. Before its official release it was also popular, though it was banned by the government. Surreptitious copies were passed around, and the author was identified only by his pen name, Jiang Rong. The book was critical of the communist government, and the fact that the once banned book is now a best seller signals a sea change in China.

Wolf Totem begins its story during the Cultural Revolution and it is a quasi autobiographical story, so much of what is described probably happened to the author. Beijing intellectual Chen Zhen and other students are sent to Inner Mongolia to learn from and teach the nomadic Mongols who live there. They are the proud descendents of Genghis Khan and believe in a god, Tengger, who oversees a balance between the Grasslands, Man, and the Wolf. They both fear and revere the wolf; while they hunt wolves they would never try to destroy all of the wolves, because their fates are intricately linked. Without the wolves the mice, gazelles, rabbits, and marmots would overgraze the grassland, and the desert sands would soon take over. When a Mongol dies, his body is even left to be eaten by wolves, in a 'sky burial' so that his spirit can rejoin the earth, as he literally becomes a part of the grassland once again.

until a breeze splintered them amid the light of tiny wavelets, a review by Chris Craddock of Jiang Rong's Wolf Totem

ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night, a review by Chris Craddock of the Three Wolf & Moon T-Shirt

Ripples appeared on the lake surface, those in the west mirroring the cold blueness of the night sky, while those in the east reflected the warm colors of sunset. The ripples spread slowly, concentric circles of agate red, emerald green, translucent yellow; then came crystal purple, sapphire blue, and pearl white, alternating cool and warm, the tones of noble quality. The view that spread out before him seemed to augur the sad yet enchanting death of the swans. Tengger had sent down the precious lights as a prelude to the parting of its beloved swans from the clear waters.

The ripples continued their slow march, like the overture to a tragic drama in which the audience can hardly bear to watch the lead actor. Yang wished that the ballet about to unfold would have a natural background and that the lead actor would never appear. But from amid the inky green reeds, one swan after another glided out onto the lake, its multicolored surface and the canopy of sky above creating an enormous stage. The swans had changed into blue evening wear, which turned the yellow spot on the crowns of their heads a cold purple. Their graceful curved necks looked like bright question marks, questioning heaven, questioning earth, questioning the water, questioning people, questioning all living creatures on earth. They moved silently, then waited for answers. But none were forthcoming. The reflecting ripples on the surface shimmered slightly, transformed into their own question marks, until a breeze splintered them amid the light of tiny wavelets.

~ Excerpt from Wolf Totem by Jiang Rong
(less)

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Apr 14, 2009 Rj rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: asian, 2009

This book was awesome, in the traditional sense of the word. A rare look into Chinese culture on the Mongolian grasslands. I experienced this book so viscerally that I had to read it slowly-a couple of chapters at a time. I learned to love reading in the 7th grade from Call of the Wild. This book brought me back to that. I also believe that there was an underlying political theme to this book. Overall I found Wolf Totem to be thought provoking, moving and memorable.

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Jun 30, 2011 Karyl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is really a heart-breaking novel. Set in the 1960s, after students from Beijing were sent to the country to live with the traditional nomadic Mongol tribes, it tells the story of Chen Zhen, loosely based on the author himself, and his experiences there. Being a Han Chinese, the way in which the Mongols lived, moving from site to site as their animals grazed, and revering the grassland wolves, was completely foreign to him. But somehow their way of life, and especially the might and power of...more This is really a heart-breaking novel. Set in the 1960s, after students from Beijing were sent to the country to live with the traditional nomadic Mongol tribes, it tells the story of Chen Zhen, loosely based on the author himself, and his experiences there. Being a Han Chinese, the way in which the Mongols lived, moving from site to site as their animals grazed, and revering the grassland wolves, was completely foreign to him. But somehow their way of life, and especially the might and power of the wolves, got under his skin, and he became obsessed with learning all he could about them.

Considering how uneducated the Mongol tribes were, having no schools available and few, if any, books, these men and women were incredibly in tune with the world around them. They knew exactly how many sheep could be grazed on a particular patch of land, where the best grass was for grazing, how often they should be moved so as to not to over-tax the land. They also understood that without the wolves to harass and even kill some the warhorses, the horses would not be as strong, as fast, as agile, or as smart as they were. Though losing horses to wolves was devastating, it also made the herd stronger, and Mongol warhorses were renowned for their strength and power.

This book can get rather bloody in the details, and is not really for the squeamish. However, it's incredibly thrilling to read of a terrible night-time blizzard in which the wolves mount an incredible attack on the warhorses, where the horses fight for their lives in the dark and the blinding snow and howling wind. You can almost feel the snow stinging your face and hear the shrieks of the terrified horses.

What makes this book so heartbreaking is knowing that this world, and even the land, no longer exists. Outside Han Chinese, looking only to increase production, ignored the objections of the Mongols who knew how to care for the land. As a result, the wolves were hunted to extinction in that part of the world, and eventually the lush grasslands became desert. The Mongols' whole way of life has disappeared, along with their reverence for their wolf totem, and all within a short period of time. But at least we have this book to show us what life was like for them, for their herds, and for the wolves they revered so highly.(less)

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Oct 05, 2012 Tiffany rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-fiction, 5-0-stars

This book is a very dense, very long read, but it is very informative, and the characters and story are well-crafted. I picked up this book at a Border's going-out-of-business sale, and definitely feel that I got more than my money's worth. Born as a Chinese-American, and raised completely in America, I wanted to know more about my parent's culture, more about their country's past. While, obviously, this isn't completely historically accurate, the over-arching events are, and having the reader f...more

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Feb 17, 2011 Bettie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: one-penny-wonder, winter-20102011, published-2004, environmental-issues, gorefest, lifestyles-deathstyles, ouch, war, zoology, testost-tosh

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 22, 2011 Tezar Ari Yulianto rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pinjem-perpus, biografi-memoar, my-fave, sastra-novel-asia, pinjem-pinginpunya

Seberapa hebatkah makhluk bernama manusia itu? Kalau membaca novel ini, kita harus menyadari, bahwa manusia hebat dalam menghancurkan alam dan sumberdayanya.
Tuhan mengajarkan kepada kita, bahwa dunia di sekitar kita adalah hidup untuk belajar, merenung. Tapi yang ada ketamakan manusia sendiri yang melupakan nilai-nilai yang dapat dipelajari dari alam.
Wolf Totem, mengisahkan kisah manusia pemburu Mongolia yang tinggal di wilayah Olonbulag, kekuasaan Cina. Chen Zhen, adalah salah seorang pelajar...more

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Apr 27, 2011 Beth_Adele rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is my third attempt to read this book. Not because it's too long winded (as some suggest) or because it failed to enchant me, but because each time I have sat down to read it, life interrupts me right near the end and I keep telling myself I will get back to it. But so much time passes that I always need to start over....and then I get interrupted again. This time, I am not putting it down for anything.

I remember now why I kept putting it down. I didn't want to read the inevitable ending....more

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Feb 19, 2012 Astrobravo rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really like this book, but its translation is a problem. I have both the Chinese and the English versions, and quite a bit of the original is left untranslated in the English release.

In the Chinese edition, there is a quote from a famous person (both Western and Eastern) before each chapter that sort of sets the theme for the chapter, gives further insight into the political ideas in the story, etc. These quotes are completely omitted in the translated version. In addition, there is a 50 pages...more

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Mar 25, 2012 Julie Bozza rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, mongolian

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. A fascinating novel set during the last days of the Steppe way of life.

In the late 1960s, along with other young Chinese students, Chen Zhen is sent to Inner Mongolia where he works as a shepherd. He falls in love with the Steppe, and learns all he can from the Mongolian elder Bilgee. In particular, Chen is fascinated by the Mongolian wolves, who are both feared and revered by the Steppe people. The wolves are superbly intelligent, and it becomes clear to Chen that the wolves and the humans have...more

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Jan 01, 2010 Clodagh rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is fantastic!
Based on his personal experiences, a Chinese student goes to live in Mongolia during the 70s, part of a large project to ensure the locals embrace Mao's way and renounce the "Four Olds" - Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas.
The Chinese students are descended from farmers while the Mongolians live - I suppose - almost a stone-age type of nomadic hunting existence.
I don't want to give too much of the story away but the main theme really is the delicate balanc...more

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Jun 01, 2009 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Wolf Totem is set during the Chinese cultural revolution, when a group of Chinese students were sent to the Mongolian grassland to live with the herders there. The book describes how the Chinese come in and upset the balance of the grassland that the Mongols maintained for thousands of years. The student Chen is particularly interested in studying how the Mongols' worship of and battles with the grassland wolves shape the Mongol culture and maintain the grassland ecosystem. But when the Chinese...more

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Apr 12, 2013 Haifa Busamra rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

الرواية دسمة. تحتاج إلى التروي في قراءتها واستيعابها لكم المعلومات الهائل التي تحتويها.
مجهود المؤلف الإبداعي بائن فيها من الصفحة الأولى.
عوالم عجيبة من حياة الذئاب وارتباطها بالبشر حد التعايش والتبجيل.
حروب ضارية بتكتيك واستراتيجيات مذهلة من قبل الذئاب والبشر تعكس صراعات أزلية ولكن بقناعة أن هذه الصراعات لازمة لاستمرارية بقاء السهوب والحياة فيها.
لا يكتب أحد رواية بهذا الحجم إلا أن يكون قد عايش أحداثها بتفاصيلها أو تمعن في دراسة عوالمها حتى يتمكن من وضعها في قالب روائي بديع.
أتعبتني الرواية في قراءت...more

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About Jiang Rong

Jiang Rong (real name Lü Jiamin) was born in Beijing in 1946 and is a Chinese dissident and author, most famous for his best-selling 2004 novel Wolf Totem. He is married to fellow novelist Zhang Kangkang.

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Quotes from Wolf Totem

“Protecting the grassland is hard on us. If we don't kill wolves, they'll be fewer of us. But if we kill too many of them, there'll be even fewer.” — 2 people liked it

“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 the little lives.” — 1 person liked it

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