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 hor...
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Mar 01, 2010
gieb
rated it: 
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 More...
Ada yang mengatakan nostalgia adalah rasa pedih yang mulia. Saya sependapat jika More...
5 comments
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(8 people liked it)
Jan 19, 2010
Sandybanks
rated it: 
"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 grassl More...
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 grassl More...
10 comments
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(7 people liked it)
Feb 20, 2010
Mery
rated it: 
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 p More...
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 p More...
26 comments
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(12 people liked it)
Mar 11, 2009
Boof
rated it:
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' More...
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' More...
2 comments
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(7 people liked it)
Jan 29, 2012
Whitaker
rated it:
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 More...
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 More...
2 comments
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(2 people liked it)
Jun 11, 2008
Xarah
rated it:
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
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0 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jan 12, 2009
Joannie
rated it: 
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 lon
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(1 person liked it)
Dec 25, 2008
Arthur
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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, th More...
I'm not surprised that this book is very popular in China, th More...
2 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Apr 28, 2010
Irawan
rated it:
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 men More...
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 men More...
Feb 11, 2010
Randall
rated it:
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 More...
Chen becomes captivated by the Mongolian wolves and grassland’s nomadic way of life while living there, but he later laments that the More...
Dec 07, 2009
Ethan
rated it:
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 cul More...
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 cul More...
4 comments
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(5 people liked it)
Jul 12, 2009
Philuptuous
rated it:
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 turn More...
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 turn More...
2 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Apr 14, 2009
Rj
rated it:
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.
4 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Jun 30, 2011
Karyl
rated it:
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
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Feb 18, 2011
Bettie
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
4 comments
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(1 person liked it)
Sep 22, 2011
Tezar
rated it:
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 seor More...
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 seor More...
Apr 27, 2011
Beth_Adele
rated it:
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 inevitab More...
I remember now why I kept putting it down. I didn't want to read the inevitab More...
Jan 01, 2010
Clodagh
rated it:
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 r More...
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 r More...
Jun 01, 2009
Maggie
rated it:
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
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Feb 25, 2010
Uci
rated it:
Setiap mendengar kata serigala, gambaran makhluk buas yang akrab dengan kegelapan langsung terlintas di pikiran, walaupun pada kenyataannya hanya segelintir orang yang pernah melihatnya secara langsung. Binatang ini begitu tebal diselimuti mitos dan misteri sehingga nyaris menjadi legenda. Beruang, harimau, atau gajah yang perkasa masih bisa dilihat di kebun binatang atau pertunjukan sirkus. Tapi serigala? Mereka lebih baik mati daripada menjadi tawanan.
Pesona serigala yang begitu ku More...
Pesona serigala yang begitu ku More...
4 comments
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(4 people liked it)
Feb 22, 2011
Sonam
rated it:
It's a great book, that shows the amazing landscape of the mongolian landscape, the odd interactions and taboos of nature and mongols, and the obsession one man has with wolves.
The main character Chen Zhen, shows the political adversaties and the natural fight for survival between both jungles.
Chen Zhen is a chinese student who had gone to live in a mongolian town, to learn their ways, instead he ends up adopting most of the culture as his own. As well as walking us through past and More...
The main character Chen Zhen, shows the political adversaties and the natural fight for survival between both jungles.
Chen Zhen is a chinese student who had gone to live in a mongolian town, to learn their ways, instead he ends up adopting most of the culture as his own. As well as walking us through past and More...
Mar 08, 2011
Tumeeb13
rated it:
Үнэхээр сонирхолтой түүх,Хятадууд сая саяараа худалдаж авч уншсан гэхээр бүүр ч гайхалтай. Хэзээ нэгэн цагт би нисэж магадгүй ээ, гэдэг дуу шиг, хэзээ нэгэн цагт бид нэг нэгнээ байгаагаар нь хүлээж авч, ойлгох байх. Чоно гэдэг хийморьтой сайхан амьтан юм даа. Хятад зохиолчийн энэхүү номыг монголын алдарт орчуулагч /дуун хөрвүүлэгч/ Д.Болдбаатар орчуулсан нь үнэхээр чихэнд наалдацтай, нүд нь ургаж, сэтгэлд буусан сайхан бүтээл болжээ. Дуусгаад сэтгэгдлээ бичнээ.
Заа, дуусгачихлаа. Эндэ More...
Заа, дуусгачихлаа. Эндэ More...
Aug 21, 2011
Kriss
rated it:
The primary reason I read this book was because of the fact I needed another book--there was a sale, and I needed one more book to get the deal. I picked it up because I liked the color and the title, read the description, and thought it seemed fairly interesting. At the beginning of the book I was mildly interested; I kept waiting for something suspenseful and more interesting to happen. Until finally I became transfixed with the play of the words and the story itself.
I honestly found More...
I honestly found More...
Feb 05, 2010
Herdi
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
Jan 29, 2012
Forgotten Realms Queen
rated it:
I can tell this is a wonderful book. It's beautifully written, but there are several very violent scenes that are hard for a big old softie like me to read and accept, especially since they happen to young, defenseless wolf cubs.
I understand the reasoning behind the acts that are depicted in the book, its an attempt to keep balance between the wolf population on the Mongolian plain and the nomadic shepherds who live upon it. Its an attempt to keep balance in a fragile eco system, but a More...
I understand the reasoning behind the acts that are depicted in the book, its an attempt to keep balance between the wolf population on the Mongolian plain and the nomadic shepherds who live upon it. Its an attempt to keep balance in a fragile eco system, but a More...
Dec 21, 2011
Sue
rated it:
Only read half way through this sad book then skimmed the rest. Too much sadness for the wolf for me to keep reading.
Favorite Quote:
"The dead dogs lay undisturbed, for no grassland Mongol would give a second thought to the lush, beautiful coats. Dogs were comrades-in-arms, their best friends, their brothers. Grasslanders survived in two enterprises: hunting and tending livestock. For both, dogs were indispensible. As production instruments and livestock guards, More...
Favorite Quote:
"The dead dogs lay undisturbed, for no grassland Mongol would give a second thought to the lush, beautiful coats. Dogs were comrades-in-arms, their best friends, their brothers. Grasslanders survived in two enterprises: hunting and tending livestock. For both, dogs were indispensible. As production instruments and livestock guards, More...
Mar 21, 2009
Bas
rated it:
This is, without a doubt, one of the most beatiful books I've ever read. A wonderfully moving tale of nature's balance and the way man tries to tip it to its own favor, and the consequences of it.
Some may dismiss the book as treehugger-gibberish, but I disagree. There are passages that make it clear that Rong realizes progres is only 'natural', but he simply laments the loss of ancient culture that comes with it. This book is a lament and a warning, but it's above all a tribute to th More...
Some may dismiss the book as treehugger-gibberish, but I disagree. There are passages that make it clear that Rong realizes progres is only 'natural', but he simply laments the loss of ancient culture that comes with it. This book is a lament and a warning, but it's above all a tribute to th More...
Jun 05, 2009
Nick
rated it:
Apparently this autobiographical novel was/is very popular in China. The author recounts the experiences of a group of Chinese students sent to work with nomadic herders in Inner Mongolia and focuses on one student who becomes fascinated with the place of wolves in the economy of the grasslands. Filled with Mongolian stories and lore, the book operates on several levels, as a guide to a vanishing culture, as a cautionary story of impending environmental disaster, as a memoir of a very unusual
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Mar 10, 2010
Kiliii
rated it:
The spell of the indigenous can really put on over on you. This book feels like an incantation of that spell. By the time you've gone through the book you are thoroughly seeing through the eyes of a Mongolian herder, have claimed the Mongolian grassland wolf as your own totem, and have learned to despise the spread of agriculture into indigenous homelands. The wolf as a spiritual totem but also as a real physical presence in Mongolia show you how complex and rich the dynamic is for a people that
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Jul 29, 2011
Catherine
rated it:
This was a very unusual book--I read it very quickly, found it to be fast going, but very different from what I usually read. The protagonist is Chinese and the setting is Mongolia. I have only seen 4 Mongolian movies (and not the better known Mongol, either), but this book really evoked the pace, setting, and sensability of these--an intense relationship with the land and the animals on it. THe book focuses primarily on the wolf, but also on the sheep and the herder's relationship to each--wh
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