“Stick Out Your Tongue – the other side of Tibet

I just stumbled onto this new review of Ma Jian’s book (written back in the 80s) and found it, well, rather thought provoking. I’ve written at length about the romanticization of Tibet (back in the good old days when I could actually write essay-length posts), but even I didn’t imagine it quite like this.

When Westerners think of Tibet, they often visualize austere holy men and hardy peasants in cracked leather headgear; they picture lush hidden valleys or the snow-capped vistas of the Himalayas. There, nourished on yak butter and the pure, thin air of the mountains, people live out long lives of simplicity and serenity, and they welcome death itself with gentle courtesy.

It’s certainly a pretty postcard, and one that anybody worn down by industrial civilization occasionally likes to pick up and daydream over. But if Ma Jian’s Stick Out Your Tongue is to be believed, modern Tibet is rather more like Tobacco Road than Shangri-La.

These short stories — vignettes, really — disclose a sad, inbred land of loneliness and desperation. A dead 17-year-old girl, pregnant with an unborn fetus, is torn and chopped to pieces by the two brothers who had shared her. A woman suckles her son until he is 14, then sleeps with him and bears a daughter; the daughter in turn is eventually forced to submit to her father’s sexual hunger. In one story, a minor character mentions in passing that an uncle had once traveled to the city of Saga to learn the black arts. During an initiation ceremony, “the Living Buddha Danba Dorje ripped out his uncle’s eyes, pulled out his tongue, chopped off his hand and offered the severed parts to Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.”

Sometimes the narrator of these stories appears to be Ma Jian himself, recalling his experiences in Tibet after fleeing the oppressions of his native China. At other times, we are inside the mind of a Tibetan schoolboy lost in the mountains or of a very young girl facing ritual sex, in public, with a repulsive and ancient priest. The author describes everything, no matter how horrible, with unnerving calmness, whether it’s eating congealed animal blood or almost touching the dried-out, wafer-thin body of a woman hung like a piece of parchment on the wall of a hut.

Fact, fantasy, poetic license? I don’t know, but as the reviewer says at the conclusion,

Obviously, an American reader can hardly be certain that Stick Out Your Tongue offers an accurate portrait of the Tibetan peasantry. Perhaps Ma Jian, like one of our own Southern Gothic writers, has created a fantasy Tibet of incest, depravity and madness. But he himself rightly notes that to idealize any people is to deny them their humanity.

The Discussion: 24 Comments

Robert Thurman, prominent American Buddhist and scholar of Buddhism, once called Tibetans “the baby seals of the human rights movement.”

Ouch.

May 10, 2006 @ 1:59 am | Comment

Tibet certainly is no Shangri-La, but I feel that what Ma Jian has done in his writing is akin to what trendy Han Chinese singers have done with Tibetan music. Hang about in Tibet for a while, pick up the vibes, get a bit of Buddhism and then create a Chinese pastiche of Tibetan culture. In this case, Ma JIan has applied his trademark tragic-comedy bleak vision to Tibetan reality. I loved Red Dust, but that was about his own experiences in his hometown and around Beijing. Stick Out Your Tongue is a bit like Jack Kerouac trying to write the definitive novel about Native American culture.

May 10, 2006 @ 2:22 am | Comment

What Ma Jian has done is worse. Virtually all Chinese buy into the notion of the “Chinese man’s burden” in Tibet, citing human cannibalism as an example of the barbaric customs that were wiped out after “liberation.” This book will be quoted and referred to by the Chinese in future discussions and media stories.

BTW, the Chinese also eat congealed animal blood? I’ve been served the stuff at hotpot restaurants in Qingdao. Koreans eat it, too, in soups to cure a morning hangover.

May 10, 2006 @ 8:24 am | Comment

What Ma Jian has done is worse. Virtually all Chinese buy into the notion of the “Chinese man’s burden” in Tibet, citing human cannibalism as an example of the barbaric customs that were wiped out after “liberation.” This book will be quoted and referred to by the Chinese in future discussions and media stories.

BTW, the Chinese also eat congealed animal blood. I’ve been served the stuff at hotpot restaurants in Qingdao. Koreans eat it, too, in soups to cure a morning hangover.

May 10, 2006 @ 8:25 am | Comment

It’s sad that people do not want to hear what they don’t like. I would say what described in Ma’s book is true, maybe truer than the Tibet in most Westerner’s mind. Commenters here simply don’t want to hear that and dismiss it…

May 10, 2006 @ 2:58 pm | Comment

Frank, it is the Chinese authorities who have re-branded Zhongdian as “Shangri-La”, and who are assiduously promoting Tibet as a mystical land of noble savages. At the same time, internet sites like the excellent Phayul (written by Tibetans for Tibetans) are of course blocked in China. Who did you say dismisses what they don’t want to hear?
You sound like those apartheid era white South Afrikans who told us that we just didn’t understand the blacks like they did, and we didn’t want to see hear about the “real” South Africa.

May 10, 2006 @ 8:22 pm | Comment

Well, Michael, I do think you are more of the apartheid area white South Africans than I am. It is you and many other misled westerners that don’t want economic developments in Tibet.

In my eyes, depriving the chance of economic development for an area in the sake of “cultural perservation” is doing a great disservice to the very people involved. Many politically active overseas Tibetans are exactly doing that.

Needless to say, culture SHOULD to be preserved, especially exquisite culture like the Tibetan’s. But people are not specimens in the museums that should be kept intact for centuries. They need to be allowed to enjoy the modern life, the modern convenience if they want.

YOU cannot make decisions for them, banning developments. Surely they should also be allowed and encouraged to preserve their culture and have a traditional life if they so choose, but they should be made aware of the alternatives, not just brainwashed and blindly follow their own tradition.

BTW, I can access to Phayul. I think it’s a “people’s daily” type website that is as bad as xinhuanet, though admittedly better than epochtimes.

May 10, 2006 @ 11:07 pm | Comment

ooooh! “Economic Development” is what is happening in Tibet! Oh, well, that explains EVERYTHING! As long as we use the magic words,
“economic development”, then that means it’s good.

Just like when Bush uses the word “democracy” to justify invading Iraq, right?

The mere words “economic development” mean nothing in the abstract, just like the word “democracy” means nothing in the abstract. Saying that you’re bringing “economic development” to Tibet is one thing. Actually proving it is quite another.

May 11, 2006 @ 12:01 am | Comment

Ivan,

“Economic development” IS a good thing, as is “democracy”. Yes, it is abstract, but it’s much better than theocracy that forces people in a backward and extremely harsh life.

My point is many people, you included, view economic development in Tibet extremely negatively, selfishly put preserving culture higher than the life of the actual people living there.

For your information, my definition of economic development means higher living standard, better health care, more modern convenience, better transportation means, etc. Do you think the people in Tibet do not entitled to that?!

May 11, 2006 @ 12:34 am | Comment

Sorry if I don’t conform to your preconceived stereotype of a westerner who romanticises Tibet.

I never said anything against the economic development of Tibet – but you seem to have decided in advance that I “view economic development in Tibet extremely negatively…”

If the Zhongdian authorities want to promote tourism by changing their name to Shangri La, good luck to them. But in doing so they are encouraging the same romantic myth of Tibet that you deride as “the Tibet in most westerner’s minds”.

I doubt the Tibet in most Chinese minds is any closer to reality. The Chinese tourists I saw want to pose in Tibetan robes for a photograph, visit a sky burial and buy a souvenir Tibetan drinking skull. They might try one sip of suyou cha as they watch the Zang minority song and dance troupe singing in putonghua about the glorious “Qinzang Gaoyuan”, before retiring for a few whiffs of canned oxygen.

Meanwhile the Tibetans down the road are burning down the abbatoir built by the Chinese businessman who has persuaded the local government to force them to sell all their meat to him at cheap prices.

Yes, it’s sad that people do not want to hear what they don’t like.

May 11, 2006 @ 1:53 am | Comment

Frank, you know nothing about how I “view” “economic development” in Tibet or anywhere else.

All I’ve said here, is that the words “economic development” mean nothing in themselves, but the Chinese are brainwashed to believe that whenever they hear the words “economic development” it means something good.

Sometimes it can simply mean the wholesale destruction of the land, and waste of money, while fake numbers of GDP “growth” are reported by lying Communist officials to make themselves look good.

May 11, 2006 @ 3:06 am | Comment

Might I further add Frank that you have written your original comment without truly grasping the original review. You say:

“I would say what described in Ma’s book is true, maybe truer than the Tibet in most Westerner’s mind. Commenters here simply don’t want to hear that and dismiss it…”

The review says: “Perhaps Ma Jian, like one of our own Southern Gothic writers, has created a fantasy Tibet of incest, depravity and madness. But he himself rightly notes that to idealize any people is to deny them their humanity.”

I reemphasize “[Ma Jian] himself RIGHTLY notes.”

The reviewer agrees that Tibetan society is not the picturebook portrayal that many people make it out to be. Furthermore, nobody who has added a comment here has disputed this conclusion. The closest anyone came to it was Zhuanjia who questions the reliability of Ma Jian as a source.

Furthermore, if you spend enough time on this site, you will see that most of the commentors here don’t buy into the fairytale picture of Tibet.

So your comments strike me as coming for someone who is desperately looking for a soapbox and who, in a brief and giddy moment, believes he has found one In other words, in this case your comments are irrelevent.

May 11, 2006 @ 7:55 am | Comment

Frank, I agree with your intention, but so often I feel that the Chinese Government will defend horrendous decisions by attempting to shift the issue back to the accusers. It happens time and time again, and quite frankly it exasperates many a diplomatic process. I am definitely in favour of bettering the lives of Tibetans, but to say that this is what China is doing is very misleading. China betters the lives of Tibetans as an after-thought, when the real intent is to “ensure societal stability” (make sure people and cultural aspects of minorities that disagree with the government are not given a voice within the system, but are instead oppressed and persecuted), “develop the west” (i.e ship a lot of Han out there to exploit as much as possible) and “modernise” (which has, in my limited experience, always taken on the Han conception of modernisation).

It’s not a question that their lives aren’t materially better. But this is such a Chinese concept – that a better material life is necessarily a better life – and I’m not sure anyone really asked the Tibetans how they wanted to proceed. I’m sure a great many people are grateful for the development they’ve experienced, but it was done in such a brutish, ugly way that I’m not sure that it won’t simply be bad for the Zang minority in the long run. There’s got to be a Chengyu about how it isn’t appropriate to pursue something blindly at the expense of other important things. “Nan2Yuan2Bei3Zhe2” perhaps? This kind of conveys what I want to say.

May 11, 2006 @ 7:58 am | Comment

Ma Jian’s stories seem to be keeping in line with the part-Native American, part-gypsy, and part-scary-dudes-with-knives Tibetan underclass I’ve encountered here in northern China, but since these folks are a non-representative sampling, one imagines Ma Jian’s stories are also selectively bleak. I assume that anyone looking to reinforce anti-Tibetan prejudices would cite his book.

On the other hand, I’ve long been struck by how young Chinese persons have an image of mystical Tibet that’s nearly identical to the Westerner’s image, save for the obvious political issues. I mean, are Chinese propagandists copying Western propagandists, or is it the other way around?

May 11, 2006 @ 8:02 am | Comment

Michael,

As of tourists, probably you are right, but definitely not that extreme. SO WHAT? If you go to Hawaii, you would like to say “aloha” to native Hawaiian people, if you go to an Indian tribe, you may want to wear their traditional clothings, head decorations, etc. What I see is this region can benefit from tourism, bringing in money, jobs and open the eyes of local people.

True that you didn’t confirm that all westerners have romantic myth about Tibet, but that’s not I exactly mean. “Whatever the Chinese government do to Tibet is bad”, you and Ivan confirmed that as your deeply held conviction. Yes, every effort the government made has its down side, even with the best intentions. The Chinese government is particularly bad in this aspect. The difference between us is you view the overall effect for most efforts negative while I consider positive. It’s a judgement call based on predisposed positions.

May 11, 2006 @ 8:11 am | Comment

[i]”The difference between us is you view the overall effect for most efforts negative while I consider positive.”[/i]

Except that that’s not for you but for the Tibetans to judge.

Anyway, back to Ma Jian. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, he’s a writer I admire and I don’t doubt the literary integrity of this particular work (I’ve never read it, though); on the other hand, isn’t this just as much a form of exoticization as the “simple and wise salt-of-the-earth” stereotype? What would we call the Chinese version of Orientalism, anyhow?

May 11, 2006 @ 8:50 am | Comment

Nausicaa, you hit it on the head once again. it is exactly for the Tibetans to judge.

May 11, 2006 @ 8:55 am | Comment

For an intelligent book on the Western romanticization of Tibet, read Donald Lopez’s Prisoners of Shangri-La.
I’ve not read Ma Jian’s book, but it sounds like a nice bit of dehumanization aimed at justifying an ongoing cultural (if not populational) genocide. Or, in Frank’s words, the magic of progress and development.

May 11, 2006 @ 10:13 am | Comment

The irony of all this is that you won’t find Ma Jian’s books on sale in Chinese bookshops. He is virtually unknown in China and writes essentially for the same western audience that is here accused of being reflexly anti-China. His writings are presumably no sexy or patriotic enough for modern Chinese readers. He should write something that portrays contemporary Japanese as savages – that always goes down well in the mainland.

May 11, 2006 @ 5:53 pm | Comment

As I recall the novel was initially published before 89′ when it was trendy to go out and explore the frontiers. The general social vibe at the time was both positively volatile and dynamic against the depressing backdrop. While the story was about something exotic, it sure didn’t shed favorable light on Tibetans and their culture. It caused quite an uproar among minority community in Beijing. I vaguely remember the government even approved a protest. The author was pretty obscure in China not because he was patriotic or not.

May 12, 2006 @ 4:05 pm | Comment

“Ma Jian’s stories seem to be keeping in line with the part-Native American, part-gypsy, and part-scary-dudes-with-knives Tibetan underclass I’ve encountered here in northern China, but since these folks are a non-representative sampling, one imagines Ma Jian’s stories are also selectively bleak. I assume that anyone looking to reinforce anti-Tibetan prejudices would cite his book.”

Michael,

Why don’t you go back to the USA or some other Western nation, and FIRST pick out the LOG from your own eye before telling China what is good or not.

Americans, Germans, etc. also have this “exotic” view of Asians, portraying the men as monkish kung-fu masters and the women as sexy lusty sex sirens. AND don’t tell me Americans have gotten over it. Because MOST Americans haven’t. Look at the media and the movies, and the American internet porn sites. Us Asians are “exotic” in America. FIX that first, and then Chinese will fix ours. But somehow Americans don’t fix it. Many Americans actually defend their view of Asians as “exotic” and think it’s OK.

And you know what? I’m beginning to think it’s OK too. Just lighten up.

All your anti-Chinese rant is quite self-serving.

May 13, 2006 @ 12:25 pm | Comment

OK, but I didn’t write all that stuff you quoted me as saying. That was Matthew. And we already said right at the beginning that westerners have a romantic/exotic view of Tibet. The point we’re trying to make is that Ma Jian is pandering to the same cliches. At least here in the free world we can read both sides of the story. I can read what Rewi Alley and Han Suyin think about old Tibet (ie the Party line) but who in China has ever read Heinrich Harrer (no friend of the imperial British who locked him up) or Spencer Chapman, Hugh Richardson or Charles Bell. All were excellent observers of Tibetan society before it was “peacefully liberated” by the Red Army.

May 14, 2006 @ 2:52 am | Comment

Michael said, “At least here in the free world we can read both sides of the story. I can read what Rewi Alley and Han Suyin think about old Tibet (ie the Party line) but who in China has ever read Heinrich Harrer (no friend of the imperial British who locked him up) or Spencer Chapman, Hugh Richardson or Charles Bell”

BUT Michael,

Who in the “free” Western world ever cares?
Asians are still stereotyped regardless of whose views gets publicized even in a society which supposedly always airs two-sides of the story.

You know, I long given up Western society, so self-righteous and self-serving

Lighten up people. Stereotypes are here to stay. It’s better to be “exotic” than to be a “non-entity.”

May 14, 2006 @ 11:12 pm | Comment

“who in China has ever read Heinrich Harrer ”

i don’t know who read it but i now i saw his books (eng version of course) in the front row of a bookstore in Beijing just a few days ago

May 22, 2006 @ 2:46 am | Comment

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