Red Poppies: An Epic Saga of Old Tibet
Set in the decade before the 1951 ‘liberation’ of Tibet, the novel follows the Maichi family of Tibetan chieftains as narrated by the youngest, often called the 'idiot' son, portraying a feudal, romantic, and turbulent borderland society facing historical change.
Work Information
Red Poppies traces the tension between Tibetan society and Feudal power structures.
Set in the decade before the 1951 ‘liberation’ of Tibet, the novel follows the Maichi family of Tibetan chieftains as narrated by the youngest, often called the 'idiot' son, portraying a feudal, romantic, and turbulent borderland society facing historical change.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Methuen Publishing Ltd
- Published
- 2003-08-28
- Pages
- 400 pages
- Language
- 英語
- ISBN-13
- 9780413771834
- ISBN-10
- 0413771830
- Price
- 1019 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/Literary
In the 1930s a wealthy Tibetan family, the Maiqis, make a bargain with an emissary of the Chinese Nationalists. In exchange for military support, they are to plant fields of poppies, valuable in the heroin trade - a deal that enriches the Maiqis' lavish lifestyle and earns them dangerous enmity.
Reviews
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Not a book for everyone, but essential for anyone with an interest in Tibet. Alai, the author, is a half-Tibetan from Kham, the Tibetan-majority region of western Szechuan Province, and this novel is about life in that region early in the 1900's. Kham was rarely controlled by any government in Lhasa but, instead, governed by about twenty local bosses each with a feudal territory and pretty much absolute authority. The main issues of the day were attempts by the ruling Geluk sect of Buddhists in Tibet proper to spread their religion in Kham, where the Nyingma sect prevailed, and the impact of opium poppy farming in the area. A really good description of these and other factors in a very readable novel.
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This book is so underrated in the international scene and deserves more&wider recognition. Fascinating storytelling, a unique perspective of Tibetan culture and its sophisticated linked to the Chinese.
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Some books take me months to read. Others take me days. Red Poppies, which is 433 pages long, was a 3-day book. I just couldn't put it down. Originally written in Chinese in 1998, this book changed my perception of the little I know about Tibet. I've always thought about Tibetans as peaceful people who were victimized by the cruel Chinese. But this book is written from a Chinese perspective and highlights the routine brutality of the Tibetan chieftains who ruled Tibet at the beginning of the 20th century. It's also a really good story, and there are some parts of it that are truly comic and made me laugh out loud. Narrated by a chieftain's son, who is considered an "idiot", we meet some wildly individualistic characters, including slaves, serfs and warlords. We are there for the multiple seductions, romances, triumphs, revenges, murders, cruelties and executions. There's also a bit about the opium poppies that are planted as a cash crop which is profitable but creates a famine because there is no wheat being planted. And there's also a beautiful woman whose actions are truly ugly. It's all there in this very readable epic that moves as fast as the speed of light. I loved the book and didn't want it to end. And think it would probably be a great film.
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good read
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I was unable to put it down. Of course it will remind you of another modern classic with a similar framework, but this has recent events as its background enlightening to a Western eye. Human sensibilities are universal and here they ring true.c It's interesting to experience a history through a voice doubtful of its own competence. Events have to define the character and instill your sympathy, and here it works. I'd go much further than the faint praise offered in the quoted reviews and call it a very affecting book.