Wolf Totem
Jiang Rong

Nature, red in tooth and claw.
Rarely has poet Alfred Tennyson's oft-quoted line of verse been depicted with such visceral vividness.
The reader is quickly plunged into the thick of the action with gripping descriptions of calculated attacks by packs of ravenous wolves on hapless gazelles and horses as well as the battle of wits between wolf and man.
This is, on the most accessible level, an old-fashioned adventure story, pulsing with the rhythm of life on the beautiful but harsh Mongolian grassland.
Wolf Totem was a publishing phenomenon when it was released in China in 2004, with over 50,000 copies sold in two weeks. It has also garnered various accolades, including the inaugural Man Asian Literary Prize (2007). It is based on the experiences of Lu Jiamin, who was sent to rural Inner Mongolia in 1967 at the height of the Cultural Revolution in China. Jiang Rong is his pseudonym.
In the book, young man Chen Zhen, who leaves Beijing to work as a shepherd on the Olonbulag grassland, is Lu's alter ego. He develops a fascination with the customs of the nomads and, in particular, with their sacred wolf totem.
Wolves hunt sheep and horses but they are not a scourge to be wiped out as they are part of the intrinsic balance which ensures the grassland's survival. Lu even makes a compelling case for the lupine art of war which, in turn, honed the Mongols into awe-inspiring warriors who carved out the largest contiguous empire in world history.
But the fearsome and intelligent wolves are no match for greed and rifles.
When the Han Chinese sweep in with their sedentary farming lifestyle and weapons, the equation is upset and the price of so-called progress is the destruction of the grassland and of nomadic culture.
Man once again proves himself to be the most dangerous animal.

If you like this, read: My Family And Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
For animal lovers seeking a totally different reading experience, curl up with this uproariously funny and warm-hearted account of the author's life on the Greek island of Corfu in the 1930s.
(ST)