Red Poppies
| Red Poppies | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 尘埃落定 | ||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 塵埃落定 | ||||||
| |||||||
Red Poppies (Chinese: 尘埃落定) is a 1998 Chinese-language novel by the Tibetan Chinese writer Alai, whose theme is based on the Tibetan custom and traditions. The novel consists of 12 chapters with a total of 481,000 Chinese characters. It won the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2000.[1]
Summary
[edit]Set in Ngawa, Sichuan, the novel chronicles the stories of a Tibetan Tusi and his family from the 1920s to 1949, which gives a general introduction to the economic development in Ngawa, the territorial disputes among Tibetan chieftains, and the fights for throne succession.
Main characters
[edit]Family of Tusi Maiqi
[edit]- The first-person narrator: considered as an 'idiot', the second son of Tusi Maiqi, mother is a Han Chinese
- Tusi Maiqi: father of the first-person narrator
- Mother: the second wife of Tusi Maiqi, a Han Chinese woman as a gift given to Maiqi by a merchant trading furs and herbs
- Brother: the eldest son of Tusi Maiqi, son of Maiqi's first wife, considered as the successor of Tusi Maiqi
- Sangji Zhuoma: maid of the first-person narrator
- The lame butler
- Weng Bo Yi Xi: Lama of Gelug
- Suo Lang Ze Lang: attendant of the first-person narrator
- Yang Zong: used to be the woman of the chieftain Zhazha, belongs to Tusi Maiqi after Zhazha's death
- Lama Menba
- Sister: half-blooded, shares the same father with the narrator, lives in London
- Uncle: Tusi Maiqi's younger brother, trades in India
- The silversmith: later marries Sangji Zhuoma
Other characters
[edit]- Special commissioner Huang: an official of the national government
- Tusi Ronggong: a female Tusi
- Tana: the beautiful daughter of Tusi Ronggong
- Tusi Laxueba
- Tusi Wangbo
Reception
[edit]Comments by the selection committee of the Mao Dun Literature Prize: "The novel narrates from a unique viewpoint, with a rich connotation of Tibetan culture. A slight of fantasy enhances the artistic expression. The writing style is light, charming and poetic".[2]
Adaptations
[edit]- TV series: a television adaptation of Red Poppies was first shown in 2003.[3]
- Dance drama: Red Poppies was adapted into a dance drama by Hong Kong Dance Company in 2006.
References
[edit]- ^ "茅盾文学奖"尘埃落定"(Red Poppies won the Mao Dun Literature Prize)". china.com.cn.
- ^ "论《尘埃落定》的象征意蕴 (The symbolical implication of Red Poppies)". www.xzbu.com. 11 May 2012. Archived from the original on 22 March 2017.
- ^ "成都电视台拿到《尘埃落定》全国首播权". Archived from the original on 2005-11-07. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
Further reading
[edit]- Li, Huimin (2016-03-23). 《狼圖騰》、《塵埃落定》英譯研究: 從互文性角度分析兩部以中國少數民族邊地為背景的中文小說英譯 [A Study of Wolf Totem and Red Poppies: An Intertextual Analysis of English Translations of Two Chinese Novels Set in China’s Ethnic Minority Regions] (PDF) (Thesis) (in Traditional Chinese). Hong Kong Baptist University. - Abstract in English