[Reading Notes] When the sacred and mysterious snow leopard becomes a zoo's ornament - "Taming the Sheep"

What exactly is Tibet and what have you experienced? Where are you going? From the standpoint of the regime in exile, the beautiful and simple sacred kingdom of the past has been completely destroyed, and the Han people have brought harm, restraint, pain, and despair. wealth, and year after year proclaims Lhasa to be the happiest city in China. These two completely different sets of statements, one is to return to memory, the other is to subvert the past. In the political arena, they weave their own stories and compete for power to define places.

With the 63rd anniversary of the "Tibetan Rebellion", the government-in-exile seems to have become the norm. People who cannot leave, after the invasion, the Cultural Revolution and other events, are still regarded as unexploded bombs that threaten the regime and are still strictly controlled. Taking the search for snow leopards as the theme, Xu Zhenfu, the author of "Taming the Sheep", leads readers into this country that Taiwan is not so familiar with, including the humanities, history and environment of Tibet. On the surface, it is about travel, but in fact it is also about humanities and nature. Wither and mourn.

Taking the protagonist "I" from Taiwan now, and the fictional Japanese practitioner Udagawa Huihai who went to Tibet to study Buddhism in the 1950s, "Taming the Sheep" is composed of two interlaced story lines. ”, on the one hand it tells about the historical process after Tibet was “liberated”, on the other hand it presents the way of life of Tibetans today, and the various problems they face under the rule of foreign regimes, beliefs, culture and generational education. conflict.

"If there are people outside these days, turn Chairman Mao's face outside; when there is no one, turn the Dalai Lama outside."

The conflict beneath China's 'happiest city'

Portraits of leaders that cannot be publicly displayed, falsified historical stories, herdsmen's lives that are seen as backward and stigmatized, and brainwashing through language education, China attempts to assimilate a group that is essentially different from the Han civilization. And what they are deprived of is not only the culture and the right to speak, but even the environment on which they live has been exploited. However, the herdsmen who cannot leave, just like the domesticated sheep, can only resign and look forward to the realization of the goal called "the happiest city" ahead. At the same time, the stage carefully designed by the official publicity is even more ironic.

In this work classified by Wu Mingyi as "nature-oriented literature", various local animals such as snow leopards, bald eagles, snow sparrows, blue sheep, and pikas appear. Among them, blue sheep and snow leopards at both ends of the food chain are not only the aforementioned sheep Even the snow leopard may be a metaphor for Tibetans and their culture, from the original sacred and inviolable, to the ability to die and even be domesticated. And the protagonist can't be found after stepping through the iron shoes, and finally sees a lost fake in the zoo, which is the best portrayal of Tibetan culture.

For example, the narrative of Bicycle Theft is made up of two interlaced story lines.

Although the brushwork of the interlaced virtual and real is similar, compared with Wu Mingyi's works, Xu Zhenfu's writing seems to be less mournful and skillful, but the same gentle tone, supplemented by simple words, makes his works show another charm. In fact, before reading, the author has seen many people recommend it highly, including the introduction in "Women's Mountains and Seas". After the actual reading, I also deeply understand why "The Taming of the Sheep" can be loved by so many people. with appreciation.

"Fiction has no boundaries, I want to put a lot of things beyond my own experience into it." - Xu Zhenfu

When snow leopards become zoo ornaments

"Taming the Sheep", which was completed with the idea of "wanting to write about everything in Tibet", has achieved its mission to a certain extent, as if taking readers to a solid lesson in Tibetan humanities, history, and geography. , biology and political analysis, although mixed with fictional content, but also pass on the author's actual experience to readers who may not be able to set foot on this land in the near future. With the evolution of time, the future Tibetan culture may only exist in different places with the government in exile, and on the land of Tibet, the tradition will no longer exist. The Taming of the Sheep itself is a precious record left in this irreversible process.

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