Dear readers,
I have a new publication out, a translation with introduction of a performance of T language crosstalk. Unfortunately, I am not allowed (journal's rules) to post it on my website, so you won't get it here, but you should try to find a way to check it out if you're interested. It's fairly basic. If you want to see the real ideas, you need to try and find it through your university's library. Cheers (as worldly expat Americans often write), Tim
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So, I was recently meeting with an acquaintance who threw out, in the middle of a conversation, that they really dislike the Wylie system for Romanizing T language and suggesting that it not be used in publication. Now, if you know me, you know quite well that I'm a huge advocate of the Wylie system (to the point where I wonder if this acquaintance was just trying to tick me off). I told this person that I categorically disagreed with EVERYTHING they said. So this week, in lieu of a post based more in cultural differences, or little minutiae I've gleaned, I'm going to provide a defense of the Wylie system. As a warning, I'm not a linguist. Just a pragmatist.
Firstly, what is Wylie? Wylie is a transcription based on the written conventions of the classical T language. It is named after its creator Turrell V. Wylie. The are some notable cons to the Wylie transcription system. Most obviously the clusters of consonants that lead non-specialists to look on the transcribed terms in stunned disbelief. It's this drawback that leads my adviser to tell me (after every single presentation) that the person who devised the system ought to be disemboweled by three-headed dogs on anabolic steroids with demon-monkeys on their back (a moot point since Wylie has already passed). Well, Ok, that may be an exaggeration, but his reaction is similarly visceral. And I understand this reaction. When faced with terms like bsngags, I'll be the first to admit that this transcription system sometimes looks ri-gosh-darn-diculous. But the pros, in my opinion outweigh the cons: 1) It gives specialists a common transcription system regardless of regional focus. I mean, what are your alternatives? Should you Romanize everything based on pronunciations? Let's examine this option, for a moment. Which pronunciation will you use? I'm studying in the A mdo region (with a group of dialects that fit under this same name), so maybe it makes sense to Romanize using some form of system based on A mdo dialect pronunciation. But few foreigners know the A mdo dialect well enough to figure out what I'm talking about. Even T-ologists in the states mostly only speak the central dialect. So can I use an A mdo based transcription? Not really. Nor will it make things much easier. The Wylie bsngags will fit in Amdo as hngag. The Wylie rten 'brel would become shtemdree. That's really no better than Wylie. So no A mdo-based romanization. What about other phonetic transcription systems? It seems ridiculous to me to use a transcription system based on central dialect for a project about A mdo. This, however, seems to be the system employed by a number of publishers so let's talk about it. Well, one problem is that I don't exactly speak the central dialect. I get turned around when I read books that use this romanization. It doesn't make sense to me. In fact, all that it really accomplishes is to make the foreign non-specialist feel a little bit more comfortable (but there are so many diacritics that it won't even really help native English speakers much). It also effectively excludes Anglophone T readers from A mdo and Khams from fully joining in the academic conversation, thus closing off one fruitful avenue for continuing discussion. Perhaps this isn't the most compelling argument. Some may suggest that your audience should be non-specialist academics... 2) Ok, well. Why Wylie then. Doesn't it exclude non-specialists? First of all, English is not written the same way it sounds. Nor is Chinese pinyin, really. These are systems, with standard rules that govern the correct spelling of certain terminologies, characters, and/or (kind of) sounds. Is it really necessary to exclude Wylie because it isn't written the way it sounds but rather the way in which T is written? I'm going to go ahead and say no. The Wylie system makes sense. It is understandable to T people, and easy to teach. It doesn't privilege any one dialect over others, and it allows people within the same discipline a consistent way of writing single terms. This in and of itself is enough reason to support the use of Wylie. But some may still object. Doesn't it keep people from outside the discipline from trying to understand your work and thus keep your from engaging in a larger theoretical dialogue? This is the most common question I get, and I think it absolute malarkey. Here's my take: when you read something about some small ethnic group with a weird language like the Nahuatl (let alone some language with clicks and all that), is the ability to pronounce certain terms really that important to your understanding of the article? I'm going to say, "no." In fact, it really has nothing to do with it. I, for one, just sort of associate a basic grouping of letters that I figure insiders can pronounce (but I can't) with a certain concept. Done. In the end, I wonder if people aren't just trying to blame Wylie for what is in reality a more general issue with the T-ological discipline. My understanding is that, historically, T-ology has had trouble impacting other fields because of a lack of engagement in precisely those larger theoretical issues that determine the value and quality of research in modern academia. When T-ologists then look at older bodies of work from their discipline, it seems like they pinpoint Wylie as a problem (perhaps THE problem) holding the discipline back. This is the easy answer, and (for me) the easy answer is rarely the one you need. The more difficult answer is that other fields have forced their grad students to engage in different theoretical issues and to look at other scholars like Goffman, Bakhtin, Foucault, DeCerteau, Deleuze and Guattari, and Lefebvre for inspiration. Avoiding Wylie won't solve this problem. For me, the correct answer is to continue using Wylie in order to facilitate a larger discipline-wide dialogue, but change the education in programs to include more theoretical discussions in order to also encourage dialogue with other disciplines. P.S.: It is also perhaps worth noting that some people might argue that a central dialect-based romanization system was adopted by T groups in D-town (an area south of the TAR) and that all T people voted on and agreed to use it. To that I say (sarcastically): I wish somebody had told the T people here. They seem strangely unaware that they voted to adopt central dialect romanizations. That's just my humble .02 It happened. Finally. I met with the main guy for my diss. Progress, thy name is Manla [Sman bla].
My wife's grandmother's aunt (complicated, I know) passed away this week in her mid 90s. Each of the two times I have been to Yushu, she has felt like a constant amidst so much change. A tiny wrinkled constantly praying and laughing woman whose life spanned the entirety of the Ma Bufang (republican), Maoist, and Reform eras on the plateau. She lived as a farmer and a nomad, completed pilgrimages, and saw five generations of Khams pas on the plateau.
My wife had been interviewing her to write an oral history of this woman. Now she can gather no new information. In fact, when she started writing, all of her three main informants were alive and well. Now, all three have passed within a single month. As they say here after mentioning a deceased person: om mani padme I know that two posts in one day. Don't have a heart attack. It may seem little excessive, but things happen when they happen…
There have been some unusually disturbing images circulating on Weixin (WeChat) recently. There are always images (particularly when you have a lot of T friends) of slaughtered animals and pollution and the like. They're gross, but I'm almost desensitized to it all at this point. Or I thought I was. Then these images came up (and I am told that they are not doctored): they are of people in Guangdong eating babies. I kid you not. I wish I was joking. Human babies. Eaten by people in Guangdong. Literally. I won't post them. I don't ever think I'll be able to burn the image out of my mind. It's horrifying. If you are a glutton for punishment, you can look them up yourself, but I won't help you. It was suggested to me that this may have been common practice in the villages long ago, but that now it's a nouveau riche thing. I weep for humanity. If there are any grad students out there looking for a dissertation topic, or an article to write, I'll throw this one out there (though i only promise it will be good for another five years, after that I might try to do it myself)…
Firstly, let's look at a couple of situations: 1) I was speaking with a relative recently about tradition and the policing of public behavior in two very different areas of the plateau: Yushu and Rebgong. Focusing more specifically on Rebgong (with Yushu sort of being seen as the unspoken opposite of everything mentioned for Rebgong) The relative mentioned having watched the klu rol festival in Rebgong a year or so ago and seen a woman push her son into the middle of the dancing space (where the trance medium was already in full trance). The trance medium then beat the boy. When asked, villagers said that the trance medium had beaten the boy for dying his hair. 2) I spoke with someone else who is (sort of) from a nomadic part of Rebgong. He mentioned riding home from school in Xining one time, and in his full car, they decided to make a pact: no speaking Chinese loan words (a hot button topic on the plateau these days). Anyone who did make such a slip had to put one RMB in a communal jar. When asked where these ideas came from, this friend immediately stated that it was a combination of the messages in comedic dialogues and the teachings of important clergy members. In this case, the policing and enforcing of such ideas are, however, down to common folk. 3) Sub-village also remain very strong in the Rebgong area, and there is a great deal that could be said on this. There are 'tsho ba, frequently labelled 'tribes' or 'clans,' but also others (I'm still hazy myself). Each of these comes with its own obligations (often in the form of aid to other members of your group at certain times or in thinking about what other members of that group will say or do if you perform a certain action). These three are just a few examples. I could go on, but I don't want to over-burden you, dear reader. I also should point out that I have not, myself engaged in serious fieldwork on the topic. But through extensive observations, I feel like these three examples are instructive and indicative of wider ideas. When combined with a more general experience of also recognizing the important role of teachers, cultural producers (in media work, particularly) and other religious figures, the above-mentioned examples give a good starting point for inquiries into the nature of tradition, culture, and the preservation of those two in A mdo (at the very least Reb gong, but I think it goes further than that). If one were to dust-off Benno Weiner's (2012) discussion of a "syncretic nexus of authority" in pre-Liberation Amdo, and give it a fancy new paint job a notion of a "syncretic nexus of cultural authority" might be useful in understanding the machinations of local, regional, and ethnic views on culture. One sees in the examples above village-level and sub-village level groupings, Buddhist and folk religious clergy, cultural producers, and uneducated individuals all working together, but in different capacities and with different kinds of cultural authority to preserve certain kinds of traditions and cultural knowledge. As the great "Pooh" (nickname, not Winnie) used to say: I'm not saying'; I'm just saying'. A debate has been raging recently (over the last year or so) in the T blogosphere* about the recently re-visited Dge bcu 'Ten Virtues.' It's an interesting debate with origins that may lie in the theoretical or dogmatic realms, but that has real world consequences and deserves attention from Western China watchers (meaning both Westerners who watch China, and watchers of Western China)It is also a situation whose gravity deserves something more serious than my usual sarcastic levity. Firstly, the ten virtues as originally formulated:
The Ten Virtues Until recently, the term Dge ba bcu, referred to the Ten virtues of traditional Buddhist philosophy, which are themselves each the opposite of a separate list of ten non-virtues. The ten virtues are: 1) Not to take a life 2)Not to take what is not given 3)Avoid sexual misconduct 4)Not to deceive 5)Avoid slander of others 6)Avoid harsh words 7)Avoid empty speech 8)Avoid greedy thoughts 9)Do not be malicious 10)Avoid the wrong view These 10 are then divided into three groups: based on body (1-3), speech (4-7), and mind (8-10). One might tentatively suggest that these are akin to a Buddhist version of the ten commandments. Of course, it would be foolish to assume that people actually followed each of these to the letter in the daily lives, especially given all that is known about life on the plateau (I feel fairly confident that just about every one of these ten is broken on a regular basis). But, to borrow a turn of phrase from Pirates of the Caribbean, "they're more like guidelines than rules." The New Ten Virtues In response to new conditions of life on the Tbtn plateau, a bla ma based out of Gser rta (Ch: seda 色达) monastery in a county of the same name modernized the original ten to fit with modern-day life. Among these, the 1, 2, and 4 parallel the first three of the original ten. The others, however, go further afield. Let's take a look at the new (and possibly improved) ten virtues: 1) do not butcher and sell meat 2) do not steal and rob 3) do not fight with weapons 4) do not prostitute one’s body 5) do not sell guns and opium 6) do not smoke opium or cigarettes 7) do not drink alcohol 8) do not gamble 9) do not hunt, and 10) do not wear skins and the fur of animals. It's not that there's anything wrong with these ten. Some Tbtn bloggers/public intellectuals do take issue with these, but perhaps the focus is more a result of a tension caused by a tradition of rhetorical excess in written and spoken Tbtn debates, and fundamentalism among a number of lower-level clerics who take the terms of these debates quite literally. Zealots sometimes take these new ten virtues so literally, that they refuse to perform rites for people who have done something as (relatively) trivial as selling meat to be butchered. The Debate In Tbt's current moral, socio-cultural climate, these ten new virtues have, for a number of the more zealous religious figures been taken literally. The debate, which has been raging for the last year, centers on the notion of whether or not some of these are actually good for people on the plateau, and centers primarily on the first of these: the blogger 'Jam dbyangs skyid, writing under the sobriquet of Min drug, is perhaps most outspoken in directing her opprobrium against the new ten virtues.** Few public intellectuals would disagree with 2-6 or 8-10. Drinking remains widespread, but the intellectual circle seems willing to recognize that excessive drinking is detrimental to the development of the Tbtn ethnic group. Nonetheless, it seems that people have difficult accepting the notion that herders should not butcher or sell animals for their meat. The high plateau's pastoralist populations make their living off of animals. It seems a bit rich to ask them not to sell the meat but live entirely off of by-products. Public intellectual outrage primarily seems to be directed at how this one issue is interpreted, with people being ostracized, and denied ritual services due to their sale of animals for livestock. Min drug in particular has been very outspoken on this topic, and found much criticism directed her way as a result. Time will only tell where this debate will lead, but it's an interesting keep your eyes on. If I find the time, i'll report more about this still-unfolding debate. I'm still learning about it myself, but I thought it would be good to put this out there while I have a spare moment. Now it's back to the "real" work. If you have any questions or thoughts about this, you can feel free to leave a comment to this post, or contact me directly. *I'm blogging about blogs. It's so "meta-" **If you wish to find an English translation of Min drug's most recent post on the topic, check out this link I've recently been trying to focus more on my dissertation at the expense of my regular posting. My apologies, but I hope you'll understand that I really have to write this sucker. There are a ton of tantalizing jobs out there right now for which I am unable to apply. I'm afraid if I don't write it soon there will be none when I eventually do finish. 1) Xinhua, C's news service announced that reconstruction has been completed in Yushu. I myself am skeptical. That would represent some serious steps forward in the last four months. It's not that C is incapable of making such giant leaps, it's more that things were still so far from complete when I was there last, that I have trouble believing that reconstruction really is complete already. I'll go back next summer (it's too cold now) and update you. 2) Here's a little saying from Khams that I learned the other day: ja ma gi la pa tsei ma (ja ma gi lag pa tsha ma). The saying itself is fun, though not particularly illuminating: "the cook's hands don't get hot." But there's a fin little grammar point worthy of mention. At least in Skye dgu (Jyegu,Jjiegu, choose whichever Romanization makes you most comfortable) the dialect (known as ga skad, pronounced gaw kay where the /k/ is an unaspirated and voiceless consonant) removes auxiliaries for the negatives of general and generalizable situations. This is really interesting to me. Similarly, if you want to ask someone if something is far away you may ask thag ring e 'dug (pronounced something like taw rain e doh… for that last bit, think about Homer Simpson's famous D'oh!). If the place is close, your respondent might say thag ma. That's almost like saying "it's not a distance" I think that's neat. 3) WeChat is a really interesting space in which to examine the diffusion of ideas within the Tbtn cultural realm. More on this in the future perhaps. 4) If you aren't on the AAS-Tib. list, OR looking at my WeChat, AND interested in downloading parts of Hor gtsang 'Jigs med's Mdo smad lo rgyus chen mo "A Big/Great History of History in A mdo," check out the following website: http://sangdhor.com/blog_c.asp?id=12669&a=nome That's all for now. As worldly expats are apt to say: Ch |
About TimAs you can see elsewhere on this webpage, I conduct research on ethnic minorities in western China. This blog offers semi-academic musings on the minutiae of daily life out here--the sort of information otherwise destined for footnotes. Categories |