About this ebook
Like a traveller pausing before stunning scenery – the Mongolian grasslands, the yellow-earth plateaus, the Yellow River’s mighty gorges – he reflects on the intangible cultures that have made the Han, the Hui, the Mongolian and the Uyghur peoples who they are, and contemplates on their language usages, socio-political dilemmas, philosophical traditions, beliefs and biases and their religious aspirations.
These essays show how deeply Zhang Chengzhi understands modern China’s painful evolution through war and revolution and how deeply he is attached to his Hui–Muslim roots. They also show his broad knowledge of cultures transmitted across Eurasia, manifested in the muqam, the flamenco, and the Madâyah. Above all, by addressing the issue about Japan and by denouncing unrighteous hegemonism and voicing sympathy for the weak and oppressed in occupied Palestine, they reflect his intellectual integrity which Chinese readers highly value.
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About the author
Zhang Chengzhi (張承志), a Chinese writer living in Beijing, has authored nine novels and over twelve anthologies of literary essays.
Diana Yue (余丹) is an honorary associate professor in the School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong. Her translation works include Xi Xi’s Flying Carpet: A Tale of Fertillia (Hong Kong University Press, 2000) and Wei Liangfu, Wang Jide, Shen Chongsui, Xu Dachun: Theories of Kun Qu Singing (Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 2005).
