The Reconfiguration of Nature and Minzu in Chinese Eco‑Literature

This chapter discusses the relationship between nature and minzu, that is, ethnicity and nationality, in the context of contemporary Chinese eco-ethno literature. Since the late 1990s, ecocritical scholars have paid increasing attention to issues of ethnicity and nationality, raising awareness of different forms of environmental racism in relation to imperialism and capitalism. Chinese literature attends to the relationship between nature and minzu in particular ways that need to be differentiated from other contexts of Euro-American empire and post-colonies, because minzu in the Chinese context has a distinct historical development, political agenda and cultural connotations. This chapter contrasts two contemporary award-winning novels from China, namely, Jiang Rong’s Lang Tuteng/Wolf Totem (2004) and Alai’s three-volume Kong Shan: Jicun Chuanshuo/Hollow Mountain: A Story from a Mountainside Tibetan Village (2005, 2007, 2009), and investigates the differing ways in which the eco-ethno politics of these texts represent the shaping and reshaping of human-nature relations during the socialist and post-socialist eras and in dialogue with China’s effort to function as a multi-ethnic modern nation.