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Stick Out Your Tongue
Stick Out Your Tongue: Stories | Ma Jian
7 posts | 5 read | 8 to read
Tibet is a land lost in the glare of politics and romanticism, and Ma Jian set out to discover its truths. Stick Out Your Tongue is a revelation: a startlingly vivid portrait of Tibet, both enchanting and horrifying, beautiful and violent, seductive and perverse. In this profound work of fiction, a Chinese writer whose marriage has fallen apart travels to Tibet. As he wanders through the countryside, he witnesses the sky burial of a Tibetan woman who died during childbirth, shares a tent with a nomad who is walking to a sacred mountain to seek forgiveness for sleeping with his daughter, meets a silversmith who has hung the wind-dried corpse of his lover on the wall of his cave, and hears the story of a young female incarnate lama who died during a Buddhist initiation rite. In the thin air of the high plateau, the divide between dream and reality becomes confused. When this book was published in Chinese in 1997, the government accused Ma Jian of "harming the fraternal solidarity of the national minorities," and a blanket ban was placed on his future work. With its publication in English, including a new afterword by the author that sets the book in its personal and political context, readers get a rare glimpse of Tibet through Chinese eyesand a window on the imagination of one of China's foremost writers.
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Lauredhel
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vlwelser 💕😍 9mo
Jari-chan ❤️🐶 9mo
ElizaMarie Muah!!!! 9mo
dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 9mo
68 likes4 comments
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BarbaraBB
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#BookReport 05/21

Three books this week. I enjoyed Deacon and the tagged one. The Group was an okay read yet I do look forward to tomorrow‘s #bestbuddyread (those girls hardly seem best buddies though!)

I‘d like to spend much more time reading than I‘m doing at the moment!

TrishB Good week, but I hear you 👍🏻 4y
BarbaraBB I hear you on mentioning Groundhog Day somewhere on Litsy. It really is. It‘s about to start snowing in Holland and I‘m as excited as a child. Really! What kind of life is this?! 🤦🏻‍♀️ @TrishB (edited) 4y
Kalalalatja I feel you, SOMETHING needs to happen, soon 🤞 4y
BarbaraBB @Kalalalatja Right?! I‘m planning trips I probably won‘t make any time soon. And I read... to keep my mind away from this daily reality. You are still going to work each day? Must be a welcome change of scenery 😉 4y
Kalalalatja I am, and I‘m so glad I can go to work! My bf is going a bit nuts working from home 😅 I can‘t wait for the time when we can travel again! ✈️ 4y
77 likes5 comments
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BarbaraBB
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Pickpick

“In #Tibet, religion permeates every grain of earth. Man and God are inseparable, myth and legend are intertwined. People there have endured sufferings that are beyond the comprehension of the modern world. “

This quote describes perfectly what this little book is about. I can smell the earth, see the mountains and feel the harshness of living on the Tibetan plateau. A banned book worth reading.

#ReadingAsia2021

Librarybelle Sounds interesting; I‘m intrigued that it is banned. I don‘t know much about it, but read the other comments from Littens over the last few years. 4y
Cinfhen This sounds amazing and I love the cover 😍 #stacked 4y
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KarenUK Stacked too. 👍📚 4y
BarbaraBB @Librarybelle Banned in China that is! But it‘s a good read, I learned a lot just by reading these stories. 4y
Suet624 One of my good friends is Tibetan and I work with a number of Tibetans at City Hall. They are the kindest people I know. 4y
79 likes6 stack adds6 comments
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rachaich
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Mehso-so

Finished this early this morning due to stormy weather and too many things in my head 😑😐🤔
Can't say I enjoyed it but I am relieved I've read it now.

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rachaich
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So I got this when it was first published but could never get past the first chapter as it played on my mind.
I'm trying again!
Sometimes I find that I read things totally differently after years have sped by. Sometimes not!

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charl08
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A vulgar, obscene book...
Jian goes on to explain that in describing the book as pornographic, the state inadvertently promoted it to readers who would never ordinarily have read it!

25 likes1 stack add
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LadyZircon
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Mehso-so

You know, it‘s a vulgar picture of very raw humanity to the preconceived notions of what the Tibetan people are thought to be. At some points though it was a bit much to read, focusing on the bases of human nature to the point it got old really quick. It was ok, not something to praise like everyone thinks. Read at your own discretion.