Wolf Totem: writer blasts hit film over 'fake' Mongolian culture
Guo Xuebo claims movie, released at Lunar New Year and showing folk traditions, rituals and lives of the ethnic Mongolian nomads and their bond with wolves, distorts the truth
An ethnic Mongolian writer has criticised one of the hit films of the Lunar New Year holiday, claiming the movie distorts the truth and is based on a "fake culture forced on Mongolians".
Wolf Totem, based on a 2004 semi-autobiographical Chinese novel of the same name by Zhang Rong - the pen name of Lu Jiamin - describes the experiences of a young Han student, played by Feng Shaofeng, who is sent to teach in the countryside of Inner Mongolia in 1967, during the Cultural Revolution.
As he spends time with shepherds in the region, Feng starts to learn about the folk traditions, rituals and lives of the Mongolian nomads, as well as their bond with the wolf, a species threatened by officials.
The book also praises the teamwork and competitive spirit of the Mongolians, as well as their freedom, independence and respect for nature.
But novelist Guo Xuebo, a member of the China Writers Association, said on his microblog last Wednesday that wolves had never been an emblematic animal for Mongolians.
"Wolves have never been the totem of Mongolians, and there's no record of any wolf totem in Mongolian literature or history," Guo wrote.