Critics: Wolf Totem distorts Mongolian culture

By Xing Yi (China Daily)

Updated: 2015-03-11

In the novel, wolves are praised by the Mongolians for their teamwork, competitive spirit and for maintaining the ecological equilibrium of the prairie. Through the words of the leader in the Mongolian tribe, the writer suggests that even the troops of Genghis Khan learned their war strategies from how wolf packs hunted.

However, Guo accuses the novel and the movie of misrepresenting the place of the wolf in Mongolian culture and exaggerating its role in the ecology of the grassland.

"Wolves are evil and are regarded as the enemy of Mongolian herdsmen," he asserts.

"I studied at the Mongolian Language Institute in the 1960s and focused on Mongolian history and cultural studies in the Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Science in the 1980s. But I have never seen any written records suggesting that the wolf is a totem of the Mongolian people," Guo tells China Daily.

"The wolves are greedy, selfish, cold and cruel. To promote the spirit of the wolves is to go against humanity."

In another widely circulated review of the movie, Rasidurj, an ethnic Mongolian documentary director, shares Guo's view that the wolf has never been a totem of Mongolian people.

"The novel Wolf Totem should be categorized as a literary work which is filled with the writer's own ideals," Rasidurj wrote. "But I do praise Mr Jiang for raising public awareness of environmental protection of our grassland."

Although there is no direct historical evidence of the worship of wolves as a totem in Mongolian society, there is some evidence people revered wolves in folk customs.