Replaying the Film “Serf” Won’t Brainwash Anyone! By Woeser

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost by Woeser written on March 30, 2011 for the Tibetan service of Radio Free Asia and posted on her blog on April 10, 2011.

The Chinese government proclaimed in January 2009 that a festival called "Serf Liberation Day" was to be celebrated in Tibet on March 28 every year to commemorate the "liberation" of Tibetans by the People's Liberation Army. Woeser takes this festival as her starting point and in particular the replaying of the 1963 propaganda film "Serf" on Tibetan TV. Amongst Tibetans, the film is more commonly called "Jampa", the name of the protagonist.

There is no English version of the film "Serf" but the British Film Institute's Movie and TV database has some details about it.  For those who understand Chinese, the film can be watched in its entirety online on various Chinese video websites, including Youku. 

The essay that Woeser wrote as a contribution to "Like Gold That Fears No Fire" is available for free download (pdf file) from: http://www.savetibet.org/files/documents/Like%20Gold.pdf Finally, the self-immolation by the young monk that Woeser refers to at the end of the article, Phuntsog, is the sad incident in Ngaba of March 16, 2011.

Film poster for "Serf". Produced by August First Studio in 1963. Screenwriter: Huang Zongjiang, Director: Li Jun, Photography: Wei Lin, Lead Actors: Wangdu, Pema Yangchen etc

When the CCP propaganda film “Serf” pompously reappeared on Tibetan TV during the “Serf Liberation Day” celebrations, I felt like I was taken back to my childhood during which I had been forcefully brainwashed by the “red devil”. Indeed, I can only use “red devil” to describe this film and its content: for decades, the self-acclaimed “liberators” and “great benefactors” have in fact slowly swallowed up the entire Tibetan region. Deep hatred made me get up and leave; even though for a writer, this would have been an opportunity to study how those in power are rewriting history, but the harm I have experienced over the years made it impossible for me to endure these blatant lies.

In 2009, the International Campaign for Tibet published a collection of writings by Tibetan writers titled “Like Gold that Fears No Fire: New Writing from Tibet”. The genres ranged from poems, essays, and diary entries to critical art, and commentaries. The central theme is the protests that swept across Tibet in March 2008, but it also features writings about Tibetans being arrested, sentenced and persecuted. In my contribution to the volume I wrote: "After half a century of mandatory brainwashing and education is not that the monasteries have all been destroyed, but that their memories have been erased or altered. Our duty now is to search for, recover and then amend our memories, and even to re-produce our history and reality."

We are deeply worried because looking at the stories about Tibet told by the government discourse and the authoritative system all “introduce” and bend Tibet in a way that it fits with their requirements to then be able to eternally control Tibet. And as for the erasure and transformation of history, the real truth is being covered up, the terror is being concealed, Tibetans have no choice but to remain quiet. The film “Serf”, which represents one method of brainwashing, revered as a “revolutionary classic”, was the first film engaging in the rewriting of Tibetan history.

It not only had a clear and imperceptible influence over later Chinese literary and art works dealing with Tibet, it also profoundly distorted the knowledge about Tibet of several generations of Chinese. But in actual fact, the “narrative” of this film is totally inept. For ideological reasons, it demonises and executes a kind of discriminative “portrayal” of Tibet, Tibetan people and especially of Tibetan religion and culture, whose aim it naturally is to gain justification and rationalise imperialistic power. It attempts to tell people in the form of stories that Tibetan people born into a backwards and uncivilised Tibet, were not happy, and had they not been rescued by the "People's Liberation Army" sent by Chairman Mao, there would not have been any way out.

However, “Serf” is by no means a real film, it just used cinematic methods to conform to the militant and political imperialist forces and ideologies of the time and also to the multi-faceted imperialist agenda of today. Imperialist ideology is important, it is the spiritual weapon to put colonial-style conquering into practice. The CCP’s definition of Tibetan society is “semi-feudal, semi-serf society”, it calls all Tibetans “serfs”, vilifies them on all levels of society, and it summarises Tibetan environment as extremely poor and barren; all this gives the beautiful “rescue” propaganda every justification and makes it appear totally different from former invaders. What is rather ironic, however, is that those actors playing the serfs who were “liberated”, have today become Tibetan Buddhists, which the film so vehemently attacks.

The film “Serf” is in fact just another gun tightly held in the hands of the invaders, only that this gun is already outdated today. As someone who grew up under the influence of “Serf” propaganda, I tweeted that “they are showing the ‘revolutionary film’ ‘Serf’ on Tibetan TV”, and a Twitter friend replied saying: “it is a typical film brainwashing countless stupid pigs, and I also used to be one of them...” Of course, the propaganda by the “red devil” completely fails. No matter how many times they replay “Serf”, it will never explain why in 2008, thousands upon thousands of later generations of the so-called liberated “serfs” took to the streets to raise their voices in protest; it explains even less why not long ago the young monk Phuntsog tried to express his desperate protest by publicly self-immolating.

Beijing, March 30, 2011

A Tibetan Blogger Asks: "Can I Call 110?"

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated an anonymous blogpost titled "Can I Call 110" that was posted on February 28, 2011 on a Tibetan website Rangdrol.Net.

Rangdrol.Net is a relatively new Tibetan language website and is based in Xining, provincial capital of Qinghai Province. Interestingly it carries the same name as Dhondup Gyal's penname and, as we wrote before on High Peaks Pure Earth, Rangdrol means "self-liberated".

This bold blogpost describes the situation that Tibetans find themselves in today and cites, even though supposedly hypothetically, several concrete examples of injustice and inequality. The phone number for the police in China is 110 (Ch: yao-yao-ling) and is equivalent to 911 in USA or 999 in UK. A subtext to the blogpost is the general impression amongst Tibetans is that the police are overly concerned with splittism whilst criminal acts are rampant and go unpunished.

Screenshot of the blogpost on Rangdrol.Net

                                  
"You can call the Security Police when there is trouble". What sweet words like a melodic song that pleasingly flows from the heart. In films, police are not afraid to even sacrifice their lives to defend the public against robbers and thieves. Such a situation would give the feeling that they are true divine protectors, like kinsmen, who stand up for the powerless and protect against those who threaten the peace. Or like local protective deities, who give aid at once, just by calling their names. When robbers and thieves commit crimes in the streets or markets we are not worried because securities agencies like 110 exist. This security agent does not only exist but approaches at once for assistance just by making a signal, and this makes the whole of society feel secure. But who do we call then for some other troubles? Can we call 110?

If I am a writer’s wife and the security police burst into my room and forcefully took away my husband without giving any reason. Though he was kept in custody for more than 12 hours, all they said were ‘we have some questions for your husband’. In such an open abuse of human rights and breaking the constitution that says “a person is not to be kept in detention for more than 12 hours”, can I call 110?

If I am Tsering Dolma, just arrived in the city, from a long distance, and am changing my sweat drenched and soaked clothes. Suddenly a group of police burst into my room by taking the key from the owner of the hotel, and ask for identity cards. In such a disrespectful manner, can I call 110?

If I am an old man called Tashi, on my way home, and I mistakenly pass through a prostitution area.... I am picked up by the Security Police, and am taken into custody and tortured. When I give the true reasons for being there, they torture me more, as if I was accusing them, just in order to save my own life. In this situation, can I call 110?

If I am a driver taking a patient in a serious condition to the regional hospital, when the police stop me for allegedly speeding, and demand to see documents... and meanwhile the patient dies.  For the loss of a soul, can I call 110?

Or if I am an ordinary monk from Amdo, on the way to Lhasa on pilgrimage, when a cluster of police block the way and beat me from head to toe, just asking meaningless questions. For this abuse of human rights, can I call 110?

What if I am a nomad from the Tibetan plateau, who grazes yaks, and one day suddenly a group of police approach and order me to move to a settlement where nomads are being sent. They empty and ruin my house and force me to accept starting over in a new livelihood.  In such a coercive and humiliating situation, can I call 110?

If I am a call-girl, living in a building, and in the dead of night the security police suddenly break into my room without any warning... I am scolded and taken outside even during a chilly winter. I catch a cold, get a fever with headache and cough. Sometimes they force us into sex. In such ill-treatment and sexual harassment, can I call 110?

There are so many such examples of if, but I won't write more because it may be claimed such things could only be made up. But such cases are always happening in our society and they are absolutely real. In our society, when robbers and thieves make trouble, we do call 110 whether it will help or not. But suppose sometimes the troublemakers of our society are not thieves and robbers but the police themselves.  Then to whom should we call for help?  Can we call 110?  Can we call?

Comments:

• Very impressive article, about the police and society, written so clearly.
• Really a touching article.
• It is written smartly and the theme is so precious. It moves my heart, and makes me think and feel sad.
• Really a moving article.
• This is really a striking article. It gives a feeling of happiness, sadness, and anger for days and nights.

Two Poems Posted on March 10, 2011

Continuing with poetry for the month of March this week, High Peaks Pure Earth has translated two poems from TibetCul blogs that were both posted online on March 10, 2011. As reported previously, TibetCul was suddenly taken offline on March 16, 2011 and mysteriously came back online on March 25, 2011. Fortunately, these two poems are not back online for those who'd like to see the original posts.

The first poem is titled "The Year 2010" and was posted on a TibetCul blog called Denang Tashi Delek:

Screenshot of Denang Tashi Delek's TibetCul Blog

The second poem is titled "Let Your Spirit Fly Freely, Over This Physical Body" and was posted on Tashi Lhundrup's TibetCul blog.

Screenshot of Tashi Lhundrup's TibetCul Blog

 Let Your Spirit Fly Freely, Over This Physical Body
 
- Self-hypnosis for the first time



Please, slowly, close your eyes
Let the endless tender light wash over you
Carefully balanced, hold up both your hands

The merciful and graceful Buddha is inside your palms



You need to relax, and you need to be brave

Do not restrain yourself, let your heart be open

You need inner peace, and to contemplate
Do not hesitate, let your heart be free

Leave your body in its old place, don’t be reluctant to let go

Let your spirit fly freely, over this physical body

Carefully gaze back upon yourself

Your body is a platform, a special kind of clothing


Please relax, relax, and relax some more

Your heart is like a hungry, wild wolf

Towards your eyes, your physical body
Do not be scared, and swallow down those desires



Please come back, come back, and gently return
Your body is your home, where you belong

Have patience, patience, calming patience

You will slowly be bound to your body, this is your return



Please slowly open your eyes

Regardless of whether it is light or dark, please accept it

Tightly put both your hands together

The warm current of compassion will wash over your body, a calm pleasure

The Year 2008 "Field of Experiments" – A Poem by Gade Tsering

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a poem by young Tibetan poet from Amdo, Gade Tsering, that was originally posted on his blog in two parts on June 28 and June 30, 2010. The posts were removed on July 15, 2010.

Gade Tsering

Now that the turbulent month of March is coming to a close, it seemed like an appropriate time to post this translation. Readers may remember two poems by Gade Tsering that we translated last summer, "My Tibetanness" and "I Am Tibetan", follow this link to read the poems and a short introduction to Gade Tsering: http://www.highpeakspureearth.com/2010/07/i-am-tibetan-and-my-tibetanness-two.html

Although Gade Tsering's blog appears to be unavailable at the time of writing, Gade Tsering is very active on his Sina Microblog: http://t.sina.com.cn/tibetpoem



"Field of Experiments"
---I was born in sadness, but you make me strong!

1,

A stage broad enough
To warm the heart, when the twilight of dusk is grey
And dim.

Wingless birds fly at a high place of nothingness
But they are all men suffering from acrophobia;
Not for geographical reasons but
Because your vision escaped the danger of your prejudice
Before you wanted to come to this land

Therefore, you remember that one year
The whole of Lhasa was enveloped in a black coat of fog and smoke.
Certainly traceless is the sky at this moment, but my heart is
Weak and grief-stricken

And then, all of a sudden you say,
“This is religion!”

2,

Tibet is teetering
In the spring sun of March.

In the midst of the remaining ruins,
I am solely playing a nocturne.

3,

The word is, however,
That the light is bright and beautiful
But the small town against the light is quiet
When people in the streets become so weak

I turn to solely sing in a different direction
And this is it.

When you get up to leave
This maroon coloured land, When your eyes moisten and
Your heart softens

You must acknowledge
the hidden space or the secret of being without a lock to this room
Or at least,
The guilt and depression you feel when
The mistakes are so obvious

4,

"Buddha’s flowers
Have not blossomed for a long time
In a prayer hall gradually becoming desolate
My faith
is without meaning"

Said my friend with a smile on the face
His so saying
made me feel shocked

A time like this
When will it come to an end?

"I Remember, Therefore We Are" By Woeser

High Peaks Pure Earth has translated a blogpost by Woeser written on January 16, 2011 for the Mandarin service of Radio Free Asia and published on their website on March 14, 2011. 

In this blogpost, Woeser reflects on the importance of collective memory for Tibetans and focuses on the autobiography of Naktsang Nulo which has been translated into Chinese and was published in Taiwan on March 10, 2011. 

The autobiography of Naktsang Nulo titled "The Joys & Sorrows of a Boy from Naktsang" was originally written in Tibetan and published in June 2007. The newsletter of Trace Foundation's Latse Library 2007-2008 Volume 5 contains some background information to Naktsang Nulo and his work. The newsletter tells us:

The book was not published by a formal publishing house, but was printed by the Siling (Xining) Tso-ngon (Qinghai) Printing House in a run of 3,000 copies. Generally, books of Tibetan literature in China are printed in runs of no more than 2,500 copies. Despite the fact that Naktsang Shilu Kyiduk was not published by a formal publishing house, and therefore had no established means of distribution, the first run of 3,000 copies sold out in six months, and the book had to be reprinted, an unusual occurrence for a work of Tibetan literature.

To read the full article and also an excerpt of the book translated into English by Lauran Hartley and Pema Bhum, download the Latse Newsletter (in pdf form) from this link: http://www.latse.org/newsletter/2007vol5num1/Latse_Newsletter_no5_web.pdf

Cover of Chinese language edition of Naktsang Nulo's autobiography

Eastern European author Milan Kundera once said: "The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting". This does not mean that "man" wants to forget, but rather that "power" or authority, is forcing "man" to forget, so that their constructed lies become the collective memory. The true memories of man are thus forfeited and destroyed.

The truth is, until now Tibetan people have always persevered against this very struggle. For example, there are a lot of existing memoirs by exiled Tibetans, inside Tibet there are the memoirs of Naktsang Nulo about the people and Tibet, there are also His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s memoirs and documentation such as Dawa Tsering’s "Blood Sacrifice in the Land of Snows". I have also carried out research about Tibet during the Cultural Revolution in my books such as "Forbidden Memory" and "Memories of Tibet", as well as "The Roar of the Snow Lion in the Year of the Mouse", a book about the 2008 uprising, and many more.

The history of a nation should be made up of the individual histories of its people. Silent for so many decades, a witness and survivor of the time when "heaven and earth were overturned", what Naktsang Nulo finally penned was not just a memoir, but a page in the most important record that we have of the history of our culture. I wish that one day, we can build a museum exhibiting the individual histories of Tibetan people, and he will be the model for this project. Western philosophers have the phrase "I think, therefore I am", but in this Tibet museum we will have "I remember, therefore we are" written on the walls. It will be made up of the accounts and memories of all the “I”s that make up Tibet, of those who witnessed Tibet’s past, as well as the accounts of their children and the future generations.

Just as Naktsang Nulo said in the prologue to his book: "Perhaps because of my karma, or the changing times, I experienced and witnessed much suffering, and not only I, but many thousands of other people too. Each person’s mind contains their own account of these events, and each chiefdom and family will have its own long story or legend of the ups and downs of their particular chiefdom or family. Writing these stories in the form of a book has its disadvantages, but if they are not preserved in print, no-one in the future will know what happened. The stories will only remain true in the mind of one individual. If they want the next generation to know about what happened in their lifetime, the previous generation must write down the history of that period carefully and hand it on to the next one. This is especially important if you want your own children to pass on your story. So, I decided that my story could only be preserved by writing it in the form of a book, otherwise it would not survive. These things are true for a nationality and a family, just as they are for an individual."

Maybe people will have questions about this kind of early memoir, for example how can a child whose mother has passed away remember their family?  How can a child who accompanies their father on a pilgrimage to Lhasa remember the snowy mountains or lakes they pass along the way? I have also asked questions such as these to the author Naktsang Nulo but his answer was in fact very simple. Some things in life will always be carved into your heart. For many days and nights, he, his brother and his clansmen would all be remembering the past, so that in fact they were constantly reliving their childhood years of suffering. In fact, it would seem that their later experiences in life would appear vague in comparison to these early memories.

Without memory, there would be no Naktsang Nulo, nor his father who died under the gun of "liberation", nor the thousands upon thousands of our fellow brethren. His memories do not proliferate the lies by our aggressors, but are simply the personal recollections of an ordinary Tibetan survivor. In his own memories, in addition to the period of "heaven and earth overturning" which brought about the massacring of our people and the cultural extinction of our monasteries, there is also the everyday life of the nomadic people in the land of snows, which in fact was very rich and unique. The rays of Buddhism seemed to shine through this spiritual world, and whenever I read passages that describe these bygone times, I cannot help but shed a tear:

"The sunshine is here," one of the monks called out a little later. All the pilgrims ran over to the middle of the pass. When we got there, we saw the golden roofs of the monasteries and the cone-shaped golden roof of the Jokhang Temple shining in the sunlight. We prostrated and burned incense, and so did all the pilgrims. The crowd of people yelled with happiness. I was gripped by an excitement and joy I could not explain, and cried uncontrollably. "The Three Precious Jewels… Oh, the precious stone of the Buddha that fulfils all wishes. I have finally made it to Lhasa!".

January 16, 2011, Beijing