MCLC: World Minority Literature conference report

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World Minority Literature conference report
Brief Report on the International Symposium on World Minority Literature and Manifesto of World Minority Literature
By Mark Bender (The Ohio State University)
The International Symposium on World Minority Literature was held on the campus of Southwest University for Nationalities (西南民族大学; SWUN), Oct. 29, 2016 in Chengdu, Sichuan.  The sponsoring units were Southwest University for Nationalities and the China Ethnic Literature Society (中国少数民族文学学会). Over 40 speakers delivered papers under the headings of Oral Tradition and World Ethnic Minority Literature, Multiple Narratives and World Ethnic Minority Literature, Cross-ethnic Interaction and World Ethnic Minority Literature, and General Topics.
The chair of the meeting was Prof. Luo Qingchun (aka Aku Wuwu), dean of the Yi College at SWUN. Speakers included Prof. Wang Feng, Vice-chair of China Ethnic Literature Society, Prof. Xu Xinjian of Sichuan University, Ai Lian, Director of Sichuan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences and Secretary General of the association of Literary Critics, Native American scholar John Low of The Ohio State University, and others. The keynote speakers included Prof. Xu Xinjian and Prof. Gulina’er Wufuli from Kashgar.
Chinese participants included scholars from universities and research units in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Taiwan, etc. Foreign participants included Prof. John Low, The Ohio State University,  Prof. Vuong Van Toan, Vietnam Thai Studies Programme, Prof. Matsuoka Tadasu from DOKKYO University, Japan, JA Kasuka, University of Niigata, poet/Prof. Juan Carlos Galeano (originally from Amazonia and now at Florida State University, USA), and Mark Bender, The Ohio State University.
The operative concept for the conference was “world ethnic minority literature" (世界少数族裔文学); the choice of “zuyi” was made explicitly to differentiate the focus from “shaoshu minzu wenxue” (少数民族文学), which is a term applied to the literature of China’s ethnic minorities/nationalities.  Among the papers were, “What is ‘World Ethnic Minority Literature,’” by Prof. Liang Zhao of Sichuan University.  The paper argued that, “In the frame of ‘World Ethnic Minority Literature,’ every ethnic group’s literature is equal in spite of its population; and the form and character of [these] ethnic groups’ literatures (including oral tradition) will change the meaning of ‘world literature.”  A number of papers engaged similar topics, as well as studies on individual writers and oral traditions. A summary of the proceedings was Prof. Liu Daxian, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The Manifesto for World Ethnic Minority Literature
A significant part of the symposium entailed the drafting and issuing of a Manifesto for World Ethnic Minority Literature.  The entire contents of the Manifesto in Chinese and English (translation by Prof. Wen Peihong, SWUN) are as follows:
平等·正义·爱——世界少数族裔文学宣言
从喜马拉雅山脉到安第斯山脉，从阿尔卑斯山脉到乞力马扎罗山脉，从密西西比河到墨累河流域，从欧亚大草原到印度洋沿岸，被称为“少数族裔”的人类群体用坚毅的生命力和博大智慧开启了广袤悠久的地域传统，用各自的母语为人类历史绽放出独特灿烂的精神之花，为世界文明的发生发展、传播演进、继承创新作出了异彩纷呈的丰厚贡献。
然而，在近代以来的殖民话语与等级体系之中，少数族裔被视为落后、蒙昧乃至野蛮的群体。在政治、军事、经济、文化的控制与规训中，少数族裔被放逐到“文明”的边缘。所有这一切已经危及到少数族裔的母语、文学和文化，带来了全球性危机，在某些情况下，这意味着其文化的急速衰落甚至消亡。人类文明也面临着严峻的挑战。为了保护与发展人类文化的多样性、继承与彰显文化遗产的多种可能性，开创人类新文化的共生共荣生态，我们在此发出《世界少数族裔文学宣言》。
我们认为——
文学是自由的。自由意味着摆脱外来的霸权意志、等级体系的束缚，以审美创造和艺术尊严，获得独立价值和普遍荣耀。
文学是平等的。平等表述着文学的普遍公正。无论口头传唱还是文字书写、无论登至庙堂还是流布乡间，文学对人的功能与价值是一致的，不分高低，超越肤色、没有贵贱。
文学是爱的。人类文学的核心母题是爱。爱是世界少数族裔文学的本源和流脉。我们的文学爱大地、爱自然、爱生命，爱邻里 —— 爱每一座山、每一条河、每一棵树，每一个人。
文学是母语的。母语是族群存在的第一标志。母语的存亡关系到族群的传统和历史呈现。书写母语就是书写生命意识、精神境界，从而探索人之为人的叙事准则与价值源流。世界少数族裔文学就是对母语的维护和坚守。
文学既是族裔的又是超族裔的。我们呼吁，以少数族裔的名义发声，并不是因为我们只是少数族裔。“少数”与“多数”、“边缘”与“中心”、“支流”与“主流”，相对而在并流动相依；少数族裔文学的存在，既是特定民族、族群文学的存在，更是全球性文学关联性、相互性的存在。
少数族裔渴望自由、平等、正义，追求共存、对话和共荣。少数族裔是天神播撒的最古老、最坚强的种子；少数族裔文学与天地共存，与日月对话，以土地、森林和空气的名义，用生命、灵魂和燃烧的脚步，以汗水、泪水和鲜血的方式，书写贯穿人类历史的宏伟诗篇，描绘人类共享的美好画卷。
在此，我们倡议并坚持以下原则的重要性——
1）坚持世界和平及人类文化多样性原则。
2）坚持母语与国家通用语并行的原则。
3）坚持口头文学与书面文学并行并重的原则。
4）坚持地域-族群写作及跨国际、跨族际、跨语际交流与对话的原则。
5）坚持独特想象和精神创造与人类整体并行不悖的原则。
让我们用人类心灵的力量和文化多样性的魅力，守护脚下每一寸神圣的山河！用锐气、智勇与信心开辟世界少数族裔文学未来发展的光明之路！用友谊和歌诗追寻人类生命的恒久价值和意义！
首届世界少数族裔文学论坛
2016年10月30日，中国•成都
(English version)
Equality, Justice, and Love: The Manifesto for World Ethnic Minority Literature
>From the Himalayas to the Andes, from the Alps to Kilimanjaro, from the Mississippi River to the Murray River, from the Eurasian Prairie to the Indian Ocean Coast, the groups of people who are designated by the term “ethnic minority,” with great vitality and wisdom, have created long traditions of indigenous civilizations on vast landscapes.  They’ve produced unique spiritual wealth in their own mother tongues, and have made great contributions to the emergence and development, the spread and evolution, the inheritance and innovation of human civilization.
However, in the discourse of colonialism and hierarchy since the inception of the modern age, ethnic minority people were treated as backward, ignorant, or even barbarous communities.  Under political dominance, military control, economic restrictions, and cultural discipline, ethnic minority people were exiled to the margins of “civilization.”  All this has endangered mother tongues, literatures, and cultures of ethnic minority people, creating a global crisis that in some cases means rapid cultural decline and even extinction.  Human civilization is also faced with serious challenges.  To protect and promote cultural diversity, to inherit and highlight diverse cultural heritages, and to build a new cultural ecology of co-existence and co-prosperity of human civilization, we are here to issue “The Manifesto for World Ethnic Minority Literature.”
We hold the following beliefs:
Literature is unrestrained.  Literature should be liberated from the bondage of foreign hegemonic will and hierarchical institutions.  With its aesthetic creations and artistic dignity, literature will win its own unique value and universal glory.
Literature is about equality.  Equality signifies the universal justice of literature.  Whatever forms of literature, oral or written; or in whatever position they are – whether enshrined in official status, or scattered among the people, literatures play the same role and carry the same values for human beings, regardless of rank, status, or skin color.
Literature is concerned about love.  Love is the very core motif in human literatures.  Love is the source and flow of world ethnic minority literature.  Our literatures portray the love of the land, nature, life, and neighbors -- the love of every mountain, every river, every tree, and every individual.
Literature is characterized by mother tongues.  A mother tongue is the primary sign of the existence of any ethnic group.  The life and death of an ethnic group’s mother tongue is closely related to its traditions and historical significance.  Mother tongue writing embodies writings about individual senses of life and mental states, and thus explores the specific narrative principles and essential core values, which are vital for humanity.  World ethnic minority literatures are embodied in the maintenance and persistence of mother tongues.
Literature is both ethnic and beyond ethnicity.  That we appeal and speak out in the name of ethnic minorities is not merely because we are ethnic minorities.  “Minority” and “majority,” “margin” and “center,” “tributary” and “main stream,” coexist relatively and their relationships keep shifting.  The existence of ethnic minority literature, not only means the existence of a specific nationality, or a specific ethnic literature, but also the existence of the mutual relevance and reliance among literatures in the world.
Ethnic minority peoples’ desire liberty, equality, and justice.  We are in pursuit of coexistence, conversation, and common prosperity.  We are the most ancient and most strong-willed seeds ever sowed by any Deity.  Ethnic minority literatures coexist with Heaven and Earth, dialog with the Sun and the Moon.  In the name of the land, forests, and air, in the form of sweat, tears, and blood, with life, soul, and heart, ethnic minority writers have managed to compose huge volumes of great works, and have painted a splendid picture of the world shared by all human beings.
Here, we launch this initiative and resolve to stress the importance of:
The principle of maintaining world peace and human cultural diversity;
The principle of writing in mother tongues side by side with national common language;
The principle of valuing both oral and written literatures;
The principle of valuing indigenous, local, and ethnic writing, and also trans-national, trans-racial, trans-linguistic communication and dialogue;
The principle of preserving unique imagination and spiritual creativity in harmony with universal humanity.
Let us defend every inch of the divine land under our feet with the power of the human soul, and cultural diversity; and with determination, intelligence, and confidence, rebuild a bright road to the development of world ethnic minority people in the future; and to pursue the ever-lasting value and significance of human life with friendship and song-poetry.
—— “The First Forum on World Ethnic Minority Literature”
October 30, 2016
Chengdu, China
Sponsors of the Symposium
The coordinating unit of the symposium was the Yi (Ethnic Group) College of Southwest University for Nationalities (Xinan minzu daxue Yixue xueyuan).   The program lists co-sponsors as: China’s Multi-Ethnic Literature Studies Association (Zhongguo duo minzu wenxue yanjiu hui), Sichuan Association of Literary and Artistic Critics (Sichuan sheng wenyi pinglunjia xiehui), Sichuan Association of Comparative Literature (Sichuan sheng bijiao wenxue xuehui), Sichuan Association of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature (Sichuan sheng Zhongguo xiandai wenxue yanjiuhui), and Collaborative Innovation Center for Chinese Multinational Cultural Heritage and Cohesion (Zhongguo duo minzu wenhua ningju yu guojia rentong xietong chuangxin zhongxin).
--Report filed by Mark Bender, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, The Ohio State University (December 12, 2016)
by denton.2 at osu.edu on December 13, 2016
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