Mountain Water: Poems of Tradition and the Environment in Southwestern China

Aku Wuwu (Aku Vuvu) is a poet of the Nuosu branch of the Yi ethnic group of southwest China and a professor of ethnic literature at the Southwest Nationalities University in Sichuan province, China.  He is unique among Yi poets for his creation of a corpus of “mother tongue” poetry written in Nuosu (Northern Yi) dialect. The deeply visceral themes of his poems draw heavily on Nuosu traditions, especially early life experiences growing up in the mountains of southern Sichuan province.  His themes include cross-cultural intersections between the developing world of southwest China, humans and the environment, and the world of dreams and reality. Many of his poems are deeply ethnographic, rooted in the culture to such an extent that he regards them as “textbooks” for future generations of young Yi. Among his best-known works is a long poem based on a ritual chant to call back the wandering souls of the ill.  Entitled “Calling Back the Soul of Zhyge Alu,” the poem is a cry for cultural revival among the Yi people of southwest China, who today number over 7 million.

Mark Bender, who will introduce Aku’s poetry, is an associate professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures, at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.  His areas of interest include Chinese professional storytelling, ethnic minority epics, antiphonal folksongs, ethnic minority poetry in Southwest China, and material culture studies.

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