Mither Tongue

Jidi Majia’s work, while translated into other European and Asian languages has never before been seen in the UK. This is a unique presentation of his work in both Scots and English, bringing to readers a view of the work of this eminent ethnic poet from China’s Sichuan region. He has published numerous poetic anthologies since the 1980s and has won national literature awards, and is considered one of the greatest poets of minorities in China. He is the President of the China Minority Literary Association. His themes, while embedded in his Nuosu culture, are timely explorations of what it means to be at one with nature and with his fellow humans. He writes with humility and compassion, with a wide-ranging knowledge of all Chinese literatures, across the dynasties and embracing present day Chinese poetics. His assimilation of the world’s great literatures, together with expertise in Chinese and Nuosu literatures leads to an astonishing tour de force of poetry in which In everything that Jidi Majia writes there is this dual orientation: on one hand it is rooted in the land-based, tribal sensibility of the Nuosu, and on the other hand it is characterized by expansive subjectivity reaching out into the modern world.