Nepal-China Literary Relations: What Are the Prospects?

Nepal-China Literary Relations: What Are the Prospects?

When Jacques Derrida talked about ‘teleopoiesis’ in his Politics of Friendship (1993), it did not make much fuss as the typical Derridian concept of ‘differance’ had made when it came first. It sounded just another incomprehensible Derridian jargon, meant for few persistent people interested in post-structuralist theory. In less than half a century, teleopoiesis has, however, become a method of studying literatures across distance and time. Though the method is still comparative, it moves ahead of the traditional compare-and-contrast agenda, and pervades through a mentality to reshape the traditional idea of space and region.

Thinking China and Nepal as geographical neighbors might put the idea of teleopoiesis into jeopardy, because the geographical proximity of the two nations, sharing borders along a long stretch of the Himalayan belt, questions the prefix ‘tele’ which stands for distance. The countries are close. Yet, since ‘tele’ has a cultural counterpart as well and connotes remoteness of culture and language, it still applies to the case of China and Nepal. Though close they are, there have been occasional exchange of cultural discourses, but the influence of one-another in trans-Himalayan cultural space is almost NIL. This ‘nil’—which signifies a gap—allows us to think of new methodologies to study literatures across remote cultures.

Though the word ‘remote’ might sound a little weird in case of China and Nepal, it has to be seen from cultural paraxes. Though Buddhism is a connecting link, Nepal has become less and less Buddhist with the passage of time, and the type of Buddhism the Chinese go for is a nascent Chinese model that revises the Nepalese counterpart of Buddhism in a number of cases. Languages the two peoples speak too come from different language families, and there is almost no intersection of vocabularies or grammar. The scripts, as everyone knows, are always obscure to one another in the two spaces.

Teleopoiesis, however, allows us to yoke the literatures of the two nations into one binding thread. There are some social realities that pervade across geographical distance. A classic case could be origin myths; civilizations as distant from one another as the Aztec and Mesopotamia, have similar origin myths. Such inferences allow us to hypothesize that China and Nepal ‘might’ have been connected by certain commonalities, for example, similar origin myths, similar makes of fairy tales, and similar antique modes of worships and sacrifices. However, with change of time, modes of living have changed, and such commonalities have become less conspicuous.

Yet, tracing of such commonalties allows us to come together, and feel closer to one another. We can always speculate about something called ‘typical Asian structure of feeling’, which China and Nepal—along with other Asian counterparts—can share. One striking case is that of injustice, meted out to the general people by elites. This particular reality, though addressed with different political philosophies in different Asian countries, is a case that has plagued the people of Asia for quite a long time. The case too is true for the West, but the latest cases of development there are putting the underlying injustice in eclipse. However, in case of Asian countries, it is as apparent as the sun.

China, as a leading nation in Asia—and of late, of the world—has always pioneered political will of the state to uproot aristocratic injustice and class distinction. Nepal has long been inspired by such socialist initiatives, but the past few decades have been the heydays of socialist thoughts and reforms in Nepal. Coming of a socialist awareness—China being the biggest inspirer—has allowed surfacing of the discrepancies in the society, which were, till recent times, forced to be subdued. People these days take courage to say ‘no’ to something they cannot digest. Artists, including poets and writers, have been among the greatest champions of such voices.

What, therefore, the authors and poets in Nepal have written in the past two decades is but people’s mind. They have tried to show how injustice, deeply rooted in the structure of this society, and often encouraged by the state itself, has ripped through people’s life. They have articulately given voice to the need for a revolution to ring out the old order, and ring in a new one. This particular issue, namely writing about the general people’s plight, might connect Chinese and Nepalese literature firmly. It can also allow a comparison of the nature of injustice, and composition of the social structure in the two nations, vis-à-vis the position of the general people.

For a global power—political, economic or cultural—like China, the immediate attestation of its rise can come from its neighbors, albeit quite small they may be in magnitude. A global power can assert itself the best, only if it understands the socio-political dynamics of its neighbors best. This is strategically essential, in terms of many things including intelligence, security, transport and transit. It, therefore, sounds quite pertinent that China consolidates its relation with Nepal, both politically and culturally. As art is our domain, what we specifically expect is, China bestows its interest southwards, and artists and authors from China consider Nepal as a territory to explore artistically, setting their writings here, or taking imageries from myths and social life from Nepal.

This can be a bridge to make the two peoples stand together. How many efforts have been made by Chinese writers to incorporate Nepal into their narratives is an issue of research, but there definitely are evidences that Nepalese writers have tried to connect China with Nepal in their narratives and verses—sometimes choosing China as a setting, and at times, drawing images from Chinese lifestyle and culture. In Muna-Madan, the best-known epic by Laxmi Prasad Devkota, the best-known poet of Nepal so far, the protagonist chooses China as the destination to make his fortune, and ultimately he fulfils it. Dor Bahadur Bista’s Sotala draws a lot on foregrounding Sino-Nepalese relation. Writings of Dharma Ratna Yami, including his Letter from Tibet, too can be mentioned. Mao and his thoughts have always been central to a large chunk of writers in Nepal. Many, including Santadass Manandhar and Rambabu Subedi have written extensively on Lu Hsun, his life and literature. Lines of intersection can also be drawn in terms of Buddhist writing. These writings in a way showcase the thematic and formal trends of writing poems and stories in particular. These forms and themes can allow a direct comparison of contemporary forms and themes of Chinese literature, and can help compliment one-another’s literary richness.

Mahesh Paudyal

Central Department of English

Tribhuvan University, Kathmnadu