Winter Pasture by Li Juan

Author:Li Juan [Juan, Li]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Astra Publishing House

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IN SHORT, THE TV had brought the outside world into the wilderness, tearing asunder its tranquility. And while TV allowed the herders to marvel at that outside world, it also made that world seem laughable. There were the commercials for snacks that despite their attractive packaging, still seemed like nothing special compared to our freshly fried baursak. When I tried to translate a commercial, it was met with a series of “Koychys.” TV brought the outside world into the wilderness, but as a result it made the wilderness even more isolated.

How unrealistic! The capricious love and hate, friendship and animosity, the lies as clear as day, the crocodile tears and gratuitous intrigue, the budget-busting deus ex machina … even the herders in their tiny little world had to grumble, “Change the channel!” As for me, sheer boredom and despair: TV is like a tractor rumbling along, tearing up the land, leaving a mess in its wake. There’s always the same trash on every program, as if that’s reality.

It couldn’t have been further from our reality. We put one foot in front of the other, never missing a beat, slowly but surely traversing the seasons. We heeded the laws of nature and rules of tradition; like newborn calves, we understood nothing, worried about nothing, nothing other than growing up, for which strongheadedness was everything. And yet, who is to say which reality is more fragile?

When Cuma returned after a day on the pasture, Sister-in-law, who was preparing dinner, asked, “Should we have some tea first?” His response: “Tea’s unimportant. Let’s see how Qiao Haiyang is first!” Qiao Haiyang is the male protagonist of a series we were watching. An enjoyable series to be fair, even if the plot was all over the place. But the most incredible thing about it was that from age eighteen to over forty, the main character lived in a perennially snow-covered world, supposedly the country’s northeastern territory. Cuma asked me, “Why is it winter every day?” I said, “TV shows are filmed quickly! They finished shooting in one winter so they never got around to summertime.”

After watching one series set during the War of Resistance, everyone managed to learn a Japanese song, “Sakura, Sakura …” They sang it in the morning and sang it at night, breaking into a dance whenever the song was sung. Kama (she had returned with her brother Zhada for winter break) pulled me around the room, jumping up and down, while Sister-in-law danced with Karlygash, her hands holding the infant’s little arms, and Cuma with Plum Blossom, gripping on to the cat’s paws. Those were happy times.

There was another program called Two-Gun Li Xiangyang. When Cuma was fixing his saw, he suddenly grabbed two triangular pieces of wood, one in each hand, and strafed left to right, up and down, and front to back, “pew pew pew …!!” terrifying the little girl Nurgün. From next door, both of Shinshybek’s older children had arrived for winter break as well.

After having watched three Communist-revolution-themed series, everyone seemed to have grasped the tropes.

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