While the film adaptation of the controversial novel "Wolf Totem" has garnered attention this year for its representation of the blossoming relationship between the Chinese and French cultural industries, the narrative's reverence for nature has not received the same level of attention.
However, as China embarks on numerous reforms to turn the tide of its environmental status, the importance of respecting ecological balance that is at the forefront of Lyu Jiamin's story is now under the spotlight.
Lyu, who wrote under the pseudonym Jiang Rong, chose a young Beijing intellectual named Chen Zhen as the protagonist in his fictional account of an urban character who is sent from the Chinese capital into the Inner Mongolian steppes.
Set during the late 1960s, the transition is immensely foreign to the novel's central character; however, he unexpectedly becomes preoccupied with the locals' treatment of the wolves in the area, after observing the way that they respectfully interact with the creatures. Chen is so impressed, in fact, that he forms his own wolf club to further foster the animals' fierceness and bold nature.
The nature-centric sentiment of Lyu's narrative was not lost on the film version's French director, Jean-Jacques Annaud, who said to reporters that "the novel is about love and mutual understanding." Annaud further explained that the production of the film consisted of a "great effort . . . to protect the environment," whereby:
"If there was no road, we drove on planks to protect the ground from our vehicles. Sometimes the crew carried equipment on their shoulders."
The environmental respect shown by the production crew of "Wolf Totem" corresponds with the "new normal" economy of China, in which slowed-down progress will allow the nation to tend to critical concerns like air pollution.