Shore of Pearls

Noted Sinologist Edward H. Schafer presents a literary and cultural history of the island of Hainan, located off the south coast of China east of Vietnam, from the earliest times to the twelfth century. The Chinese historically regarded this tropical frontier region with revulsion, finding its climate, its native peoples, and its wild beasts all alien to their traditional homeland in the semi-arid plains of the Yellow River valley. The out-of-favor courtiers dispatched here were hardly disposed to write lyric appreciations of the beauties of the rain forest with its gorgeous birds and flowers, or to try to understand the outlandish natives. But there were exceptions, including exiled Sung dynasty poet Su Shih (Su Tung-p'o), who expressed an astonished appreciation of the possibilities of a solitary life in the wilderness among simple people---a utopian view of natural living that already had a long tradition in Chinese literature. The ambiguity expressed in these lyrics presages the fate of the island a millennium later. when the pristine beaches and lush forests of the ancient tropical hell came to be regarded as an island paradise of the People's Republic of China.