ULUS: Legends of the Nomads - Using a game to protect a…

ULUS:游牧民族的传说--用游戏来保护一个...

2021-09-30 22:25 GALA

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Since 2012, the Endangered Alphabets Project has been experimenting with, among other enterprises, language games. Wait—endangered alphabets? Is that, you ask, a thing? Yes, it is. Every culture has its own spoken language, and in many cases its own written language, too—a writing system it has developed to express its own beliefs, its own experiences, its understanding of the world. What the members of that culture have collectively written in that script is the record of their cultural identity: spiritual texts, historical documents, deeds, letters between family members, poems. Yet as many as 90% of the world’s scripts are threatened, marginalized, even actively suppressed. Denying members of a minority culture the right to read, write and speak in their mother tongue defines them as inferior and unimportant, and leaves them vulnerable, marginalized, and open to abuse. The extent and quality of education go down, while levels of homelessness and incarceration, and even suicide go up. It’s a slow catastrophe. Our mission at the Endangered Alphabets is to support minority and indigenous cultures with traditional writing systems that are being abandoned or forced out of existence. And one of our strategies is games. If you’re going to revitalize a culture’s language—whether spoken or written—you need to catch the interest of its children, and to catch a child’s interest, you need games. Those of us in majority cultures have all kinds of games that teach us to recognize letters and even groups of letters almost instantly, and to imagine and manipulate those groupings in our mind’s eye, a crucial skill for swift reading and comprehension. Scrabble, Boggle, Yahtzee, crosswords, words search puzzles—we grew up with a steady supply of readily-available, affordable, fun ways to develop spectacular proficiency in written language. Indigenous and minority peoples often have no such training aids; many, in fact, have no readily-available published materials in their script at all. So I first created alphabet decks of cards in a variety of minority scripts—Glagolitic, Mro, Chakma, Abenaki, Cree, Baybayin, Cherokee—with instructions for simple games. (This, by the way, was much more challenging than it seemed. Should tone marks and accents be included? If so, the decks would be enormous. And how do you handle a script whose vowels don’t automatically follow consonants, but may be placed above or even before them? The Latin alphabet is easier to play with because it is so inexact: a single letter or letter-combination may be used in two, three, even half-a-dozen ways, so a single card or tile can have many values.) The newest Endangered Alphabets game is by far the most complex, and the most ambitious in terms of the problem it tries to tackle. Let me set the stage. Roughly 800 years ago, the Mongols established the largest contiguous land empire the world has ever known. This highpoint in their history is profoundly identified with Chinggis Khan, who is regarded as the founder of Mongolia; the horse and the bow, which were handled so skillfully by the Mongols that they swept all before them; and the unique, vertical classical Mongolian script. Since then, the vast Mongol Empire has dwindled. Most of those who identify ethnically and culturally as Mongols live in three countries: Russia, Mongolia, and China. Those in Russia tend to speak Russian and write in Cyrillic. Those in Mongolia speak Mongolian but, because of historic pressure from the Soviet Union, write it in Cyrillic, a script that imperfectly fits the Mongolian language and is a reminder of their recent subjugation rather than their earlier and more glorious history. The traditional Mongolian vertical bichig script has until now been kept alive in what the Chinese call the Autonomous Province of Inner Mongolia, which some Mongols call Southern Mongolia. This region is also the home of the graceful, dynamic Mongolian calligraphy, identified by UNESCO in 2013 as an intangible cultural heritage in urgent need of safeguarding. This oasis of traditional Mongol culture was rudely shaken in August 2020, when the Chinese government announced that, starting that autumn, certain key classes in schools in Inner Mongolia would be taught not in Mongolian but in Chinese. The Mongols recognized this as the thin end of a wedge that would be driven between them and their language, their script, and thus their culture. (Meanwhile, Chinese intentions toward Mongol culture were being made clear in France, where an exhibition about Chinggis Khan was suspended after the Chinese Bureau of Cultural Heritage demanded editing authority over exhibition brochures, legends and maps, and insisted any reference to Chinggis Khan himself, or the words “Mongol” and “empire” be removed. The historical fact that the Mongols overran the Chinese was to be erased.) To me, this situation clearly called for help from the Endangered Alphabets—but how could a tiny non-profit support a culture threatened by arguably the most powerful government in the world? The idea of creating a game came from Olgierd Uziemblo of Warsaw University who, as a Pole, knew at first hand something about surviving an authoritarian government. He argued the strategy should be not to anger the Chinese but to find apparently harmless ways to keep one’s identity and culture intact and in memory until the threat passed. And as a sinologist whose father served as a diplomat in Mongolia, he also insisted the climax of the game should be at the annual summer festival of Naadam, one of the oldest in the world, which combines traditional Mongol sports (archery, wrestling, horse riding) with trading, commerce, and traditional storytelling. At the heart of the game was a supposedly historical incident. When Chinggis Khan had established the largest contiguous land empire the world has known, a debate sprang up among him and his sons: Now what? What do we want to do with this ulus, this land? What kind of people do we want to be? Should we be warriors? Should we go back to our traditional lives as nomads and herders? Should we try to be city-dwellers, like the cultures we have encountered in the West? In a way, it was a debate about a people’s soul, and that ancient/modern, rural/urban dilemma is still felt by many Mongols today. Hence the name of the game: ULUS, Legends of the Nomads. I decided to frame this as a contest among the Mongol gods, each of which has their ulus, or vision for the future of the Mongol lands. I also decided to borrow from Greek mythology the notion that the gods carry out their quarrels on the human chessboard, so each god is represented in the game by a human champion, drawn from Mongol history and mythology. Sorghaghtani Beki, for example, the mother of Kublai Khan and arguably the most powerful woman in history. Khutulun, the noblewoman who challenged her suitors to wrestle her for her hand in marriage, and defeated them all. Zanabazar, a Buddhist sage, sculptor, poet, and creator of an alphabet. Each champion has to gather the kinds of asset that will enable their god to establish and maintain their ulus, the assets being represented by cards—but each asset card is at a sacred site, guarded by a monster from Mongol mythology, and the champions have to defeat monsters in order to gain assets. The movement of the game follows the rhythms of nomadic life, with the group of champions moving season by season around the Mongol lands, ending at Naadam. And the champions’ fortunes are dictated by rolling shagai—sheep’s anklebones used across Asia for divination, and in children’s games—on a mat made of felt, the traditional fabric used by Mongols to make clothing, shoes, and ger, or yurts. We were very lucky to partner with several Mongolian experts. Gunbilegt Enkhbold was able to source shagai, both authentic bone shagai and resin shagai, manufactured for children’s games. Dash Nyamsuren, an editor, translator, lexicographer and calligraphy teacher, wrote us the names of the seasons a special “folded” script, a form of classical Mongolian especially used to enclose a word within a circle, and for other design and display purposes. Bajuna Batjargal, a fabric designer specializing in the traditional Mongolian felt fabrics, designed game mats and stenciled them with Mongolian script. Bee and Soy coordinated a small cottage industry around their ger to hand-sew the traditional Mongolian game mats. We debated long and hard about whether learning the Mongolian language and/or script would be part of the game and decided it was just asking too much of the players. They get to see the script, and in the rule book there is a brief primer on how the writing works, and on the game site we’ve given links to excellent Mongolian learning sites, but we decided the best thing would be to open the door to the culture in general, and anyone interested in the language would have clear paths forward. One of our team, Hilko Drude, is also designing a card game that teaching the Mongolian script as a follow-up. Even as the components for the game arrive and are assembled for shipping, I’m all too aware of Chinggis Khan’s question Now what? I’ve committed to publishing a children’s picture book dictionary in the traditional scripts of the Philippines, and to a vast research project to identify all the world’s current scripts and assess their degree of health or endangerment. And how do I fund this work, given that the world’s script crisis is not yet on people’s radar? Good question. I’d better roll my shagai….
自2012年以来,濒危字母项目一直在尝试,除其他企业外,语言游戏。 等等--濒危字母?你问这是一个东西吗?是的,它是。 每种文化都有自己的口头语言,而且在许多情况下也有自己的书面语言--它所开发的书写系统,用来表达自己的信仰、自己的经验和对世界的理解。该文化的成员用这种文字集体书写的东西是他们文化身份的记录:精神文本、历史文件、契约、家庭成员之间的信件、诗歌。 然而,世界上多达90%的文字受到威胁,被边缘化,甚至被积极压制。剥夺少数民族文化成员用母语阅读、写作和说话的权利,就会把他们定义为低等和不重要的人,并使他们处于弱势、边缘化和容易受到虐待。教育的范围和质量下降,而无家可归和监禁的水平,甚至自杀的水平上升。这是一场缓慢的灾难。 我们在 "濒危字母 "的使命是支持拥有传统书写系统的少数民族和原住民文化,这些系统正在被抛弃或被迫消失。而我们的策略之一就是游戏。如果你要振兴一种文化的语言--不管是口语还是书面语--你需要吸引其儿童的兴趣,而要吸引儿童的兴趣,你需要游戏。 我们这些处于多数文化中的人有各种各样的游戏,这些游戏教我们识别字母,甚至是几乎瞬间的字母组,并在我们的脑海中想象和操作这些字母组,这是快速阅读和理解的关键技能。拼字游戏、博格游戏、Yahtzee游戏、填字游戏、单词搜索游戏--我们在成长过程中不断获得了大量现成的、负担得起的、有趣的方法来发展对书面语言的熟练掌握。 原住民和少数民族往往没有这样的训练辅助工具;事实上,许多人根本没有现成的、以其文字出版的材料。因此,我首先创建了各种少数民族文字的字母卡,包括格拉戈里特语、姆罗语、查克马语、阿贝纳基语、克里语、贝巴因语、切罗基语,并附有简单游戏的说明。 (顺便说一句,这比它看起来要有挑战性得多。是否应该包括音标和重音?如果是这样的话,那就会有大量的工作要做。还有,你如何处理那些元音不会自动跟在辅音后面,而是可能被放在上面甚至前面的文字?拉丁字母更容易玩,因为它是如此的不精确:一个字母或字母组合可以有两种、三种、甚至半打的使用方式,所以一张牌或瓦片可以有很多价值)。 最新的 "濒危字母 "游戏是迄今为止最复杂的,也是它试图解决的问题中最具雄心的。让我来介绍一下情况。大约800年前,蒙古人建立了世界上有史以来最大的连片土地帝国。他们历史上的这一高潮与被视为蒙古创始人的成吉思汗、被蒙古人熟练驾驭的马和弓,以及独特的、垂直的古典蒙古文字有着深刻的联系。 从那时起,庞大的蒙古帝国就开始萎缩了。大多数在种族和文化上认同为蒙古人的人都生活在三个国家。俄罗斯、蒙古和中国。在俄罗斯的人往往讲俄语,用西里尔语书写。在蒙古的人说蒙古语,但由于来自苏联的历史压力,他们用西里尔语书写,这种文字不完全适合蒙古语,而且提醒他们最近被征服,而不是他们更早和更光荣的历史。 直到现在,传统的蒙古竖式毕赤格文字还在中国人称之为内蒙古自治省的地方保留下来,一些蒙古人称之为南蒙古。这个地区也是优雅、充满活力的蒙古书法的故乡,2013年被联合国教科文组织确定为急需保护的非物质文化遗产。2020年8月,这个传统蒙古文化的绿洲被粗暴地撼动了,当时中国政府宣布,从那个秋天开始,内蒙古学校的某些关键课程将不用蒙古语而用汉语授课。 蒙古人认识到这是在他们和他们的语言、文字,以及他们的文化之间打下的一个楔子的薄片。 (与此同时,中国对蒙古文化的意图在法国也很明显。在法国,一个关于成吉思汗的展览被暂停,因为中国文化遗产局要求对展览手册、传说和地图进行编辑,并坚持要删除任何关于成吉思汗本人或 "蒙古 "和 "帝国 "的字眼。蒙古人征服中国人的历史事实也将被抹去)。 对我来说,这种情况显然需要濒危文字组织的帮助--但一个小小的非营利组织怎么能支持一个受到可能是世界上最强大的政府威胁的文化呢? 创造一个游戏的想法来自华沙大学的Olgierd Uziemblo,作为一个波兰人,他对在专制政府下生存的情况有亲身体会。他认为,策略不应该是激怒中国人,而是要找到明显无害的方法来保持自己的身份和文化的完整和记忆,直到威胁过去。作为一名汉学家,他的父亲曾在蒙古国担任过外交官,他还坚持认为游戏的高潮应该在每年夏天的那达慕节,这是世界上最古老的节日之一,它将蒙古人的传统运动(射箭、摔跤、骑马)与贸易、商业和传统故事相结合。 这个游戏的核心是一个所谓的历史事件。当成吉思汗建立了世界上已知的最大的连片土地帝国后,他和他的儿子们之间出现了一场辩论。现在怎么办?我们想用这块乌鲁斯,这块土地做什么?我们想成为什么样的人? 我们应该成为战士吗?我们应该回到传统的游牧民族生活吗?我们是否应该尝试成为城市居民,就像我们在西方遇到的那些文化一样?在某种程度上,这是一场关于一个民族灵魂的辩论,而这种古代/现代、农村/城市的两难处境,今天许多蒙古人仍然感受得到。因此,这款游戏的名字是这样的。ULUS,游牧民族的传说。 我决定将其设定为蒙古诸神之间的较量,每个神都有自己的乌鲁斯,或对蒙古土地的未来的看法。我还决定从希腊神话中借用众神在人类棋盘上进行争吵的概念,因此每个神都由一个来自蒙古历史和神话的人类冠军来代表游戏。例如,索尔哈格塔尼-贝基,忽必烈的母亲,可以说是历史上最有权力的女人。忽秃伦,这位贵族妇女向她的求婚者发出挑战,要求他们与她摔跤,并将他们全部击败。扎那巴扎尔,佛教圣人、雕塑家、诗人和字母表的创造者。 每个冠军必须收集各种资产,使他们的神能够建立和维持他们的乌鲁斯,这些资产由卡片代表--但每张资产卡片都在一个圣地,由蒙古神话中的怪物看守,冠军必须击败怪物以获得资产。 游戏的进行遵循了游牧民族的生活节奏,冠军队伍按季节在蒙古土地上移动,最后在那达慕结束。冠军的命运由滚动沙盖决定--沙盖是亚洲各地用于占卜的羊脚踝骨,在儿童游戏中,沙盖是蒙古人用来制作衣服、鞋子和蒙古包的传统布料。 我们非常幸运地与几位蒙古族专家合作。Gunbilegt Enkhbold能够找到沙盖,包括正宗的骨沙盖和为儿童游戏制造的树脂沙盖。编辑、翻译、词典编纂者和书法教师达什-尼亚姆苏仁为我们写了一个特殊的 "折叠 "字体的季节名称,这是一种古典蒙古语的形式,特别是用于将一个词圈起来,以及其他设计和展示目的。Bajuna Batjargal是一位专门从事传统蒙古毡织物的织物设计师,他设计了游戏垫子,并在上面印上了蒙古文字。比和索伊在他们的蒙古包周围协调了一个小型家庭工业,手工缝制传统的蒙古游戏垫。 我们就学习蒙古语言和/或文字是否会成为游戏的一部分进行了长时间的辩论,并决定这对玩家的要求太高。他们可以看到文字,在规则书中也有关于文字工作原理的简要介绍,在游戏网站上我们还提供了优秀的蒙古语学习网站的链接,但我们决定最好的办法是向一般文化敞开大门,任何对语言感兴趣的人都会有明确的前进道路。我们的团队之一,希尔科-德鲁德,也在设计一个教授蒙古文字的纸牌游戏,作为后续工作。 即使是在游戏的组件到达并被组装起来进行运输的时候,我也非常清楚成吉思汗的问题 现在怎么办?我已经承诺要出版一本菲律宾传统文字的儿童图画书词典,并致力于一个庞大的研究项目,以确定世界上目前所有的文字,并评估其健康或濒危程度。鉴于世界上的文字危机还没有被人们注意到,我如何资助这项工作呢? 好问题。我最好卷起我的沙盖....

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