AHP 61: GOOD BOYS NEVER CRY

Gu ru 'phrin las གུ་རུ་འཕྲིན་ལས། (格日成立 Gerichengli). 2022. Good Boys Never Cry སྟག་ཤར་རའི་མིག་ཆུ་གསེར།. Asian Highlands Perspectives 61.

Good Boys Never Cry by Gu ru 'phrin las is a collection of stories grappling with worlds separated by time and space but all joined by Tibetans of pastoral backgrounds facing challenges ranging from starvation and flashfloods in pre-modern times in tribal communities; horsemen with rifles chasing yak rustlers; pastoral women enmeshed in endless chores, marriage arrangements, spousal abuse, challenges, disappointments, and childrearing; university student life in urban settings; entrepreneur experiences in cosmopolitan Shenzhen; relationships beyond hetero; vibrant descriptions of bars, gyms, cafés; and the theater of city streets. The author's insightful creativity observes commonplace life and occurrences in inner and external worlds contextualized and expressed in remarkable literature.

The stories of this collection are rooted in a nomadic tribe experiencing a rapid social transition from mobile pastoralism to a partially sedentary way of life where black yak-hair tents are replaced with permanent housing and manufactured tents. A new mundane emerges with motorcycles and automobiles replacing walking and horse- and yakback riding and smartphones and television, further defining a newfangled normal. The details of the circumstances of these collective memories and experiences are fresh enough to be vividly described, especially by a writer with a lived Tibetan pastoralist background such as Gu ru 'phrin las. His important Remembering Tomorrow and its collective memories of Tibetans in herding groups raised in black yak-hair tents testify to his background and qualifications to authentically portray Tibetan pastoral life.