Aku Wuwu

Over two million Nuosu people live in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in southern Sichuan province, and surrounding areas.  The name “Aku Wuwu” is a Sinicized version of Apkup Vytvy as written in Nuosu Romanization.  His Chinese name is Luo Qingchun.  Growing up in a hamlet, Aku learned to speak Chinese around age seven and by age 18 had enrolled in the Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.  Aku is currently the dean of the Yi Studies Institute and is involved in many projects to further the education of Yi students. '

Author of many volumes of poetry in both Nuosu and Chinese, Aku Wuwu is also a literary critic and advocate of “mother tongue” poetry and interested in issues of cultural hybridity.  His translated works include Tiger Traces: Selected Nuosu and Chinese Poetry of Aku Wuwu (Aku Wuwu and Mark Bender, ed. 2006.  Columbus: Foreign Languages Publications) and Coyote Traces: Aku Wuwu’s Poetic Sojourn in America (Aku Wuwu 2015, Wen Peihong and Mark Bender, trans. Beijing: The Ethnic Publishing House/Columbus: The Ohio State University National East Asian Resource Center).