Introduction to the book and author 

This book is a collection of stories written by Liao Yirong, a writer of the Dongxiang ethnic group in China. Liao was born in 1976 in Xihaigu, one of the driest places in China. Once a wrangler in the grasslands under the Tianshan Mountains and a gold miner in the Bayan Har Mountains, Liao has left his footprints on all over the west of China. He began to publish his works in the early 1990s and has published over two million words in major Chinese literary journals. Liao has been awarded the third National Spring Literary Prize in 2004, the Feitian Prize for Literature in 2005 and the Horse Award for national minority literatures in 2008. Liao Yirong was invited to participate in an international writers’ project held at the University of Iowa, America, in 2010. Some of his works have been translated into foreign languages and introduced to readers overseas.