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Alai, male, Tibetan nationality, born in Barkam County, Sichuan Province in 1959. He is a famous contemporary writer, the winner of the Mao Dun Literary Prize, the chairman of Sichuan Province Writers Association, the adjunct vice chairman of the Chinese Writers Association. His representative work When the Dust Has Settled won the 5th Mao Dun Literary Prize. His highly appreciated works include full-length novels Empty Mountain, King Gesar, long geographical prose Ladder of The Earth, and his prose collections Gradually Being Abundant Like This, The Utopia of the Vegetation, etc.
At 20:58 on December 9th evening, author Alai wrote on his Tencent Micro-blog like this: "I stayed in Hong Kong for 4 days, then stayed in Haikou for one day. The air in these two places are both pretty good. At least it’s like so when compared with the air of the city which I live in. Then my pharyngitis which can hardly be affected by medicines suddenly cured after dragging for over half a month without any medicines. The famous “Are you happy?” interview with CCTV a while ago occurs to me. I want to say, I will be very happy if I could breathe the fresh and clean air."
To attend "The Symposium on Chinese Novels in New Century" jointly sponsored by Hainan Province Writers Association, Journal of Literature and Art, and Hainan University, recently, author Alai came to Hainan and received the exclusive interview with the reporter of Hainan Daily.
Reading and Writing on the Journey
Alai is the real name this Tibetan man, it is translated from Tibetan language. His healthy complexion, a little fat figure, deep voice and the mysterious atmosphere in his works such as When the Dust Has Settled, Empty Mountain, King Gesar are very easy to evoke images of mountains and the land to people's mind. He spoke things directly and answered questions succinctly. When he came across questions which he is unwilling to answer, he would say, "I don't know how to answer it". He would never answer perfunctory or say some unrelated words. But just when people took him as "an honest man", his casual cold humor would let people to reconsider him.
Alai told the reporter of Hainan Daily that he had ever been in Hainan for many times before this. Because "Winter in Chengdu is so cold that I have to find a place to bask in the sunshine".
No matter going for a vacation or a business trip, during the journey, his essential items are a laptop and several books that "worth intensive reading". This time, he brings A Textual Research on Tibetan and Chinese Culture (written by Wang Yao, China Tibetology Publishing House), RACE ET HISTOIRE RACE ET CULTURE written by Claude Lévi-Strauss, etc. "I won't bring novels, because novels can be quickly read over". But shouldn't we relax during the journey? How can he spend energy reading such books! "This is relaxation! After reading over these books, I can understand the problems that I didn't understand before, and this make me feel calm." Alai explained it like that. Bringing the laptop is for using leisure time to write at any time. Alai said, during the journey, he could "pump" out of the noisy and messy environment at any time, get rid of the disturbance quickly and enter the state of writing. Presently, there is a new work being written in his laptop, and tens of thousands of words have been finished. As to the content, he refused to disclose too much. He just said it was a work in the "realistic theme".
When the Dust Has Settled and Empty Mountain are both take the Tibetan areas as a background, and King Gesar is a reproduction of folklore. Will Alai challenge some other themes in the future, just like the urban type? "Who knows the things in the future?" Alai answered, "Maybe."
Excellent Works Are More Than When the Dust Has Settled
Alai thought himself was so lucky. In his youth, he came across the "reading fever" in the 1980s. He read many books of all times and all countries and laid the foundation for the writing later on. In the early 1980s, Alai began to compose poetries and had ever published an anthology Lengmo River. Gradually, he found that he liked stories more and addicted to the description and narration of details. Therefore, since the late of 1980s, Alai turned to the creation of novels. He published novel collection Bloodstains in the Old Year, Silversmith in the Moonlight, full-length novels When the Dust Has Settled, Empty Mountain, lengthy geographical prose Ladder of The Earth, and prose collections Gradually Being Abundant Like This, etc.
Maybe When the Dust Has Settled is the most famous work of Alai. This work was written in 1994, published by People's Literature Publishing House in 1998 and won the 5th Mao Dun Literary Prize in 2000. It is widely praised and keeps a very good long-term sales volume. Until now, when talking about Alai, usually people's first reaction is always "the author who wrote When the Dust Has Settled" .
Alai felt helpless about that. "I don't think When the Dust Has Settled is my best work; just the spreading process made it become the most famous work." Alai said, "After a work is completed, its future would go out of the control of the author. Just like after the child is born, he or she must have his or her own life."
After publishing When the Dust Has Settled, as an author, Alai had been quiet for a time. Alai explained it like that, "After completing When the Dust Has Settled, my passion for writing had been exhausted. It was very hard to begin to write another new work. In that time, I felt myself was still young and wanted to draw support from a platform to get insight into life." Therefore, Alai came and worked in the periodical office of Science Fiction World. When talking about this work experience, Alai said: "Being an author and being a chief editor for a magazine are entirely two different things. Things what I should do and money what I should give are required. Others would not offer you favorable terms just because you are an author." Within a few years, Alai was promoted from editor, chief editor to chief director. In the charge of Alai, Science Fiction World developed from one magazine to five or six kinds and became the science fiction magazine with the largest circulation in the whole world and was voted as the best journal by the World Science Fiction Association. Liu Cixin, the author of Shanxi province, was also built as "the first person of domestic science fiction".
Just when Science Fiction World liked the sun at high noon, Alai changed his work focus again. He acted as chairman of Sichuan Province Writers Association and turned to the work of writing. "In my current age, I always think the time is not enough and have to choose things to do. Writing is a matter of my lifetime, it's time for me to write something excellent." Alai said. After 2005, Alai wrote lengthy novels Empty Mountain and King Gesar.
Writing Can Not Be Too Casual
The success of Science Fiction World is enough to prove the commercial talent of Alai. But Alai is unwilling to apply his works in the commercial operation, and he is also cautious about practices like adapting his works into films and television programs. In his opinion, writing should be classified, some are suitable for commercialization, some are not. He classified himself as the latter one.
Alai considered that the so-called "Truth, Goodness, Beauty" of literature should be explained as "Pursuing the reality and truth of the world, society and history in the spirit of goodness and in the form of beauty". "The so-called 'Truth' is not just pursuing the reality of things, but a kind of essential 'Truth' in terms of philosophy. The process of writing is discovering, capturing and presenting this 'Truth'." he said.
Therefore, he is disgusted with some current novels that are called "describing the reality". "Such as some novels in the theme of officialdom, they 'really' reflect how to give presents, offer or accept bribes, have mistresses...They haven't reflected the criticism and queries of the authors, but blindly cater to the peeping psychology of some readers." He said, "Even there are such things in real life, literature can not succumb to this 'reality' but should have the transcendency. Authors have a responsibility to tell the public that there are still many good things in this world." In the view of Alai, the current situation of writing is too casual, some web writers even can write ten thousand words each day. Many kinds of books are published unceasingly but can hardly leave readers an impression. "Somebody will say it is 'social diversification' , but this is not an excuse. Diversification is not without a standard, it means some more perspectives and standards, but now the standard is confused." In his eyes, if writing is just for amusing oneself, there can be no threshold; but once the works entered the public sphere, they need a standard.
To the "post-80s" authors, Alai thought, nowadays once people speak of the "post-80s" authors they always mean "the certain ones". It seems that those authors have represented a group. Some "post-80s" authors are very talented and have written some nice works. Unfortunately, their works have been drowned in the commerce and have been temporarily ignored. " Tested by time, good authors will stand out naturally." he said.
At 20:58 on December 9th evening, author Alai wrote on his Tencent Micro-blog like this: "I stayed in Hong Kong for 4 days, then stayed in Haikou for one day. The air in these two places are both pretty good. At least it’s like so when compared with the air of the city which I live in. Then my pharyngitis which can hardly be affected by medicines suddenly cured after dragging for over half a month without any medicines. The famous “Are you happy?” interview with CCTV a while ago occurs to me. I want to say, I will be very happy if I could breathe the fresh and clean air."
To attend "The Symposium on Chinese Novels in New Century" jointly sponsored by Hainan Province Writers Association, Journal of Literature and Art, and Hainan University, recently, author Alai came to Hainan and received the exclusive interview with the reporter of Hainan Daily.
Reading and Writing on the Journey
Alai is the real name this Tibetan man, it is translated from Tibetan language. His healthy complexion, a little fat figure, deep voice and the mysterious atmosphere in his works such as When the Dust Has Settled, Empty Mountain, King Gesar are very easy to evoke images of mountains and the land to people's mind. He spoke things directly and answered questions succinctly. When he came across questions which he is unwilling to answer, he would say, "I don't know how to answer it". He would never answer perfunctory or say some unrelated words. But just when people took him as "an honest man", his casual cold humor would let people to reconsider him.
Alai told the reporter of Hainan Daily that he had ever been in Hainan for many times before this. Because "Winter in Chengdu is so cold that I have to find a place to bask in the sunshine".
No matter going for a vacation or a business trip, during the journey, his essential items are a laptop and several books that "worth intensive reading". This time, he brings A Textual Research on Tibetan and Chinese Culture (written by Wang Yao, China Tibetology Publishing House), RACE ET HISTOIRE RACE ET CULTURE written by Claude Lévi-Strauss, etc. "I won't bring novels, because novels can be quickly read over". But shouldn't we relax during the journey? How can he spend energy reading such books! "This is relaxation! After reading over these books, I can understand the problems that I didn't understand before, and this make me feel calm." Alai explained it like that. Bringing the laptop is for using leisure time to write at any time. Alai said, during the journey, he could "pump" out of the noisy and messy environment at any time, get rid of the disturbance quickly and enter the state of writing. Presently, there is a new work being written in his laptop, and tens of thousands of words have been finished. As to the content, he refused to disclose too much. He just said it was a work in the "realistic theme".
When the Dust Has Settled and Empty Mountain are both take the Tibetan areas as a background, and King Gesar is a reproduction of folklore. Will Alai challenge some other themes in the future, just like the urban type? "Who knows the things in the future?" Alai answered, "Maybe."
Excellent Works Are More Than When the Dust Has Settled
Alai thought himself was so lucky. In his youth, he came across the "reading fever" in the 1980s. He read many books of all times and all countries and laid the foundation for the writing later on. In the early 1980s, Alai began to compose poetries and had ever published an anthology Lengmo River. Gradually, he found that he liked stories more and addicted to the description and narration of details. Therefore, since the late of 1980s, Alai turned to the creation of novels. He published novel collection Bloodstains in the Old Year, Silversmith in the Moonlight, full-length novels When the Dust Has Settled, Empty Mountain, lengthy geographical prose Ladder of The Earth, and prose collections Gradually Being Abundant Like This, etc.
Maybe When the Dust Has Settled is the most famous work of Alai. This work was written in 1994, published by People's Literature Publishing House in 1998 and won the 5th Mao Dun Literary Prize in 2000. It is widely praised and keeps a very good long-term sales volume. Until now, when talking about Alai, usually people's first reaction is always "the author who wrote When the Dust Has Settled" .
Alai felt helpless about that. "I don't think When the Dust Has Settled is my best work; just the spreading process made it become the most famous work." Alai said, "After a work is completed, its future would go out of the control of the author. Just like after the child is born, he or she must have his or her own life."
After publishing When the Dust Has Settled, as an author, Alai had been quiet for a time. Alai explained it like that, "After completing When the Dust Has Settled, my passion for writing had been exhausted. It was very hard to begin to write another new work. In that time, I felt myself was still young and wanted to draw support from a platform to get insight into life." Therefore, Alai came and worked in the periodical office of Science Fiction World. When talking about this work experience, Alai said: "Being an author and being a chief editor for a magazine are entirely two different things. Things what I should do and money what I should give are required. Others would not offer you favorable terms just because you are an author." Within a few years, Alai was promoted from editor, chief editor to chief director. In the charge of Alai, Science Fiction World developed from one magazine to five or six kinds and became the science fiction magazine with the largest circulation in the whole world and was voted as the best journal by the World Science Fiction Association. Liu Cixin, the author of Shanxi province, was also built as "the first person of domestic science fiction".
Just when Science Fiction World liked the sun at high noon, Alai changed his work focus again. He acted as chairman of Sichuan Province Writers Association and turned to the work of writing. "In my current age, I always think the time is not enough and have to choose things to do. Writing is a matter of my lifetime, it's time for me to write something excellent." Alai said. After 2005, Alai wrote lengthy novels Empty Mountain and King Gesar.
Writing Can Not Be Too Casual
The success of Science Fiction World is enough to prove the commercial talent of Alai. But Alai is unwilling to apply his works in the commercial operation, and he is also cautious about practices like adapting his works into films and television programs. In his opinion, writing should be classified, some are suitable for commercialization, some are not. He classified himself as the latter one.
Alai considered that the so-called "Truth, Goodness, Beauty" of literature should be explained as "Pursuing the reality and truth of the world, society and history in the spirit of goodness and in the form of beauty". "The so-called 'Truth' is not just pursuing the reality of things, but a kind of essential 'Truth' in terms of philosophy. The process of writing is discovering, capturing and presenting this 'Truth'." he said.
Therefore, he is disgusted with some current novels that are called "describing the reality". "Such as some novels in the theme of officialdom, they 'really' reflect how to give presents, offer or accept bribes, have mistresses...They haven't reflected the criticism and queries of the authors, but blindly cater to the peeping psychology of some readers." He said, "Even there are such things in real life, literature can not succumb to this 'reality' but should have the transcendency. Authors have a responsibility to tell the public that there are still many good things in this world." In the view of Alai, the current situation of writing is too casual, some web writers even can write ten thousand words each day. Many kinds of books are published unceasingly but can hardly leave readers an impression. "Somebody will say it is 'social diversification' , but this is not an excuse. Diversification is not without a standard, it means some more perspectives and standards, but now the standard is confused." In his eyes, if writing is just for amusing oneself, there can be no threshold; but once the works entered the public sphere, they need a standard.
To the "post-80s" authors, Alai thought, nowadays once people speak of the "post-80s" authors they always mean "the certain ones". It seems that those authors have represented a group. Some "post-80s" authors are very talented and have written some nice works. Unfortunately, their works have been drowned in the commerce and have been temporarily ignored. " Tested by time, good authors will stand out naturally." he said.