Alai (author)


Alai is a Chinese poet and novelist of Rgyalrong Tibetan descent. He was also editor of Science Fiction World.

Works

Alai's notable novel Red Poppies, published in 1998, follows a family of Tibetan chieftains, the Maichi, during the decade or so before the liberation of Tibet by the People's Liberation Army in 1951. Their feudal life in the Tibetan borderlands, narrated by the youngest "idiot" son, is described as cruel, romantic, and full of intrigue. Red Poppies won the 5th Mao Dun Literary Prize in 2000 and was selected as a finalist for the Kiriyama Prize in 2002.
In 2013, he participated in the International Writing Program's Fall Residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, IA.

Filmography