This year marks the 40th anniversary of Alai’s literary creation. In the past forty years, this Tibetan writer from the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan has been working tirelessly on his works, reviewing the rise and fall of the native chieftain system in When The Dust Settles, reflecting on the relationship between humans and the ecology of the plateau in The Mushroom Circle, and depicting the trauma and redemption in the Wenchuan earthquake in the Story in the Clouds. His works have been translated and introduced to the West in large numbers, winning heavyweight literary awards such as the Mao Dun Literature Prize and the Lu Xun Literature Prize.