The land will grow its own speakers just as it grows wheat and corn. Li Juan is just such a speaker.
— Liu Liangcheng, Winner of the Mao Dun Literature Award and the Lu Xun Literature Award, hailed as the "last essayist" and "rural philosopher" of 20th century China

Some people's words you can read a hundred times and still not remember, while others' words are unforgettable after just one reading.
— Wang Anyi, Famous Chinese female writer and recipient of the Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature in France

On an autumn morning, I saw a squirrel in the woods. With its fluffy tail and tufts of fur, it nimbly flew around the trees looking for food. It was so lively that it held my attention as if I were watching a performance. Its fluffy tail is not just for beauty; it's a parachute! It can easily move around on the high treetops, and the wild cats on the ground have no way to catch it. It's a sprite, moving too fast! Watching it, I thought that Li Juan is probably just such a wild squirrel.
— Zhou Tao, Winner of the Lu Xun Literature Award and the National New Poetry Award, contemporary Chinese poet and essayist

She is the Sei Shonagon of Altay. She makes us, who play with words, feel desperate, reminding us of "The Story of the Hulan River"... Just as the small town of Hulan River in Heilongjiang, with its icy and snowy landscape, miraculously produced a master like Xiao Hong, suddenly a writer like her has emerged from the wilderness of the Altay Mountains in Xinjiang.
— Shu Feilian, Author, Editor in Chief of "Legends of the Past and Present: Martial Arts Edition"

★Douban has over 80,000 reviews with an average rating of above 8.5 out of 10! WeChat Reading has over 1 million views! Ximalaya audiobook has over 10 million plays!
★Ranked 8th on Dangdang Literature Bestseller List, with 820,000 comments and a perfect 5-star rating! Sales have exceeded 2 million copies!
★Recipient of the 2025 China Copyright Gold Award for Works, the 2024 Book of the Year Gold Award! 2024 Bestselling Author!
★The adapted TV drama with the same title is a phenomenal hit on CCTV, topping the ratings!
★The remote and quiet Akkala Village, the slow yet eternal Kavutu, the summer pastures of Sayhengbulak... “The Spirits of Altay” Li Juan records the beautiful and shining moments of the northern borderland with a delicate and bright pen.

The “Prose Elf” Li Juan's work collection includes 9 books:
“The Distant Sunflower Field”
“My Altay”
“Remember One, Forget Three (Essays Collection)”
“Sheep Path: Spring Pasture”
“Winter Pasture”
“Sheep Path: Summer Pasture in Front Mountain”
“Sheep Path: Summer Pasture in Remote Mountain”
“The Train Is Coming (Poetry Collection)”
“The Place Where Sheep Horns Rust (Essay Collection)”

The book is divided into two volumes. The first volume, Memories Within (2007-2009), records the fragmented and resilient life scenes in Kavutu and Akkala Village; the second volume, In the Corners (2002-2006), writes in an original and ecological way about Li Juan and her mother and elderly grandmother's nomadic and mobile daily life with the herdsmen: running a grocery store, being a seamstress, making clothes for passing herdsmen, and picking wild mushrooms in the deep mountains; the swelling tents on the Sayhengbulak grassland in spring, the noisy and grand Aken singing and playing sessions on the summer pastures, and the solid and long snowy roads in winter... Deserts, grasslands, forests, snow mountains, horses, and herdsmen, the delicate and bright words show the profound and rich survival landscape of the nomadic people in the borderland.

Li Juan

A famous Chinese essayist. Born in 1979 in the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Farm Seven, she grew up moving between Sichuan and Xinjiang, and She lived in Altay Pastures for a period of time.

She has published essay collections such as “Nine Snows”, “My Altay”, “The Corners of Altay”, “Sing Loudly When Walking at Night”, “Remember One, Forget Three”, etc.; long essays like “Winter Pasture”, the “Sheep Path” trilogy, “The Distant Sunflower Field”; and a poetry collection “The Train Is Coming”, among others. She has won awards such as the “Lu Xun Literature Prize”, “People's Literature Prize”, “Shanghai Literature Prize”, “Tianshan Literature and Art Prize”, “Zhu Ziqing Essay Prize”, “China Good Book Award” and “China Excellent Publication”, etc.
“My Altay” has been adapted into a TV drama with the same name, which has received high praise from readers and viewers.

Her works have been translated into English, French, Japanese, Russian, Korean, Turkish, Vietnamese, Arabic, and other languages for overseas distribution, causing a huge response among readers.

Volume One: Memories Within (2007-2009)
What I Can Bring to You
My Horse
“Little Bird” Cigarettes
Making a Phone Call
Motorcycle Through the Spring Wilderness
The Road to Drip Spring
Three Notes on the New Year
Remembering My Grandmother Sticking Out Her Tongue
Locust Plague
The Bathhouse Here
A Cat from My Family's Past
Volume Two: In the Corners (2002-2006)
Han Children
The Youngest Son of the Bahati Family
The Open Land by the River
The Eternal Place of Kavutu
What If I Get Sick in Kavutu...
Country Dance
Taking the Bus to the Bridgehead
At the Singing and Playing Session
Gubei
Sleeping in the Wilderness
Our Home
The Road to a Family
Mushrooms