Niche literary leader

School of life

Born in 1958 as the second of four children in a family where the father worked at Ili Daily and the mother was a primary school teacher, Alat Asem's road to literary maturity was not smooth.

He spent his early years in Yutian county, Hotan prefecture, to the north of the gorgeous Kunlun Mountains in southern Xinjiang. Over the years, his work took him all over the vast region.

In 1976, the junior middle school graduate chose to go to Mengjin Commune in Huocheng county, Ili prefecture, like the urban youths sent to the countryside for re-education in the country.

The team plowed the fields until the sky was star-lit, then feasted on pilaf, danced and sang as Maria, a music teacher, played the accordion.

Two years later, he became a worker at the pressroom of Ili Daily, where the avid learner translated Uygur into Chinese in his spare time. A writing session in 1979 prompted him to pen his maiden work in Chinese about a Uygur old man.

Sometimes the best critique comes from the most unexpected corner.

"Your language is good," commented Wali, another worker at the newspaper, as they drank with some friends. "But you must write about secrets in the characters' souls: Only such things can make a true novel."

The diligent young man grasped every chance to hone his eyes and pen as he worked at various posts, including vice-mayor of Kuytun city in Ili prefecture. Today, he is deputy chairman of the Xinjiang Writers Association.

Daring explorations

While the school of life provides him with ample references for writing, literary masters like Leo Tolstoy, Victor Hugo and Lu Xun were another source of inspiration.

In his early years as a writer, Alat Asem mainly published in Chinese. This dismayed some locals who questioned his identity.

The criticism propelled him to search for the fountainhead of his Uygur traditions. Modern and contemporary poets Nimxiyit, L. Mutallip, Teyipqian and Utkur, and novelists Zordun Sabir, Akbar Mijit, Muhammat Bagrax, Ahtam Umar and Mamtimin Hoxur all inspired him.

"They all based their writing on reality and formed their own style - witty, humorous, unconstrained and lively. At the same time, they also seek after something profound," he says.

With some 10 novels and seven collections of novellas in Uygur, he earned a rightful place in Xinjiang's literary circle. However, he did not stop there.

Over the past few years, he has been experimenting in combining the cream of Chinese and Uygur languages.

"Chinese is not his mother tongue, so his Chinese writing may never reach the exquisite texture, but this is exactly why he is so attractive," Ou Ning, editor-in-chief of Chutzpah!, said in an e-mail interview.

In June 2012, Shanghai-based Wenhui Press published The Butterfly Era, a collection of Alat Asem's novellas in Chinese. When Ou compiled the 11th issue of Chutzpah! themed on Xinjiang in late 2012, he included Sidik Golden MobOff in Chinese.

"We believe his creation in Chinese writing is not in the least inferior to any active contemporary Chinese writer," Ou says.