The Wind Blows In from Bortala

This is a realist novel focused on the spiritual homecoming and reshaping of values among young people in the new era. Qi Mingyuan, an online novelist stuck in a creative rut, travels alone to Bortala, Xinjiang. By the shores of Sayram Lake, he is moved by the Mongolian girl Wuyun Qiqige, who devotes herself to protecting the grasslands through her camera. He then meets one after another of the “wind chasers” who have put down roots in the borderlands, including doctors sent to assist Xinjiang and agricultural experts. From learning to ride horses and drink milk tea to taking part in rescue missions, he transforms from an observer into a participant amid the everyday mutual support of people from all ethnic groups. The grasslands’ warmth and everyone’s unwavering devotion heal his spiritual anxiety completely and bring him to a realization: the most moving stories are not found in imagined plots, but in the breathing earth itself. With a chance encounter linking its many perspectives, the novel paints a youthful portrait of borderland development and young people’s sense of responsibility against the backdrop of the Belt and Road Initiative.