Second Uncle 1

In his preface to The Second Uncle, the author uses the shifting sands of Ejin Banner as a backdrop to tell the story of an ordinary person in the northwestern Gobi, whose life is unremarkable yet weighty.

The Second Uncle was born into the bitter cold of the Gobi. His childhood was starved of affection, and he grew up lonely and unsupported. As a boy, he was determined to escape his homeland. In his youth, he began a lifelong wandering, enduring hardship and struggle as he sought to escape poverty and find stability. By middle age, having seen the ways of the world, he gradually let go of his obsessions and made peace with his past, his family, and his fate. At last, he returned to the homeland he had once fought so hard to flee, put down roots in a small town, and found a place to spend the rest of his life.

The narrative is restrained and bleak, without melodrama or sensational twists, faithfully recreating the realities faced by ordinary people in the northwest. This is no legend, but a portrait of countless lives: born into hardship, sustained by resilience, and ending in reconciliation and a return home. The sands rise and fall, the poplars wither and bloom, and every wanderer eventually finds a place to belong.