Xi Murong assimilates a teenage girl who is longing for love to a lotus. Though she is in her best time, she finds out there are always some regrets in romance. The delicate depiction of the girl's inner world amazes many readers. People wonder how Xi Murong can write such beautiful words. Out of their expectation, the answer is really simple.

"To me, writing poem is a kind of release. I belong to the kind of people who are easy to be nervous when doing social activities. Only writing can make me reveal my true feelings. During my creation, I never think about how to write elegant sentences or which rhetorical devices I need to use. I just write down what I have to say."

Besides love, nostalgic desire is also an important topic in Xi Murong's poems. Her work Homesick is the best example. Homesickness is a tree without annual rings. And never old will it be. The home here refers to Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region with vast grassland and deserts.

Both of Xi Murong's parents are from the Mongolian aristocratic family. Born in 1943 in southwest China, Xi Murong has moved with her family to different cities because of the anti-Japanese war. Then she settled down in Taiwan in 1950s. In 1989, aged 46, Xi Murong finally got a chance to visit her hometown.

"I felt unbelievable. I had never been to that place, but everything seemed familiar. When I saw the rugged and vast grassland, I thought I walked into my dream."

Xi Murong wrote all her feelings on the paper. From that time, she has begun to turn her attention from romance to the vigorous sight of the prairie. She hoped to completely record the beauty of her hometown.

In the following 20 years, Xi Murong paid regular visits to Inner Mongolia, writing articles and shooting pictures. However, she still doesn't think she knows this land well enough.

"What I do there? Just wandering. I just keep walking in the forest, desert and prairie. I used to write diaries to record what I saw. Then when I was too tired to write, I tape-record to collect my thoughts."

Though it is exhausting work, Xi Murong enjoys it a lot. In her words, nothing is more fun than walking in the immense grassland in summer. When she is in her hometown, Xi Murong finds she is very sensitive and even some fine details can make her cry. Just like her verse says, "my love for my hometown is just like the long river on the highland, zigzagging and devious. "

Recently, Xi Murong published a prose book called Seeking the Dreamland. She thinks her career of exploring the land still has a long way to go.

"I find a completely new world here. There is so much to learn. A scholar or even a herdsman can be my teacher and friend. I love this world and what makes me very happy is that I was born to be part of it."

This year, Xi Murong plans another visit to her hometown. Just as she said, her nostalgic desire for the grassland will never fade.

"Song of hometown

Is a flute

remote and light,

and always heard in the moon night.

Image of hometown

Is a blur of anxiety,

Like waving good-bye

In a place misty.

After bidding farewell,

Homesickness is like a tree

Without annual rings,

And never old will it be."