By Borjigin Manda
Southern Mongolian News

Malaqinfu, Mongolian writer, playwright, and editor.

Mongolian writer, playwright, and editor Malaqinfu died in Beijing on September 1, 2026, at the age of 97, according to an obituary issued by the China Writers Association. His farewell ceremony was scheduled for September 7 at Babaoshan Funeral Parlor in Beijing.

Born in August 1930 in what is now Fuxin Mongolian Autonomous County in Liaoning Province, Malaqinfu began his literary career in the early 1950s. His early work, People of the Horqin Grassland, brought him recognition and established his place in the literary world. He later published The Vast Grassland (Mangmang de Caoyuan) and The Flowering Grassland, among other works. His writing frequently drew on grassland life, Mongolian communities, and cultural traditions.

Malaqinfu is perhaps best known to a wider Chinese audience as one of the lyricists of “Meeting at the Aobao” (Aobao Xianghui), a song that became closely associated with the Mongolian grassland in modern Chinese popular culture. He also wrote screenplays and lyrics for other works, including The Morning of the Grassland.

Beyond his literary work, Malaqinfu held a number of important positions in China's literary institutions. He served as editor-in-chief of Grassland and Ethnic Literature, president and editor-in-chief of Writers Publishing House, and later as Deputy Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the China Writers Association.

For generations of Mongolian readers in Southern Mongolia, Malaqinfu was not simply a name in literary history. His works were encountered by students through Mongolian-language education and became part of the literary memory of many readers. His stories and writings about the grassland brought Mongolian landscapes, communities, and cultural life into literature familiar to generations of young people.

Remembering his work today also invites reflection on the preservation of Mongolian literary heritage. Literary works can survive across generations, but the language and cultural environment in which they are read are equally important. Preserving the literature of earlier generations is therefore also part of preserving cultural memory.

Malaqinfu's death marks the passing of an important figure in the literary history of Mongolian writing in China. His works remain part of a broader Mongolian literary legacy, documenting the lives, landscapes, and cultural experiences of Mongolian communities in the twentieth century.

Sources: China Writers Association; Beijing Daily; Yangtze Evening News.