A Lai, a well-known Tibetan writer from Sichuan province, authorized the Sichuan Daily Press Group to adapt his novel The Song of King Gesar and other works into animated films on Tuesday.

The two sides signed an agreement at the First Sichuan Animated Drama Industry Innovation Partner Conference in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province. Under the deal, the press group obtains adaptation rights to A Lai's literary works, as well as the right to use the works for training and fine-tuning LLMs.

Widely regarded as the world's longest living epic and often described as "The Iliad of the East", the Epic of King Gesar has been passed down orally by singers and storytellers on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and surrounding areas. It tells the story of ancient hero Gesar, who conquered his enemies and helped ordinary people in the 11th century. It was inscribed on the UNESCO list of world intangible cultural heritage in 2009.

A Lai's work The Song of King Gesar, published in 2009, adapted the orally transmitted epic into a novel.

A preview of an animation based on the novel was shown at the conference. Told through the journey of a bard, the video presents classic passages from the novel, including grand battle scenes from the cold-weapon era.

Another highlight of the conference was the inauguration of an international AI animated drama industrial park. Located in Chengdu's Jinjiang district, the park will build a complete industrial chain for AI animated dramas.

In recent years, Sichuan has been fostering the development of the animated drama and micro-short drama industries. Official data shows that micro-short dramas and AI animated dramas produced in the province have reached audiences in more than 50 countries and regions, with cumulative views abroad exceeding 800 million.