Li Dawei (Chinese: 李大卫; born 1963) is a Chinese writer born in 1963. He began writing poetry at age 17, and in 1985 graduated from Beijing Normal University with a degree in English. Two years later, he made his first visit to the United States, to attend Creative Writers Program sponsored by U.S. Information agency. Since 1987, he has been publishing theoretical works about art and literature and in 1997, he published his first novel, Dream Collector, which is centred with a young musician and a talking cat that is later converted into a cartoon star. He won Select Short Stories Monthly prize in 1996 and, in 1997, was short-listed for Lu Xun Literary Prize, China's arguably highest award for literature. He was given October Prize in 2000. He currently resides in Los Angeles. He is also a columnist for Caijing Magazine