Wang Meng

Who is Wang Meng?

Wang Meng is a Chinese writer. Wang was born in Beijing in 1934. During his middle school years, he was introduced to communist ideology and in 1949 officially joined the Communist Youth League.

Wang Meng has published over 60 books since 1955, including six novels, ten short-story collections, as well as other works of poetry, prose and critical essays. His works have been translated and published in 21 different languages.

In 1956 Wang published a controversial piece, "A New Arrival at the Organization Department". This caused a great uproar and subsequently led to his being labelled a "rightist". In 1963, he was sent to Xinjiang to be "reformed" through labor. It was largely during this period of hardship that he accrued much of the experience that would later become the material for his short stories and novels. Not until 1979 was this injury redressed. In 1980 was invited to be in residency at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

He served as China's Minister of Culture from 1986 to 1989.

In an article in The New Yorker, critic Jianying Zha asked, 'Is China's most eminent writer a reformer or an apologist?'