Who is Wang Meng?

Wang Meng, of Henan origin, was born in 1934 in Beijing. He joined the Communist Party in 1948 and has served as Culture Minister, editor-in-chief of People's Literature, Vice President of Chinese Writers Association and Vice Director of the Chinese Center of International PEN. He was also a member of the 12th and 13th CPC Central Committees and a standing member of the 8th and 9th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee.

Wang has been writing since 1953 when he published his first novel Long Live Youth (Qingchun Wansui). His first important work The Young Newcomer in the Organization Department (1956) mildly criticized the bureaucracy and as a result he was labeled a "rightist" and in 1958 he was forced to undergo "reform through labor" in the countryside. Five years later, he left for Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and lived there until returning to Beijing in 1978.

Wang is known for his unremitting explorations and the outspoken positions taken in his works, which depict the Chinese people's mental world against different historical backgrounds. In addition to his own writing, he is also a well-known critic and researcher of the Chinese classic novel A Dream of the Red Mansions, and of the ancient poet Li Shangyin. His works have been translated into more than 20 languages including English, French, German, Russian, Japan, and Spanish and he has won numerous international awards.

Some of Wang's works available in English

The Butterfly and Other Stories by Wang Meng, publisher: Foreign Languages Press (1983)

Selected Works of Wang Meng I: The Strain of Meeting by Wang Meng (Author), Denis C. Mair (Translator), publisher: Foreign Languages Press (1989)

Selected Works of Wang Meng II: Snowball by Wang Meng (Author), Cathy Silber and Deirdre Huang (Translator), publisher: Foreign Languages Press (1989)

Bolshevik Salute: A Modernist Chinese Novel by Wang Meng (Author), Wendy Larson (Translator), publisher: University of Washington Press (1990)

The Stubborn Porridge and Other Stories by Wang Meng (Author), Zhu Hong (Translator), publisher: George Braziller (1994)