Wang Meng
A new version of Wang Meng's collected works has been published by the People's Literature Publishing House. The 50-volume anthology is a collection of his major works from 1948 to 2018, including novels, poems, prose and autobiography. There are also six volumes of interpretations of The Dream of the Red Chamber, one of China's four great classic novels. The original novel was written by Cao Xueqin in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
Born in Beijing in 1934, Wang wrote his first novel in 1953. Many of his books have been translated into multiple foreign languages. He served as China's culture minister from 1986 to 1989.
In 2015 he was awarded the Mao Dun Literature Prize, China's most prestigious literary award, for Scenery on This Side, a novel on rural life in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, where he worked from 1963 to 1978. He was also among the 42 individuals who received national honorary titles from President Xi Jinping on September 29 for their outstanding contributions. He received the title People's Artist.