New | Retired Chinese Minister of Culture Wang Meng makes moderate plea for Xinjiang unity

More than half a century ago, Wang Meng was branded a "rightist intellectual" after publishing a novel critical of Communist Party bureaucracy. To avoid political persecution, he applied to be transferred to the western region of Xinjiang, where he and his wife would spend almost 16 years living among ethnic Uygurs and survive the Great Cultural Revolution.

One of China’s most prominent living writers, the now octogenarian Wang has returned to Xinjiang in recent months, where he made a plea for ethnic harmony, according to a transcript of a lecture he gave at the Communist Party’s Central Party School in Beijing to cadres from the region.

In his lecture to Xinjiang cadres, the former minister of culture said he hoped Han people, including those sent from elsewhere in China to Xinjiang, would study the region’s traditional cultures and make an effort to preserve their cultural heritage.

He said both the Uygur and the Han cultures are part of the Chinese civilisation and should be cherished as such.

“You cannot be reckless in your endeavours,” Wang told the cadres. “Don’t destroy traditional things while developing [the economy].”