China: Back From the Boondocks

After five years of hard labor on a farm outside Peking and 16 years of internal exile in the remote province of Xinjiang, Writer Wang Meng was officially confirmed last week as China’s new Minister of Culture. Prior to his appointment, he said he did not want the position but, if chosen, would have to accept.

In 1957 Novelist Wang fell victim to Chairman Mao Tse-tung’s “antirightist” cam- paign. On the basis of one short story published during the surge of creativity that followed the preceding Hundred Flowers movement, Wang was accused of “destructive, anti-party” sentiments.

Wang’s appointment marks an attempt by Deng Xiaoping and other top Communist Party officials to convince Chinese intellectuals that the repression of the Cultural Revolution will not recur. Writers, however, remain skeptical. Despite his advocacy of creative freedom, Wang has proved a staunch supporter of party policy on the arts.