Veteran writer Wang Meng offers his interpretation of contemporary China's political events in his new book God Knows China. Based on his firsthand experience, the book covers the period from the founding of New China in 1949 until today.

The 78-year-old is perhaps the most eligible author to write about the subject, since the ups and downs of his life have been inseparable from the country's political turbulence.

Wang joined the Communist Party of China in 1948 and started publishing in 1955. He was wrongly condemned as a "rightist" in the late 1950s for his short story A New Arrival at the Organization Department. For that, he was sent to the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to be "reformed" through labor in the early 1960s and stayed there for more than 10 years. After the "cultural revolution" (1966-76), his grievance was redressed. He served as the country's culture minister from 1986 to 1989.