Decoding Xinjiang

Modern poet Shen Wei, who spent nearly three decades in the Northwest Chinese region, promotes universal themes for writers there. Yang Yang reports in Shanghai.

The Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in Northwest China is vast and bears strong regional characteristics, but it's important for local and outside writers to "dig out the universal humanities" of the place. That's the message award-winning Chinese poet Shen Wei delivered when he recently spoke at the Shanghai Book Fair.

The 50-year-old was surprised to find the expanded edition of his collection of essays - A Dictionary of Xinjiang - sold out in months after it was published in October 2014, and that Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House had to reprint more copies for this year's book fair in the city.