FORMER Chinese Culture Minister Wang Meng, as well as a noted historian on the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) and 10 other people, have won “Awards for Excellent Chinese Biographic Works,” national prizes issued once every five years by the Biography Society of China (BSC).

Wang, 69, was awarded for his autobiography, which focuses on his turbulent life experiences between the 1950s and 1980s.

Jia Yinghua is a very productive writer known for his serial novels based on the real lives of the family of Puyi, the last Qing emperor and a puppet “emperor” of the “Manchu State” under invading Japanese troops during the 1930s and ’40s.

Most of the other prize-winners are newcomers to the country’s literary circles.

One of the eye-attracting winners is translator Lu Yi, who has turned an English biography on Iris Chang (Zhang Chunru) into Chinese. (Xinhua)