Poetic way to decode Xinjiang

Poet Shen Wei focuses his writing on the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, where he has lived for 27 years. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Shen was born and grew up in Huzhou city in East China's Zhejiang province.

After graduating from an East China university at age 23, Shen－like many graduates then－went to China's remotest areas to pursue poetry and nature.

Shen was drawn to the beauty of Xinjiang.

He was also trying to escape a painful situation at home－conflicts with his father.

A Dictionary has an entry called "Migrant Frog". It is a short fantasy story of a frog from the southern China. The frog feels depressed because he is always wet from being inside a pond, so he hops to the deserts of Xinjiang in the hope that the water on his skin will evaporate.

"As a southerner, I felt like that frog," Shen says. "But the frog also had to retain the humidity of his skin, or he would die. ... So, I needed to dry myself a little bit. But at the same time, I had to keep myself wet enough. I think my writing injects a little bit of humidity into dry Xinjiang, which is a metaphor in A Dictionary."

Shen says that one of the biggest reasons he stayed in Xinjiang for so long is his body's tolerance of the region's strong foods and sunshine.

"Only if one's body accepts a place can his or her soul gradually accept that place," he says.

He Yanhong, a professor of literature at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, says it was good that Shen went to Xinjiang. The region benefitted from his writing and he gained from its creative inspiration and resources.