Abstract architects, beware: President Xi Jinping isn’t a fan of your strange-looking buildings.

During a two-hour speech at a literary symposium in Beijing earlier this week – a rare attendance for a Chinese president – Mr. Xi discussed how art should serve the people. He called for morally inspiring art that should “be like sunshine from the blue sky and the breeze in spring that will inspire minds, warm hearts, cultivate taste and clean up undesirable work styles.”

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