Shanghai Daily
Mo Yan, one of China's leading writers of the past half-century, won the Nobel Literature Prize yesterday for writing that mixes folk tales, history and the contemporary.
"Through a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives, Mo Yan has created a world reminiscent in its complexity of those in the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, at the same time finding a departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition," the Swedish Academy announced.
It is the first time a Chinese national has won the award.
Mo Yan, 57, is perhaps best-known abroad for his 1987 novella "Red Sorghum," a tale of the brutal violence that plagued the east China countryside - where he grew up - during the 1920s and 30s. The story was later made into an acclaimed film by Chinese director Zhang Yimou, and won the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival in 1988.
Mo Yan, a pseudonym that means "Don't speak" and whose real name is Guan Moye, "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary," the jury said.
Mo offers "a unique insight into a unique world in a quite unique manner," the academy's permanent secretary, Peter Englund, said. His style is "a fountain of words and stories and stories within stories, then stories within the stories within the stories and so on. He's mesmerizing," Englund told Reuters television.
Englund quote the author as saying he was "overjoyed and terrified" at being given the prize. Mo was "at home with his dad" when he was told of the award, according to Englund.
Mo has published novels, short stories and essays on various topics, and despite his social criticism is seen in his homeland as one of the foremost contemporary authors, the Nobel committee noted.
He has authored other acclaimed works including "Big Breasts and Wide Hips," "Republic of Wine" and "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out."
He has also written dozens of other novels, novellas and short stories, generally eschewing contemporary issues and instead looking back at China's tumultuous 20th century in tales often infused with politics and a dark, cynical sense of humor.
The backdrops for his various works have included the 1911 revolution that toppled China's last imperial dynasty, Japan's brutal wartime invasion, China's land-reform policies of the 1950s and the madness of the 1966-1976 "cultural revolution."
His latest novel, 2009's "Frog," is considered his most daring yet, due to its searing depiction of China's "one child" population control policy and the local officials who ruthlessly implement it with forced abortions and sterilizations.
Luan Meijian, deputy director of Fudan University's Chinese Contemporary Literature Creation and Research Center, said: "Mo's work best reflects the reality of the society. China has seen many superficial literatures which are coarsely created to help writers and publishers make profits, while Mo has devoted himself wholeheartedly to the writing."
The author grew up in Gaomi in east China's Shandong Province, the son of farmers.
The literature prize is the fourth and one of the most watched announcements of this Nobel season, following the prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry earlier this week.
As tradition dictates, the Nobel laureates will receive their prizes at formal ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of prize creator Alfred Nobel in 1896.
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Mo Yan, one of China's leading writers of the past half-century, won the Nobel Literature Prize yesterday for writing that mixes folk tales, history and the contemporary.
"Through a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives, Mo Yan has created a world reminiscent in its complexity of those in the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, at the same time finding a departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition," the Swedish Academy announced.
It is the first time a Chinese national has won the award.
Mo Yan, 57, is perhaps best-known abroad for his 1987 novella "Red Sorghum," a tale of the brutal violence that plagued the east China countryside - where he grew up - during the 1920s and 30s. The story was later made into an acclaimed film by Chinese director Zhang Yimou, and won the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival in 1988.
Mo Yan, a pseudonym that means "Don't speak" and whose real name is Guan Moye, "with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary," the jury said.
Mo offers "a unique insight into a unique world in a quite unique manner," the academy's permanent secretary, Peter Englund, said. His style is "a fountain of words and stories and stories within stories, then stories within the stories within the stories and so on. He's mesmerizing," Englund told Reuters television.
Englund quote the author as saying he was "overjoyed and terrified" at being given the prize. Mo was "at home with his dad" when he was told of the award, according to Englund.
Mo has published novels, short stories and essays on various topics, and despite his social criticism is seen in his homeland as one of the foremost contemporary authors, the Nobel committee noted.
He has authored other acclaimed works including "Big Breasts and Wide Hips," "Republic of Wine" and "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out."
He has also written dozens of other novels, novellas and short stories, generally eschewing contemporary issues and instead looking back at China's tumultuous 20th century in tales often infused with politics and a dark, cynical sense of humor.
The backdrops for his various works have included the 1911 revolution that toppled China's last imperial dynasty, Japan's brutal wartime invasion, China's land-reform policies of the 1950s and the madness of the 1966-1976 "cultural revolution."
His latest novel, 2009's "Frog," is considered his most daring yet, due to its searing depiction of China's "one child" population control policy and the local officials who ruthlessly implement it with forced abortions and sterilizations.
Luan Meijian, deputy director of Fudan University's Chinese Contemporary Literature Creation and Research Center, said: "Mo's work best reflects the reality of the society. China has seen many superficial literatures which are coarsely created to help writers and publishers make profits, while Mo has devoted himself wholeheartedly to the writing."
The author grew up in Gaomi in east China's Shandong Province, the son of farmers.
The literature prize is the fourth and one of the most watched announcements of this Nobel season, following the prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry earlier this week.
As tradition dictates, the Nobel laureates will receive their prizes at formal ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of prize creator Alfred Nobel in 1896.
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