China wins its first Nobel prize in literature

12 October, 2012

Thanks to creative and intellectual writer Mo Yan, even China can now boast of a Nobel prize in literature. The country is overjoyed with the honour bestowed on them, but there are some Chinese analysts, who have expressed distaste at the award.

CHINA IS the proud owner of a Nobel prize for Literature as Mo Yan was named the writer who was selected by the Swedish committee for this year's honour. This is the first time that a Chinese writer has been bestowed with the award.

The prize is not the result of one particular work of any author but the body of works associated with him. According to the nobelprize.org, MoYan is someone “who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.”

The 57-year-old author's work includes 'Red Sorghum' (later made into an acclaimed film) and 'Big Breasts and Wide Hips', the Garlic Ballads and the Republic of Wine. For a man whose pen name Mo Yan means in Mandarin 'Don't Speak,' he has a view on almost all aspects of life. When the committee told him about his win, he was both 'overjoyed and terrified.' He is best known for his work Red Sorghum that tells the tale of the hardships faced by a farmer.

While speaking to the state-run China News Service Yan said, “But I do not think that my winning can be seen as representing anything. I think that China has many outstanding authors, and their great works should also be recognized by the world.” His original name is Guan Moye and earlier in life he was forced to leave school and herd cattle during the China's Cultural Revolution. His parents were farmers and it was later that he finished his studies.

Although China as a state is very happy with the honour but there are other citizens who do not think that Yan deserved the prize or the title. Yu Shicun, a Beijing-based essayist and a critic said, “His works are from the 1980s, when he was influenced by Latin American literature. I don't think he's created his own things. We don't see him as an innovator in Chinese literature.” Then again there is a political aspect to his persona as Yan is the vice chairman of the government-backed Chinese Writers' Association.