1 of 7. Chinese writer Mo Yan gestures during a news conference in his hometown of Gaomi, Shandong province October 12, 2012. Chinese Nobel Literature Prize winner Mo Yan said on Friday that he hoped the jailed 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, can ''achieve freedom soon''.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Lee

GAOMI, China | Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:54am EDT

GAOMI, China (Reuters) - Chinese Nobel Literature Prize winner Mo Yan unexpectedly called for the release of jailed compatriot Liu Xiaobo, who won the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago, having come under fire from rights activists for not speaking up for him.

The author, a portly 57-year-old whose adopted pen name Mo Yan means "don't speak", said he had read some of Liu's literary criticisms in the 1980s, but that he had no understanding of Liu's work once it had turned towards politics.

"I hope he can achieve his freedom as soon as possible," Mo told reporters on Friday in his hometown of Gaomi in the northern province of Shandong, in bold remarks likely to embarrass Beijing which has lauded his victory and denigrated Liu's prize.

Liu should be able to research his "politics and social system", Mo said without elaborating

A number of dissidents and other writers have said Mo was unworthy of winning as he had shied away from commenting on Liu's plight. They have also denounced him for commemorating a speech by former paramount leader Mao Zedong.

But Mo, whose real name is Guan Moye, shot back at those criticisms.

"I believe that the people who have criticized me have not read my books," he said. "If they had read my books they would understand that my writings at that time took on a great deal of risk and were under pressure.

"Many of the people who have criticized me online are Communist Party members themselves. They also work within the system. And some have benefited tremendously within the system," he added.

"I am working in China," he said. "I am writing in a China under Communist Party leaders. But my works cannot be restricted by political parties."

Mo, who was once so destitute he ate tree bark and weeds to survive, is the first Chinese national to win the $1.2 million literature prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy.

He is best known in the West for "Red Sorghum", which portrays the hardships endured by farmers in the early years of communist rule and was made in a film directed by Zhang Yimou. His books also include "Big Breasts and Wide Hips" and "The Republic of Wine".

Prominent dissident Hu Jia, a close friend of Liu's, praised Mo's apparent sudden change of heart.

"What has happened in the last 24 hours has changed him. A Nobel prize, whether for peace or for literature, bestows on one a sense of wrong and right," Hu told Reuters.

China, long used to wringing its hands at perceived snubs or insults by the Nobel organizers, has worked its propaganda machine into overtime to hail Mo's win as a breakthrough for the entire nation, and recognition of its place as a great country.

Senior Communist Party official and China's propaganda chief Li Changchun congratulated Mo, state media reported, saying he hoped "Chinese writers will focus on the country's people in their writing and create more excellent works that will stand the test of history".

But the mention of Liu by Mo, a vice-chairman of the government-backed Chinese Writers' Association, could make things awkward for the Chinese authorities, who jailed Liu for 11 years in 2009 for inciting subversion of state power.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei repeated government criticism of Liu's award, saying it amounted to "grave meddling in China's internal affairs and judicial sovereignty".

COUNTRY BOY

Mo's interest in literature dates back to his childhood in Gaomi. When he was six, he was an avid reader of Chinese classics, said Mo's elder brother Guan Moxin, 62. The youngest of four children, Mo loved telling stories.

But Mo's farmer father and brother, who are still living in the dusty, hardscrabble village in Gaomi where Mo grew up, had no idea they had a Nobel Literature Prize winner in their midst.

"What are the chances that a country boy without anything to his name could become a great author?" Guan Moxin told Reuters.

"He is just a man from this remote land, and this poor family; he is not from some big city."

Mo, already hugely popular in China, has become something of a celebrity in Gaomi. Thrilled residents set off fireworks the night Mo's award was announced. Reporters started streaming into the nondescript town. A hotel put up a digital banner congratulating Mo.

"I couldn't quite believe it. It took me awhile before I could believe it. It seemed so impossible. We were all (the village) celebrating, lighting firecrackers," Guan Moxin said.

Mo's books reflect the tumult of modern China. He has credited his early suffering for inspiring his works, which tackle corruption, decadence in Chinese society and rural life.

"When he was little at school he was very naughty," Mo's 90-year-old father, Guan Yifan, told Reuters. "But afterwards he had to stop and do farm work. At the time we had to eat wild vegetables, and he had to go and dig wild vegetables."

(Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee, Terril Yue Jones and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Nick Macfie)

View the original article here

1 of 7. Chinese writer Mo Yan gestures during a news conference in his hometown of Gaomi, Shandong province October 12, 2012. Chinese Nobel Literature Prize winner Mo Yan said on Friday that he hoped the jailed 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Liu Xiaobo, can ''achieve freedom soon''.

GAOMI, China | Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:54am EDT

GAOMI, China (Reuters) - Chinese Nobel Literature Prize winner Mo Yan unexpectedly called for the release of jailed compatriot Liu Xiaobo, who won the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago, having come under fire from rights activists for not speaking up for him.

The author, a portly 57-year-old whose adopted pen name Mo Yan means "don't speak", said he had read some of Liu's literary criticisms in the 1980s, but that he had no understanding of Liu's work once it had turned towards politics.

"I hope he can achieve his freedom as soon as possible," Mo told reporters on Friday in his hometown of Gaomi in the northern province of Shandong, in bold remarks likely to embarrass Beijing which has lauded his victory and denigrated Liu's prize.

Liu should be able to research his "politics and social system", Mo said without elaborating

A number of dissidents and other writers have said Mo was unworthy of winning as he had shied away from commenting on Liu's plight. They have also denounced him for commemorating a speech by former paramount leader Mao Zedong.

But Mo, whose real name is Guan Moye, shot back at those criticisms.

"I believe that the people who have criticized me have not read my books," he said. "If they had read my books they would understand that my writings at that time took on a great deal of risk and were under pressure.

"Many of the people who have criticized me online are Communist Party members themselves. They also work within the system. And some have benefited tremendously within the system," he added.

"I am working in China," he said. "I am writing in a China under Communist Party leaders. But my works cannot be restricted by political parties."

Mo, who was once so destitute he ate tree bark and weeds to survive, is the first Chinese national to win the $1.2 million literature prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy.

He is best known in the West for "Red Sorghum", which portrays the hardships endured by farmers in the early years of communist rule and was made in a film directed by Zhang Yimou. His books also include "Big Breasts and Wide Hips" and "The Republic of Wine".

Prominent dissident Hu Jia, a close friend of Liu's, praised Mo's apparent sudden change of heart.

"What has happened in the last 24 hours has changed him. A Nobel prize, whether for peace or for literature, bestows on one a sense of wrong and right," Hu told Reuters.

China, long used to wringing its hands at perceived snubs or insults by the Nobel organizers, has worked its propaganda machine into overtime to hail Mo's win as a breakthrough for the entire nation, and recognition of its place as a great country.

Senior Communist Party official and China's propaganda chief Li Changchun congratulated Mo, state media reported, saying he hoped "Chinese writers will focus on the country's people in their writing and create more excellent works that will stand the test of history".

But the mention of Liu by Mo, a vice-chairman of the government-backed Chinese Writers' Association, could make things awkward for the Chinese authorities, who jailed Liu for 11 years in 2009 for inciting subversion of state power.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei repeated government criticism of Liu's award, saying it amounted to "grave meddling in China's internal affairs and judicial sovereignty".

COUNTRY BOY

Mo's interest in literature dates back to his childhood in Gaomi. When he was six, he was an avid reader of Chinese classics, said Mo's elder brother Guan Moxin, 62. The youngest of four children, Mo loved telling stories.

But Mo's farmer father and brother, who are still living in the dusty, hardscrabble village in Gaomi where Mo grew up, had no idea they had a Nobel Literature Prize winner in their midst.

"What are the chances that a country boy without anything to his name could become a great author?" Guan Moxin told Reuters.

"He is just a man from this remote land, and this poor family; he is not from some big city."

Mo, already hugely popular in China, has become something of a celebrity in Gaomi. Thrilled residents set off fireworks the night Mo's award was announced. Reporters started streaming into the nondescript town. A hotel put up a digital banner congratulating Mo.

"I couldn't quite believe it. It took me awhile before I could believe it. It seemed so impossible. We were all (the village) celebrating, lighting firecrackers," Guan Moxin said.

Mo's books reflect the tumult of modern China. He has credited his early suffering for inspiring his works, which tackle corruption, decadence in Chinese society and rural life.

"When he was little at school he was very naughty," Mo's 90-year-old father, Guan Yifan, told Reuters. "But afterwards he had to stop and do farm work. At the time we had to eat wild vegetables, and he had to go and dig wild vegetables."

(Additional reporting by Sui-Lee Wee, Terril Yue Jones and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Nick Macfie)

View the original article here

Chinese writer Mo Yan (L) talks to the media during a news conference in his hometown Gaomi, Shandong province October 11, 2012. Mo won the 2012 Nobel prize for literature on Thursday for works which the awarding committee said had qualities of ''hallucinatory realism''.

STOCKHOLM | Thu Oct 11, 2012 5:41pm EDT

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Chinese writer Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel prize for literature on Thursday for works which combine "hallucinatory realism" with folk tales, history and contemporary life in China.

Mo, who was once so destitute he ate tree bark and weeds to survive, is the first Chinese national to win the $1.2 million literature prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy.

He said the award made him "overjoyed and terrified".

Some of his books have been banned as "provocative and vulgar" by Chinese authorities but he has also been criticized as being too close to the Communist Party.

While users of a popular Chinese microblogging site offered their congratulations, dissident artist Ai Weiwei said he disagreed with giving the award to a writer with the "taint of government" about him.

Mo, 57, who grew up in the town of Gaomi in Shandong province in the northeast of the country and whose parents were farmers, sets his works mainly in the land of his birth.

Mo Yan is a pen name which means "Don't Speak". His real name is Guan Moye and he was forced to drop out of primary school and herd cattle during China's Cultural Revolution.

Speaking to the state-run China News Service, Mo said he was happy to have won.

"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.

"Next, I'm going to put most of my efforts into creating my new works. I will keep working hard, and I thank everyone. As to whether I go to Sweden to receive the prize, I will wait for word from the organizers about arrangements."

"AT HOME WITH HIS DAD"

Peter Englund, head of the Swedish Academy, said Mo was "at home with his dad" when he was told of the award.

"He said he was overjoyed and terrified," Englund told Swedish television. "He has such a damn unique way of writing. If you read half a page of Mo Yan you immediately recognize it as him."

The award citation said Mo used a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives to create a world which was reminiscent of the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

At the same time, he found a "departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition", the Academy said.

Englund said Mo offers "a unique insight into a unique world in a quite unique manner."

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 mesmerising," Englund told Reuters television.

Mo is best known in the West for "Red Sorghum", which portrayed the hardships endured by farmers in the early years of communist rule and was made in a film directed by Zhang Yimou. His books also include "Big Breasts and Wide Hips" and "The Republic of Wine".

"My works are Chinese literature, which is part of world literature. They show the life of Chinese people as well as the country's unique culture and folk customs," Mo told reporters in his hometown, Xinhua news agency reported.

The last Chinese-born winner was Gao Xingjian in 2000, although he was living in France by that time and had taken French citizenship. His Nobel was not celebrated by the Chinese government.

CHINA HAS "WAITED TOO LONG"

Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily praised the win in a commentary on its website (www.people.com.cn).

"This is the first Chinese writer who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Chinese writers have waited too long, the Chinese people have waited too long," it wrote.

Mo, a vice chairman of the government-backed Chinese Writers' Association, said he had nothing to say about Liu Xiaobo, the jailed dissident who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010 and whose name has been banned from public discussion in China.

"His winning won't be of any help for Liu Xiaobo, unless Mo Yan expresses his concern for him," said Ai Weiwei.

"But Mo Yan has stated in the past that he has nothing to say about Liu Xiaobo. I think the Nobel organizers have removed themselves from reality by awarding this prize. I really don't understand it."

Beijing-based writer Mo Zhixu said Mo Yan, who once copied out by hand a speech by Chairman Mao Zedong for a commemorative book, "doesn't have any independent personality."

Yu Shicun, a Beijing-based essayist and literary critic, said Mo Yan was a puzzling choice for the prize.

"I don't think this makes sense," said Yu in a telephone interview. "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."

On the streets of Beijing, there was pride in Mo's achievement.

"I think this is an unprecedented breakthrough, because before this they spoke of Chinese nationals getting the Nobel prize, but it was only the peace prize, never the others such as the literature, the physics and chemistry prizes," said Xu Jiebiao, 28-year-old IT consultant.

"So a Chinese getting the Nobel prize for literature will increase the national pride."

The literature prize is the fourth of this year's crop of prizes, which were established in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel and awarded for the first time in 1901.

The writer, who was in the People's Liberation Army before progressing to academia, was one of the favorites to win the award this year, according to British bookmaker Ladbrokes, along with Japanese author Haruki Murakami.

(Additional reporting by Johan Ahlander, Simon Johnson, Anna Ringstrom, Niklas Pollard, Sui-Lee Wee, Ben Blanchard and Lucy Hornby; Writing by Giles Elgood; Editing by Peter Millership)

View the original article here

STOCKHOLM | Mon Oct 8, 2012 5:24am EDT

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - The 2012 Nobel Literature Prize will be announced at 7 a.m. EDT on Thursday, organizers said, with Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami the bookmakers' favorite to win the 8 million crown ($1.2 million) award.

Other hotly-tipped names include Bob Dylan, Chinese writer Mo Yan and reclusive U.S. novelist Thomas Pynchon.

Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer won last year, pleasing many in the prize's homeland which had not celebrated a winner since Eyvind Johnson and Harry Martinson took home the prize in 1974.

Past winners include U.S. writer William Faulkner, France's Albert Camus and Colombia's Gabriel Garcia Marquez. The last Japanese writer to win the prize was Kenzaburo Oe in 1984.

The award-giving body The Swedish Academy, which announced the date of the literature prize on Monday, is due to announce the winners of its coveted science prizes this week. ($1 = 6.5846 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Simon Johnson; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

View the original article here