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Mo Yan of China wins Nobel Literature Prize

Dunya News

China's leading writer Mo Yan has won the Nobel Literature Prize.

Mo Yan, one of Chinas leading writers of the past half-century, on Thursday won the Nobel Literature Prize for his writing that mixes folk tales, history and the contemporary, the Swedish Academy announced.At 57 he became the first Chinese national to win the prize, and the initial official reaction indicated it would be held up as a victory for China, in sharp contrast to Beijings angry response to the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for dissident Liu Xiaobo.Chinese-born writer, political dissident and exile Gao Xingian, who received French citizenship in 1997, won the Nobel Literature Prize in 2000 but it was ignored by the Chinese press at the time.Mo Yans works explore the brutality and darkness of 20th-century Chinese society with a cynical wit.He is perhaps best-known abroad for his 1987 novella Red Sorghum, a tale of the violence that plagued the eastern China countryside -- where he grew up -- during the 1920s and 30s.The story was later made into an acclaimed film by leading Chinese director Zhang Yimou.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 said.Winning the Nobel prize has stunned me, as I always thought it was very distant for me, Mo Yan said in a recorded interview posted on the Nobel prize website.On hearing the news that I won the award, I was very happy, he was quoted as saying by the official China News Service.I will focus on creating new works. I will strive harder to thank everyone.AFP could not immediately reach Mo Yan, whose mobile phone was switched off.State media said he was at his home in rural Shandong province, where many of his works are set.The Nobel prize is often dismissed in China as Western-focused, but users of the countrys hugely popular microblogging services broadly welcomed the win as a triumph for Chinese literature.It was the most discussed topic on Weibo, Chinas version of Twitter, with almost three million web-users posting messages within two hours of the announcement.The Swedish Academy hailed Mo Yan, a pseudonym that means Dont speak, and whose real name is Guan Moye, for a body of work which, with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary.The Academys permanent secretary, Peter Englund, said the Academy had spoken to Mo Yan by telephone and quoted him as saying he was overjoyed and terrified at being given the prize.Englund said his use of satire was important to be able to enjoy the dark sides in his work, describing it as both crude and sensual.There are things (in his books) that are among the most frightening things I have read, Englund told Swedens Aftonbladet TV.Mo Yan 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.