Topic:Chinese writer Mo Yan wins 2012 Nobel Prize in LiteratureAdd a comment
Photo journalists take photos of works of Chinese writer Mo Yan at the 64th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, western Germany, Oct.11, 2012. After Chinese writer Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, his works became popular among the journalists and audiences during the Frankfurt Book Fair. (Xinhua/Ma Ning)
STOCKHOLM, Oct. 11 (Xinhua) -- Chinese writer Mo Yan has won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, announced Peter Englund, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Thursday.
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 is awarded to Chinese writer Mo Yan "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary," said Englund.
Last year's literature prize went to Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer.
Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist who invented dynamite, established the Nobel Prizes in his will in 1895. The first awards were handed out six years later.
The awarding ceremony will be held on Dec. 10.
The winner will win a medal, a personal diploma and a cash award of 8 million Swedish Kronor (about 1 million U.S. dollars).
A writer should express criticism and indignation at the dark side of society and the ugliness of human nature, but we should not use one uniform expression. Some may want to shout on the street, but we should tolerate those who hide in their rooms and use literature to voice their opinions
Journalists gather in Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 11, 2012. Chinese writer Mo Yan has won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, announced Peter Englund, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Thursday. (Xinhua/Liu Yinan)
Peter Englund, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, is going to announce the result of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 11, 2012. Chinese writer Mo Yan has won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, the Swedish Academy announced in Stockholm on Thursday. (Xinhua/Liu Yinan)
Journalists gather in Swedish Academy in Stockholm, Sweden, Oct. 11, 2012. Chinese writer Mo Yan has won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, announced Peter Englund, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on Thursday. (Xinhua/Liu Yinan)
BEIJING, Oct. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Talking about literature, there is a talk that Chinese writer Mo Yan might bring China its first Nobel Prize in Literature. The 57-year-old contemporary Chinese writer, Mo Yan, has been dominating Chinese media headlines.
His literary achievements make him a serious competitor for this year’s prize. He has been a popular figure in China’s literary scene since the mid-1980s.
Most people would find it hard to associate the animalistic spirits in "Red Sorghum" with the mild-mannered and even timid looking Mo Yan.
Most of Mo Yan’s works are set in his own hometown, Gaomi County, in East China’s Shandong Province. Before the age of 20, he’d never ventured beyond the boundaries of his own county.
Mo Yan was born in 1955, the fourth child in his family. In his early years, he experienced poverty, hunger and was repressed by a particularly harsh father. All of these things have influenced Mo Yan’s later writings.
When Mo Yan was 12 years old, he was forced to leave school and graze cattle. To satisfy his thirst for reading, Mo Yan read every single book he could get hold of, even the dictionary.
When he turned 20, he joined the army and got to see the world beyond his home village. Six years later in 1981, he started his writing career. In 1987, "The Red Sorgum" burst onto China’s literary scene.
Mo Yan’s other major works include "The Republic of Wine", "Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out", "Sandalwood Death", "Big Breasts and Wide Hips" and more. Mo has won several top Chinese and international prizes including the Mao Dun Prize 2011 for "Frog".
More than any other Chinese author, Mo Yan is well represented in foreign languages around the world. And with good reason - he’s one of the great novelistic masters of modern Chinese literature, with a long list of ambitious novels to his name. His writing is powerful, visual, and broad, dipping into history, fantasy and absurdity to tell stories of China and its people.
Chinese authors and netizens congratulated Mo Yan on Thursday night after he became the country's first Nobel Literature Prize laureate.
Mo's win brought joy to his supporters as no Chinese national has ever won the Nobel prize in literature in its century-long history.
"He definitely deserves the prize," Er Yue He, a renowned Chinese writer in central Henan Province told Xinhua. "His prize is an affirmation for Chinese literature on the world stage," he said.
Wang Anyi, president of Shanghai Writers' Association said she was happy for Mo. "Congratulations to him," she said.
"Congratulations to Mo Yan," said "Qingfengxiaoge" on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging site. "You are the pride of China."
On Thursday, "Will a Chinese person become the laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature?" remained the most popular topic on Sina Weibo.
One hour before the announcement of the winner, nearly 8,000 participants of an online poll conducted by the website said they believed Mo would win. The figure was three times as many as those who said he would not.
Many Chinese people have waited for this moment and speculation he would win intensified over the past few days.
The author, whose real name is Guan Moye, was nominated along with Canada's Alice Munro and Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami.
Born into a farmer's family in a village in Gaomi City of east China's Shangdong Province, Mo has been known since the late 1980s for his novels such as Big Breasts and Wide Hips and Red Sorghum, which was later adapted into a film by director Zhang Yimou.
Sales of Mo's works have increased at the online bookshops in China this week. Mo's novel Frog, which earned him the Mao Dun Literature Prize, China's most prestigious award for novels, is out of stock on Dangdang.com, the country's leading online book shop.
The writer is now in Gaomi, where he was born and raised, and is allegedly writing another book.
Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan's works become pupular at Frankfurt Book Fair
Photo journalists take photos of works of Chinese writer Mo Yan at the 64th Frankfurt Book Fair in Frankfurt, western Germany, Oct.11, 2012. After Chinese writer Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, his works became popular among the journalists and audiences during the Frankfurt Book Fair. (Xinhua/Ma Ning)
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