A Chinese writer has won the Nobel Prize for literature. Mo Yan, the pen name of Guan Moye, is the author of Red Sorghum, The Garlic Ballads, The Republic of Wine, and Life and Death are Wearing Me Out among books. The Swedish Academy praised Mr. Mo's work for its "hallucinatory realism" and compared him to William Faulkner. Official China is enraptured by this Nobel. It was not enraptured by Liu Xiaobo's 2010 Peace Nobel, diplomatically strong arming host Norway as well as other countries not to send representatives to the ceremony. Whatever the merits of Mo Yan's work, this award has the appearance of being a "make-up" for Liu's Nobel. Mo is not considered a social critic of the Chinese regime. In 2010 he and other writers hand-copied Mao Zedong's Yan'an Talks on Literature and Art which argued for putting same in service to the party. He has said "censorship is great for literature creation" since the writer has to write more imaginatively.
* The meaning of "mo yan" in both Chinese and English.
* The meaning of "mo yan" in both Chinese and English.
