Embattled Mo accepts Nobel Prize

By Yang Jingjie Source:Global Times Published: 2012-12-11 8:47:00

Chinese writer Mo Yan Monday accepted the Nobel Prize in Literature in Stockholm, amid controversy over his reluctance to side with critics against the government.

Per Wästberg, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, said in a speech at the award ceremony that Mo is a poet who tears down stereotypical propaganda posters, elevating the individual from an anonymous human mass.

"Using ridicule and sarcasm Mo Yan attacks history and its falsifications as well as deprivation and political hypocrisy. Playfully and with ill-disguised delight, he reveals the murkiest aspects of human existence, almost inadvertently finding images of strong symbolic weight," said Wästberg.

Unlike the previous Chinese-born Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian, who was little known in the Chinese mainland, Mo is a mainstream writer in the country. His most famous work, Red Sorghum (1987) was also made into an award-winning film by leading Chinese director Zhang Yimou.

Mo's winning of the prize has triggered controversy since the announcement in October, with some critics accusing him of pandering to authorities and calling on him to take a more critical stand against the government.

Mo instead distanced himself from such calls, stressing that he has always been "independent" at a press conference in Stockholm on Thursday.

When asked about recent criticisms against him during a seminar at Stockholm University on Sunday, Mo replied that "literature is much better than politics," asking people to care more about literature than politics, the Beijing News reported.

The reply was interpreted as a compromise to the authorities by his critics. Ruan Yunhua, a writer, attacked the comments on his Sina Weibo, saying "if a writer could go beyond politics, then the theme reflected in his works must be hypocritical." Ruan also expressed discontent that writers are not shouldering enough social responsibilities.

Luan Meijian, a deputy director with the Research Center of Contemporary Chinese Literature at Fudan University, told the Global Times Monday that Mo's works had contained his reflections about the country's fate in the past decades.

"In fact, Mo replied to such calls during his speech to the Swedish Academy using metaphors. Those who press him to take a stand failed to understand the stories he told in the address," said Luan.

Zhang Yiwu, a professor of Chinese literature at Peking University, told the Global Times Monday that the story told by Mo shows that no one can force others to take sides, and Mo has the right to refuse to answer the calls of others.

While acknowledging that literature is related to politics, Zhang stressed that it should never be a sounding board for political beliefs.

 

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