Chinese Writer Mo Yan Awarded 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature

The Swedish Academy praised his work which «with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary."

The 57-year-old is the 109th recipient of the prestigious prize, which was given last year to Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer.

215 writers were nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012. The major favourite was considered to be Haruki Murakami, a bestselling author from Japan.

Mo Yan’s real name is Guan Moye. The pseudonym Mo Yan can be translated as «don’t speak» from Chinese.

Mo Yan is considered a follower of Gabriel Carsia Markes’ magical realism, with his bright, exaggerated language and his detailed violent and sex scenes. For this, he was several times criticized in China. Today Mo Yan is the Chairperson of official Writers’ Union of China.

Mo Yan is the second Literature Nobel Prize winner from China. The first was given to Gao Xingjian in 2000.

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