Mo Yan wins 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature

[Mr.lucifer]

This time, the prize wasn't handed too to a completely random writer. Mo Yan is an actual major figure in contemporary China, its just chinese literature doesn't receive much buzz. I wonder what JBI has to say about Mo Yan. Yan has been accused of playing it safe and not do anything against CCP. The party has even praised him and celebrated his rewarding.

[stlukesguild]

Yes... I want to hear JBI weigh in on this one as well.

[JBI]

Definitely worth it! I was just discussing him in lecture, he is totally deserving. If people want to read his work, try Red Sorghum. Finally they chose a good Chinese novelists for the Nobel - he also has a history of being politically dissident - in the pre-Tiananmen screw up era, which probably weighed on their choice.

[Mr.lucifer]

Its just that I heard some Chinese political activists criticize Mo Yan for being silent these years, and is a favorite of the officials.

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2012/10/12/writer-mo-yan-in-delicate-nobel-dance-with-chinese-authorities/
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444799904578050120766714576.html?m od=WSJASIA_hps_MIDDLEThirdNews
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/ai-weiwei-brands-nobel-prize-for-literature-decision-an-insult-to-humanity-as-chinas-mo-yan-named-winner-8207109.html
http://www.theweek.co.uk/books/nobel-prize/49518/ai-weiwei-angered-mo-yan-nobel-prize-literature

[JBI]

He is just silent in general. Basically he got all the fame he could possibly want and did the Chinese thing of keeping his mouth shut. He doesn't want to move abroad.

In terms of political consequence, it gives him more room to change things - we have generally More's Utopia argument, do we go into a cave and philosophize, or do we act with what is available. In general Chinese authors work with what is available, and any choice to work against it will basically lead to the banning of his works, and the end of his career.

Either way, anybody familiar with Mo Yan's tradition will think the Chinese reception is just stupid, he is as Chinese an author as Conrad is Polish. His influences in general rest in Western and particularly Latin American traditions. The Chinese propaganda of "Now you can all share in our country's great author" is just an insult to world literature. But what do you expect from a country who thinks they have 5000 years of continuous history and the oldest most rich tradition of everything (music, food, art, etc. all included).

As a followup after reading all those articles - Well China has a national disease they call ultra-nationalism, but mixed with a sense of racial superiority. So you have basically the foundation of the culture of Nazi Germany, all believing China is the best the world has - best at sports, at studying at writing, etc. Nobody here has read, probably, a single other nobel winner's novels, except for academics.

That being said, I am glad Mo Yan won, but am upset China won. China does not deserve the award, Mo Yan does. But the Chinese tradition is to take Mo Yan as representative of China, when he is winning for basically criticizing China.

But then again, what do you expect from a nation that tells itself it is better than everybody? The responses here are "Go us, we won, because they now know we are the best." Pathetic. This is coming from a Jew, who, by virtue of being Jewish, could claim an identity with an extremely large amount of Nobel winners, except for the fact that those are their achievements, not mine, and they won them as individuals, not as Jews.

For a country where only 10% of toilets in the countryside have running water, people here are pretty damn arrogant.

[Summer M]

This is coming from a Jew, who, by virtue of being Jewish, could claim an identity with an extremely large amount of Nobel winners, except for the fact that those are their achievements, not mine, and they won them as individuals, not as Jews.


I just love this method of argumentation whereby one says he could say something but won't, thereby getting the benefit of saying something and explicitly saying he didn't say it. Surely there is a term for that, but it eludes me.

I could say JBI's statement was foolish, but I'm not going to.

[JBI]

I just love this method of argumentation whereby one says he could say something but won't, thereby getting the benefit of saying something and explicitly saying he didn't say it. Surely there is a term for that, but it eludes me.

I could say JBI's statement was foolish, but I'm not going to.

Or you could try to understand that I was arguing for the ridiculousness of the nationalization of the awards, and the supposed affinity and pride one has in one's "nation" or "race" when someone of the same "nation" or "race" wins a Nobel prize.

You missed my point entirely. I was showing the flaw in the Chinese government and general public's reaction to the Award. Basically, if you had read the articles, or if, like me, you were in China right now, you would see the Chinese reaction and the dangers of it. Instead of celebrating an author, whose career was basically made by cutting against the grain of Chinese society, they are lauding it as "they finally know we are the best country and race in the world".

Please, I do not need to use the fact that I am Jewish to pat myself on the back, that is just pathetic, as I put it, those are not my achievements, and I had nothing to do with them, they are not in any way because of me, or connected to me. The same way the contemporary Chinese people who are jumping for joy probably haven't even read Mo Yan, much less any other Nobel winner.

So, in all honesty, we should thank Zhang Yimou for giving a Nobel Prize to Mo Yan, because lets face it, without the film nobody in the world but academics would really know who he is.

[mortalterror]

So, in all honesty, we should thank Zhang Yimou for giving a Nobel Prize to Mo Yan, because lets face it, without the film nobody in the world but academics would really know who he is.

Truthfully, that is the only reason I'd heard of him. But when I heard he'd won, I read the part of his book that's on Amazon, and it's different but very good.

[Mason Pringle]

Mo Yan is too overrated. His "magical realism" is inferior even when compared to people like Alice Hoffman (who likely won't win the Nobel under any circumstances). If you like modern Chinese literature, read Shen Congwen