I searched on Wiki for the criteria of the Nobel Prize in Literature. It cited the words of the will of Alfred Nobel,produced “in the field of literature the most outstanding work in an ideal direction”

The explaination for this sentence is as follows“Though individual works are sometimes cited as being particularly noteworthy, here ‘work’ refers to an author’s work as a whole . More recently, the wording has been more liberally interpreted. Thus, the prize is now awarded both for lasting literary merit and for evidence of consistent idealism on some significant level. In recent years, this means a kind of idealism championing human rights on a broad scale. Hence the award is now arguably more political.”

I love Mo Yan’s works and his style.Art is something helps us to know different perspectives of life and world.Nobody can be absolutely objective,but at least we should try to be less biased and more open-minded.Anyway, it would be our own loss if we only choose to appreaciate literature of one culture.And I also believe judging demands more learning.

Thanks, Ryan! I think you are right that Mo Yan would be better liked in the West if he were under house arrest or in exile but what does that say about the quality of Western literary criticism?! …
If you are a Marquez fan, you’ll love Red Sorghum! Good on you for being able to read it in the original – I’m jealous 😉

As for Mo Yan, he is almost in a no-win situation. Chinese literature is incredibly politicized. That comes with the territory. But it seems that Mo’s critics would only be satisfied if he was writing his novels under house arrest using nothing but coal dust. It’s really too bad.

I haven’t read Red Sorghum, but I’m huge Gabriel Garcia Marquez fan, and I understand that Mo Yan takes some inspiration from magic realism. This post has encouraged me to pick up a copy of the book… not sure if I can hang with Mo Yan in Chinese, but I’m going to try. I agree with Nicole’s post above about not reading enough translations of languages we don’t speak… but I will say that if you can read the material in the original language, the effect is more powerful.

For your information, Gao Xingjian is not a Chinese national when he received the prize. He is a French national. Mo Yan is the first Chinese national to received the prize despite many attempts to send in the work, with Ba Jin was the great writer,but he failed to take the prize.

For your information, Ba Jin was an Esperantist. He translated a few books from Esperanto to Chinese.

Thank you, Nicole! Couldn’t agree more! In fact, with Imre Kertész Hungarian literature provides another example of how the Nobel Prize can shine a spotlight on a national tradition the outside world might not have been particularly familiar with …