Metaglossia: The Translation World

China erupted in something close to a national celebration for the writer Mo Yan, just two years after the government condemned a Nobel Peace Prize for the dissident Liu Xiaobo.

BEIJING (AP) — Novelist Mo Yan, this year's Nobel Prize winner for literature, is practiced in the art of challenging the status quo without offending those who uphold it.

Mo Yan, whose real name is Guan Moye, is the first Chinese citizen to win the award.

“Through a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives, Mo Yan has created a world reminiscent in its complexity of those in the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel García Márquez, at the same time finding a departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition,” the award’s citation declared, describing him as a writer “who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history, and the contemporary.

Mo Yan, whose real name is Guan Moye (“Mo Yan” is a pen name meaning “don’t speak”), told Nobel organizers he was “overjoyed and scared” when he was told he had won the coveted award.

MO YAN was one of the hot tips to win this year's Nobel prize for literature and, for once, the Swedish Academy obliged.
The Chinese novelist and short-story writer - real name Guan Moye; his pen name means ''Don't Speak'' - is not widely known in the West but, unlike other lesser-known winners in recent years, his work has been translated into English and is in print. His novels include The Garlic Ballads, The Republic of Wine, Big Breasts and Wide Hips and Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out. He was part of a group of Chinese writers that visited Australia last year.
He might well be best known for Red Sorghum, his 1987 novel that was made into an award-winning film by Zhang Yimou starring Gong Li.
The award will be the first Nobel prize openly acknowledged by the Chinese authorities. Gao Xingjian won the literature prize in 2000 - by which time he was in exile and had assumed French citizenship - and two years ago the imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo won the peace prize.
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Mo Yan has been criticised by dissident artist Ai Weiwei among others for not speaking out for Liu and his role as the vice-chairman of the government-backed Chinese Writers Association meant he had the ''taint of government'' about him, Ai said.
The Australian novelist and sinologist Linda Jaivin said Mo Yan was a worthy winner.
''He writes about situations that are very real yet he does so with magic realism, humour and a unique voice. His novels are very funny. Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, which I read in Chinese, has one of the best opening scenes I have ever read.''
Mo Yan was inventive with language and plot and his characters were strongly portrayed, she said.

Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/entertainment/books/nobel-prizewinner-walks-fine-line-to-appease-chinese-censors-20121012-27i6b.html#ixzz29CoB3wYc

The Chinese novelist and short-story writer talks to Granta editor John Freeman about his influences, censorship, translation, and his path to 2012's great literary prize.