Nobel winner expected to avoid politics
2012-12-05 20:10
Beijing – China’s Nobel literature winner Mo Yan heads to
Sweden on Wednesday to collect his award, but he walks a delicate line with the
authorities and is likely to avoid any mention of jailed fellow laureate Liu
Xiaobo in his speech.
Mo Yan has been hailed as a national hero since the prize
announcement in October, and his works have rocketed up China's best-seller
lists.
But he has also had to contend with criticism from
activists who brand him a “stooge” for the ruling Communist Party.
State media reported the writer was leaving on Wednesday
for Stockholm, where he will give his Nobel lecture on Friday ahead of the
prize ceremony on Monday.
Until the award Mo Yan had won critical praise but little
mainstream fame for his works, which blend harshly realistic accounts of life
in China's countryside with fantastical and sometimes grotesque satire,
including cannibalism and orgiastic feasting.
But the announcement prompted Chinese readers to snap up
his books, leaving retailers around the country with empty shelves.
He earned royalties of $3.5m this year, the
second-highest of any Chinese writer, according to an annual survey.
Gaomi, his hometown, announced $107m in projects to
honour him, including a “Mo Yan Culture Experience Zone” and the planting of
swathes of red sorghum, in honour of his best-known work, a 1987 novella named
after the plant.
Chinese laureates
State-run media was effusive, hailing him as China's
first Nobel literature prize winner, even though Chinese-born Gao Xingjian -
whose works were banned in China and who later took French nationality - won
the 2000 literature award.
Liu Xiaobo, who was jailed in 2009 for calling for
democratic change, was awarded the Peace prize the following year, but
officials excoriated the decision as interference in China's internal affairs.
The Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama was also
awarded the 1989 peace prize.
Mo Yan himself was criticised for holding a senior role
in the state-backed Chinese Writers' Association, and for joining a
government-sanctioned walk-out of a German book fair in protest at the presence
of dissident writers.
Yu Jie, an exiled dissident writer, was quoted by German
broadcaster Deutsche Welle as calling Mo's award "the biggest scandal in
the history of the Nobel prize for literature".
Romanian-born novelist Herta Mueller, who won the
literature prize in 2009, called Mo's win a "catastrophe", saying:
"He celebrates censorship. It’s extremely upsetting."
But Mo surprised his critics when he mentioned Liu Xiaobo
at a press conference in October. "I hope he can gain freedom as early as
possible," he said.
A literature victory
He strove to separate his work from politics, saying that
his Nobel win was "a literature victory, not a political victory".
Mo Yan has long trodden a fine line between criticising
China's political establishment and co-operating with it, said Ma Xiangwu, a
literature professor at the People's University in Beijing.
"For a long time Mo has occupied a position within
the system, but not totally within it," he said.
"His works are often very critical of society and
politics - he's too complex to be put in a box."
In keeping with that, he said there was "absolutely
no chance" Mo would refer to Liu in his Nobel lecture.
"He won't mention sensitive issues during his
speech. I think he will be quite moderate. I don't think he will directly
criticise the government... but I also don't expect he will heap extravagant
praise on China," he added.
In an open letter published Tuesday, more than 130 past
Nobel winners urged the Chinese Communist Party's new chief Xi Jinping to
release Liu.
The sensitivity of the issue is such that Wei Yingjie, an
author and book critic, declined to mention Liu Xiaobo by name.
"It is possible that the Writers' Association and
government officials will remind Mo Yan not to mention sensitive topics during
his speech," he said.
"I don't think there is a big chance he will mention
him of his own accord. He has already said more than Chinese web users are
permitted to say online."
