Mo Yan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mo Yan
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Mo Yan in 2008
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| Native name |
莫言
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| Born | Guan Moye (管谟业) 17 February 1955 Gaomi, Shandong, China |
| Pen name | Mo Yan |
| Occupation | Writer, teacher |
| Language | Chinese |
| Nationality | Chinese |
| Education | Beijing Normal University People's Liberation Army Arts College |
| Period | Contemporary |
| Literary movement | Magical realism |
| Years active | 1981–present |
| Notable works | Red Sorghum Clan, The Republic of Wine, Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out |
| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 |
| Spouse |
Du Qinlan (杜勤兰)
(m. 1979) |
| Children | Guan Xiaoxiao (管笑笑) (Born in 1981) |
Guan Moye (simplified Chinese: 管谟业; traditional Chinese: 管謨業; pinyin: Guǎn Móyè; born 5 March 1955), known by his pen name Mo Yan (/moʊ jɛn/, Chinese: 莫言; pinyin: Mò Yán), is a famous Chinese writer. He writes novels and short stories.
One of his most well-known books is Red Sorghum from 1986. Parts of this book were made into a movie called Red Sorghum in 1988, which won a big award.
Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012. He received the award for his writing style, which mixes folk tales, history, and modern life in a very imaginative way.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Mo Yan was born in February 1955 in a small village in Shandong Province, China. He grew up in a farming family and was the youngest of four children.
When he was 11 years old, he left school to work as a farmer. This was during a time in China called the Cultural Revolution. In 1973, he started working at a cotton oil factory. During these years, he mostly read books that focused on themes of class struggle.
In 1976, Mo Yan joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA). While he was a soldier, he started writing. He was influenced by both Chinese and foreign writers.
In 1984, he won a writing award from a PLA magazine. That same year, he began studying at the People's Liberation Army Arts College. This is where he first started using his pen name, Mo Yan.
He published his first short novel, A Transparent Radish, in 1984. Then, in 1986, he released Red Sorghum, which made him a nationally recognized writer. He later earned a master's degree in Literature from Beijing Normal University in 1991.
Meaning of His Pen Name
Mo Yan's pen name, "Mo Yan," means "don't speak" in Chinese. He has explained that his parents warned him not to speak his mind when he was outside. This was because of the political situation in China when he was growing up in the 1950s.
The name also connects to his writing, which often looks at Chinese history in new ways.
His Famous Works
Mo Yan started his writing career in the early 1980s. He has published many short stories and novels. His first published short story was "Falling Rain on a Spring Night" in 1981.
Red Sorghum
In 1986, he published his first novel, Red Sorghum. This book tells the story of a family in Shandong province between 1923 and 1976. It covers big events in Chinese history, like the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Communist Revolution. He tells these stories from different viewpoints.
The Garlic Ballads
His second novel, The Garlic Ballads, is based on a real event. It's about farmers in his hometown who protested against the government because their crops were not bought.
Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out
Mo Yan wrote Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out very quickly, in just 42 days. He wrote the entire book, which is over 500,000 Chinese characters, by hand using ink and a brush. He prefers writing by hand because he feels typing limits his creativity.
This novel tells the story of a landlord who is reborn as different animals. As an animal, he watches and makes fun of the changes in Chinese society. For example, when he is a donkey, he makes two mules share food, saying that in "the age of communism... mine is yours and yours is mine."
Pow!
Pow! was one of Mo Yan's first books translated into English after he won the Nobel Prize. It's about a young boy named Luo who is known for eating a lot of meat. The story shows how an obsession with eating meat can lead to problems in his village. This book really shows his unique writing style, which blends reality with dream-like elements.
Frog
His novel Frog focuses on China's One-Child Policy. It is set in a small Chinese town called Gaomi. The story is told by a character named Tadpole, who shares the life of his aunt Gugu. She was once a respected midwife who helped bring many lives into the world.
Mo Yan's Writing Style
Mo Yan's novels are often long historical stories. They mix real-life events with dream-like or magical elements. His writing often uses very colorful descriptions.
A main idea in his books is that people's desire for more and their bad actions often stay the same, no matter what political ideas are popular. Many of his stories take place near his hometown in Shandong province. He has said that he realized he could use his own family and villagers as characters after reading other famous authors. He also sometimes makes fun of the official way of writing about workers and government officials by putting them in silly situations.
Mo Yan's writing often blurs the lines between the past and present, and between living and dead characters. He sometimes appears in his own novels as a character who tells and changes his other stories.
List of Works
Mo Yan has written 11 novels, along with many shorter novels and collections of short stories.
This is a list of his works published in China in 2012, after he received the Nobel Prize.
Novels
- 《红高粱家族》 Red Sorghum (1986)
- 《天堂蒜薹之歌》 The Garlic Ballads (1988)
- 《十三步》 Thirteen Steps (1988)
- 《食草家族》 The Herbivorous Family (1993)
- 《酒国》 The Republic of Wine: A Novel (1993)
- 《红树林》 Red Forest (1999)
- 《檀香刑》 Sandalwood Death (2001)
- 《四十一炮》 Pow! (2003)
- 《生死疲劳》 Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out (2006)
- 《蛙》 Frog (2009)
Short Story and Novella Collections
- 《白狗秋千架》 White Dog and the Swing (30 short stories, 1981–1989)
- 《与大师约会》 Meeting the Masters (45 short stories, 1990–2005)
- 《欢乐》 Joy (8 novellas)
- 《怀抱鲜花的女人》 The Woman with Flowers (8 novellas, 2012)
- 《师傅越来越幽默》Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh (9 novellas, 2001)
- 《晚熟的人》A Late Bloomer (12 novellas and short stories, 2020)
Other Works
- 《会唱歌的墙》 The Wall Can Sing (60 essays, 1981–2011)
- 《我们的荆轲》 Our Jing Ke (play)
Awards and Honours
Mo Yan has received many awards for his writing:
- 2005: International Nonino Prize
- 2006: Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize XVII
- 2009: Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, for Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out
- 2011: Mao Dun Literature Prize, for Frog
- 2012: Nobel Prize in Literature
Honorary Degrees
Mo Yan has also received special honorary degrees from several universities:
- 2013: The City University of New York, United States
- 2013: Fo Guang University, Taiwan
- 2014: Sofia University, Bulgaria
- 2014: The Open University of Hong Kong, China
- 2014: The University of Macau, China
- 2017: Hong Kong Baptist University, China
Film Adaptations
Several of Mo Yan's books have been made into movies:
- Red Sorghum (1987) (directed by Zhang Yimou)
- The Sun Has Ears (1995) (based on Grandma Wearing Red Silk)
- Happy Times (2000) (based on Shifu: You'll Do Anything for a Laugh)
- Nuan (2003) (based on White Dog Swing)
See also
In Spanish: Mo Yan para niños
- Chinese literature
- List of Nobel laureates in Literature
- List of Chinese writers
