Mo Yan: Why the Swedish Academy awarded Mo Yan the Nobel Prize
Mo Yan s the first Chinese winner of the literature prize who is not a critic of China's government, but the Swedish Academy says that it did not take political considerations into account when selecting the popular novelist.
Beijing
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, whose popular, sprawling, bawdy tales bring to life rural China,
is the first Chinese winner of the literature prize who is not a critic
of the authoritarian government. And Thursday's announcement by the Swedish Academy brought an explosion of pride across Chinese social media.
The state-run national broadcaster, China Central Television,
reported the news moments later, and the official writers' association,
of which Mo is a vice chairman, lauded the choice. But it also ignited
renewed criticisms of Mo from other writers as too willing to serve or
too timid to confront a government that heavily censors artists and
authors, and punishes those who refuse to obey.
The
reactions highlight the unusual position Mo holds in Chinese
literature. He is a genuinely popular writer who is embraced by the
Communist establishment but who also dares, within careful limits, to
tackle controversial issues like forced abortion. His novel "The Garlic
Ballads," which depicts a peasant uprising and official corruption, was
banned.
"He's one of those people who's a bit of a sharp point for
the Chinese officials, yet manages to keep his head above water," said
his longtime U.S. translator, Howard Goldblatt of the University of Notre Dame. "That's a fine line to walk, as you can imagine."
Typical of his ability to skirt the censors' limitations, Mo had retreated from Beijing
in recent days to the rural eastern village of Gaomi where he was
raised and which is the backdrop for much of his work. He greeted the
prize with characteristic low-key indifference.
"Whether getting
it or not, I don't care," the 57-year-old Mo said in a telephone
interview with CCTV from Gaomi. He said he goes to his childhood
hometown every year around this time to read, write and visit his
elderly father.
"I'll continue on the path I've been taking, feet
on the ground, describing people's lives, describing people's emotions,
writing from the standpoint of the ordinary people," said Mo, whose real
name is Guan Moye and whose pen name "Mo Yan" means "don't speak." He
chose the name while writing his first novel to remind himself to hold
his tongue and stay out of trouble.
The state media hoopla and
government cheer contrasted with the last Nobel prizes given to Chinese.
Beijing disowned China-born French emigre dramatist, novelist and
government critic Gao Xingjian when in 2000 he became the only other Chinese writer to win the literary prize.
After imprisoned democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo
was awarded the Peace Prize two years ago, the government heaped scorn
on the award as a tool of the West and put diplomatic and economic
relations with Norway, which awards the prize, into a chill.
Nobel winners have included political and social critics, including Guenter Grass of Germany and Orhan Pamuk of Turkey.
The Swedish Academy disputed suggestions that it had selected Mo to
seek Beijing's favor and rehabilitate the Nobel's image in the minds of
many Chinese.
"As we've been trying to, naggingly, say: This is a literature prize
that is awarded on literary merit alone. We don't take other things in
consideration," said Peter Englund, the academy's permanent secretary.
The reaction in a winner's homeland "doesn't enter into our calculus."
Mo writes
of visceral pleasures and existential quandaries and tends to create
vivid, mouthy characters. While his early work sticks to a
straightforward narrative structure enlivened by vivid descriptions,
raunchy humor and farce, his style has evolved, toying with different
narrators and embracing a freewheeling style often described as "Chinese
magical realism."
Among the works highlighted by the Nobel judges
were "Red Sorghum" (1987) and "Big Breasts & Wide Hips" (2004), as
well as "The Garlic Ballads." ''Frogs" (2009) looked at forced abortions
and other coercive aspects of the government's policies restricting
most families to one child.
His output has been prolific, which
has contributed to his popularity and his impact. His works have been
translated into English, Russian, French, German and many other
languages, giving him an audience well beyond the Chinese-speaking
world. Mo has a top literary agent, Andrew Wylie, who was at the Frankfurt book fair in Germany when he learned of Mo's Nobel and told The Associated Press: "We are in discussions globally." Several of his books quickly sold out Thursday on Amazon.com, although few copies likely were in stock.
Mo is probably best known to English-language readers for "Red Sorghum," thanks in part to Zhang Yimou's acclaimed film adaptation. The novel has sold nearly 50,000 copies in the U.S., according to the publisher Penguin Group (USA), a strong number for a translated work. Most of Mo's books in the U.S. have been released by Arcade Publishing, whose founder, the late Richard Seaver, had previously worked with Samuel Beckett, Henry Miller and other writers who faced battles with censors.
"Dick
Seaver was Mo Yan's champion from the beginning and admired this
exceptional writer's unique and original voice," Seaver's widow,
Jeannette Seaver, said in a statement. "He was constantly reading
passages to me."
Mo has said that censorship is a great spur to creativity.
"In
our real life there might be some sharp or sensitive issues that
(censors) do not wish to touch upon," he said in an interview with the
literary magazine Granta earlier this year. "At such a juncture a writer
can inject their own imagination to isolate them from the real world or
maybe they can exaggerate the situation — making sure it is bold, vivid
and has the signature of our real world."
Even so, Mo, who started writing while in the army, has steered clear
from criticizing the government in public. He has been accused of
refusing to appear with dissident writers at overseas literary seminars.
The award stirred the criticisms anew.
"Some are opposed to his winning the Nobel Prize because he serves as
a vice chair of the China Writers' Association and helps the government
in censorship. But some are supportive, arguing literature should not
be linked to politics but be valued on its own merit," said Murong
Xuecun, the pen name of author Hao Qun, who has become more outspoken
about censorship in recent years.
Yu Jie, an essayist and close
friend of imprisoned Nobel laureate Liu who fled to the U.S. this year,
was more acid. "This reflects the West's disregard for China's human
rights problems. Mo Yan's win is not a victory for literature. It's a
victory for the Communist Party," Yu said on his Twitter feed.
The
government ignored the controversy and instead focused on the prize as
emblematic of China's now recognized status as a great nation. "China is
winning more and more respect from the world. We can say this award is
not only for Mo Yan but to all the Chinese people," state-run television
said in a commentary.
For many Chinese and his supporters, the
award was welcome for recognizing an acclaimed author and for steering
clear of past Nobel controversies.
"For me personally it's the
realization of a dream I've had for years finally coming true. It's
suddenly a reality," said Mo's publisher, Cao Yuanyong, deputy
editor-in-chief of Shanghai
Literature and Art Publishing House. Cao said he and a dozen colleagues
were toasting Mo in his absence with red wine in a Shanghai restaurant
Thursday night. The prize is worth 8 million kronor, or about $1.2
million.
Born in 1955 to a farming family, his early education was
cut short by the Cultural Revolution, a decade of political chaos when
many of China's schools closed down. To escape rural poverty, he joined
the army in 1976 and, while still a soldier, started writing in 1981.
His
breakthrough came with "Red Sorghum." Set in a small village, it is an
earthy tale of love and peasant struggles set against the backdrop of
the anti-Japanese war. It was turned into a film that won the top prize
at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1988. Amy Tan, author of the best-selling "The Joy Luck Club," became an early admirer.
Goldblatt,
who has translated nine of Mo's books, remembered meeting the author in
Beijing in the late 1990s, when the two had dinner.
"We didn't
have any chemistry and we sat there, silent the whole time," Goldblatt
said. "I tried to strike up a conversation and nothing happened. Then,
he pulled out a cigarette, and although I had quit smoking, I said, 'Why
not?' We were best friends from then on."
Thứ năm 11 Tháng Mười 2012
Nhà văn Trung Quốc Mạc Ngôn đoạt giải Nobel văn học
Nhà văn Mạc Ngôn, Nobel văn học 2012.
REUTERS
Giải
Nobel văn học 2012 được dành cho nhà văn Trung Quốc Mạc Ngôn. Khi công
bố tên người đoạt giải vào hôm nay 11/10/2012, Viện Hàn lâm Khoa học
Thụy Điển nhấn mạnh « sự kết hợp kỳ ảo giữa chủ nghĩa hiện thực với hư cấu, lịch sử và đương đại ». Nhà văn cho biết « sững sờ » nhưng « hạnh phúc » vì tin này, và hứa hẹn sẽ đầu tư sáng tác nhiều hơn.
Từ quê nhà là huyện Cao Mật (Gaomi) tỉnh Sơn Đông, nhà văn Mạc
Ngôn (Mo Yan) tên thật là Quản Mô Nghiệp (Guan Moye) khi trả lời Tân Hoa
Xã đã cho biết, ông rất vui mừng khi được giải, và sẽ tập trung sáng
tác thêm các tác phẩm mới.
Bút hiệu Mạc Ngôn (có nghĩa là « không nói ») được chọn lựa khi ông xuất bản tác phẩm đầu tiên « Củ cải đỏ trong suốt » năm
1986, trong đó một cậu bé từ chối nói chuyện, qua ngòi bút đã thuật lại
cuộc sống nông thôn, như tác giả đã sống qua thời trẻ.
Được xem là thân cận với chế độ, Mạc Ngôn bị một số nhà văn khác chỉ
trích vì không hỗ trợ cho các tác giả ly khai. Nhà ly khai nổi tiếng
Ngụy Kinh Sinh (Wei Jingsheng), được xem là biểu tượng của phong trào
dân chủ ở Trung Quốc, hôm nay đã phê phán việc trao giải cho Mạc Ngôn,
tuy không phủ nhận tài năng văn chương của ông, cho rằng đây là một
quyết định nhằm làm đẹp lòng Bắc Kinh.
Hôm nay truyền hình nhà nước Trung Quốc đã tạm ngưng chương trình
thời sự hàng đêm để loan tin nhà văn Mạc Ngôn được giải Nobel văn học
2012. Sau đó là phát biểu của Phó chủ tịch Hội Nhà văn Trung Quốc, cho
đây là một sự kiện đáng mừng đối với văn chương Trung Quốc. Còn Nhân dân
Nhật báo đã chúc mừng nhà văn mang quốc tịch Trung Quốc đầu tiên đoạt
được giải thưởng cao quý này. Thông tin cũng đã nhanh chóng được cư dân
mạng Trung Quốc vui mừng đón nhận.
Trước đây vào năm 2000, nhà văn Cao Hành Kiện (Gao Xingjian) cũng đã
được trao giải Nobel văn học, nhưng nhà văn này năm 1998 đã rời Trung
Quốc và chọn lựa quốc tịch Pháp, nên tin ông được giải xem như một « cái
tát » đối với Bắc Kinh. Còn năm 2010, khi nhà ly khai Lưu Hiểu Ba (Liu
Xiaobo) được tặng giải Nobel hòa bình, Trung Quốc đã kiểm duyệt tin trên
và gọi các thành viên Ủy ban Nobel là « những tên hề ».
Một số tác phẩm của Mạc Ngôn, đã được dịch sang tiếng Việt, chẳng hạn cuốn « Báu vật của đời » được bán rất chạy ở Việt Nam. Tuy nhiên cuốn « Ma chiến hữu » đã gây ra nhiều luồng dư luận khác nhau tại Việt Nam vì viết về cuộc chiến tranh biên giới Việt – Trung năm 1979.
Từ Hà Nội, dịch giả Trần Đình Hiến, người đã dịch sáu tác phẩm của Mạc Ngôn ra tiếng Việt cho biết:
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