China’s Mo Yan hailed as the 2012 Nobel Literature Prize winner

Artist Ai Weiwei takes Nobel award news badly, saying it is “insult to humanity and to literature”...

15:03 13 October 2012

Mo Yan was awarded the 2012 Nobel Literature Prize. The Chinese writer, who rose to fame by practicing the art of challenging the status quo without offending the people who uphold it, is considered as the one of the grand old men of Chinese Literature. 

 

Michael Hockx, a professor of Chinese at the University of London School of Oriental and African studies, is one of the people who are delighted with the news.

 

He said, as reported by The Independent: “He writes big novels about big issues.” 

 

Mo Yan was hailed in China. A leading newspaper reported: “Mo Yan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature! This is the first Chinese writer who has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Chinese writers have waited too long, the Chinese people have waited too long.”

 

However, not everybody is happy about Mo Yan’s latest achievement. Artist Ai Weiwei says that his win is an insult to humanity and to literature.

 

He is quoted by The Independent saying: “It’s shameful for the committee to have made this selection which does not live up to the previous quality of literature in the award.”