Media frenzy over author Mo Yan's chance to win Nobel Prize
Acclaimed author Mo Yan is being touted as possible first Chinese national to win honour, despite his cosy links to Communist Party
Critically acclaimed for his work and faulted for his tolerance of government censors, Chinese author Mo Yan has suddenly found himself at the centre of a media frenzy over his prospects of winning the Nobel Prize.
The mainland media has gone into overdrive touting the possibility that Mo could become the first Chinese national to win the prestigious literature award after odd-makers picked him as a leading candidate tomorrow.
The online betting site Ladbroke's put the odds of Mo Yan's winning at 8-1, just behind Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami, and Irish author and playwright William Trevor.
But rather than bask in the limelight, the 57-year-old author has spent recent days dodging questions for fear of being accused of courting the West. "Once I talked about it, I would be attacked, as many have been criticising Chinese writers for the Nobel Prize anxiety," Mo Yan was once quoted as saying.
Born as Guan Moye to a rural family in Gaomi , Shandong province, Mo Yan began writing while in the army in 1981 and adopted his pen name, meaning "don't speak". He rose to international fame with his Red Sorghum: A Novel of China in 1987, which was made into a film of the same name by director Zhang Yimou.
Mo Yan has made no secret of the influence that previous Nobel Prize winners, such as William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, have had on his magical realism and the complex narratives he weaves about rural life and family feuds.