Mo Yan's Nobel means recognition for China at last, but critics air doubts

Mo Yan's Nobel Prize for literature was hailed by the public as a sign that contemporary Chinese literature has finally won global recognition, even as several cultural critics questioned the value of his work.

Publisher Ye Kai said the award, which was the first given to a Chinese citizen, had "satisfied a long anxiety by the Chinese people" over why one of their writers had not received Nobel honours. It was also seen as evidence of recognition of broader contemporary Chinese literature, which many feel has been undervalued for too long.

"I really didn't see this coming," said Lu Jiande, director of the Institute of Literature at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "His calligraphy is surprisingly beautiful. He can make words live and breathe. He is far ahead of other Chinese in the sense that he starts from criticising himself instead of the outside world."

But others saw the decision to award Mo Yan a surprising departure from the prize committee's tradition of honouring writers who epitomise free will and idealism, as well as humanism.

Mo Yan's ability to thrive under a strict censorship regime, which has led to the muzzling or imprisonment of some of his peers, has put him under intense criticism domestically.

Zhu Dake, a culture critic at Tongji University in Shanghai, said the decision to give the prize to "a mainstream author on the mainland with a political identity recognised by the Communist Party was a total surprise".