Chinese congratulate Mo Yan after Nobel Prize win

Chinese authors and netizens congratulated Mo Yan on Thursday night after he became the country's first Nobel Literature Prize laureate.

Mo's win brought joy to his supporters as no Chinese national has ever won the Nobel prize in literature in its century-long history.

"He definitely deserves the prize," Er Yue He, a renowned Chinese writer in central Henan Province told Xinhua. "His prize is an affirmation for Chinese literature on the world stage," he said.

Wang Anyi, president of Shanghai Writers' Association said she was happy for Mo. "Congratulations to him," she said.

"Congratulations to Mo Yan," said "Qingfengxiaoge" on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging site. "You are the pride of China."

On Thursday, "Will a Chinese person become the laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature?" remained the most popular topic on Sina Weibo.

One hour before the announcement of the winner, nearly 8,000 participants of an online poll conducted by the website said they believed Mo would win. The figure was three times as many as those who said he would not.

Many Chinese people have waited for this moment and speculation he would win intensified over the past few days.

The author, whose real name is Guan Moye, was nominated along with Canada's Alice Munro and Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami.

Born into a farmer's family in a village in Gaomi City of east China's Shangdong Province, Mo has been known since the late 1980s for his novels such as Big Breasts and Wide Hips and Red Sorghum, which was later adapted into a film by director Zhang Yimou.

Sales of Mo's works have increased at the online bookshops in China this week. Mo's novel Frog, which earned him the Mao Dun Literature Prize, China's most prestigious award for novels, is out of stock on Dangdang.com, the country's leading online book shop.

The writer is now in Gaomi, where he was born and raised, and is allegedly writing another book.