Cashing in on Mo Yan's fame

Just four days after Mo Yan was named Nobel laureate, officials in his hometown in Shandong Province came up with a 670-million-yuan ($107 million) plan to turn his iconic village into a tourism attractions, the Beijing News reported Thursday.

Mo has replied the report warily, if not slyly. "A lot of news has been written, some true, some only joking. Don't take it seriously," the author was quoted by the People's Daily Online as saying.

The local management committee of Mo's village wants to build a country club, a patriotic education center and plant sorghum on 10,000 mu (667 hectares) near his old house along the Jiaohe River. Numerous of Mo's works were inspired by his rural upbringing.

Mo's novel Red Sorghum published in 1986 was made into a film by director Zhang Yimou in 1987, which won the Golden Bear Award the following year.

"The farmers are against planting sorghum as the crop produces little profit," Fan Hui, director of the committee, told the Beijing News.

"We will have to pay farmers up to 10 million yuan every year. This has to be done even if it's a money loser," Fan Hui told the newspaper, adding that the project will take three years to complete.

Not everyone is in favor of the plan as other local officials and scholars call it overly ambitious.

"The plan is too large and unrealistic. Usually, tourism attractions need a novel idea to be successful," Zhang Shangzheng, director of the tourism management department from Anhui University, told the Global Times.

"We have to be cautious," an official with the CPC Gaomi City Committee surnamed Wang told the Global Times. "So far we haven't come up with a workable plan. It will have to pass a feasibility study and be evaluated by experts," said Wang.

Although Mo's family rejected a 2010 proposal to renovate their home, Fan is confident he can convince Mo's 90-year-old father, who still lives in the village, to cooperate.

"I'll tell him 'Your son no longer belongs only to you,'" said Fan, suggesting that Mo's international fame will undoubtedly lead tourists to the village and the family home.

Neither Mo Yan nor any of his relatives could be reached Thursday. 

Just four days after Mo Yan was named Nobel laureate, officials in his hometown in Shandong Province came up with a 670-million-yuan ($107 million) plan to turn his iconic village into a tourism attractions, the Beijing News reported Thursday.

Mo has replied the report warily, if not slyly. "A lot of news has been written, some true, some only joking. Don't take it seriously," the author was quoted by the People's Daily Online as saying.

The local management committee of Mo's village wants to build a country club, a patriotic education center and plant sorghum on 10,000 mu (667 hectares) near his old house along the Jiaohe River. Numerous of Mo's works were inspired by his rural upbringing.

Mo's novel Red Sorghum published in 1986 was made into a film by director Zhang Yimou in 1987, which won the Golden Bear Award the following year.

"The farmers are against planting sorghum as the crop produces little profit," Fan Hui, director of the committee, told the Beijing News.

"We will have to pay farmers up to 10 million yuan every year. This has to be done even if it's a money loser," Fan Hui told the newspaper, adding that the project will take three years to complete.

Not everyone is in favor of the plan as other local officials and scholars call it overly ambitious.

"The plan is too large and unrealistic. Usually, tourism attractions need a novel idea to be successful," Zhang Shangzheng, director of the tourism management department from Anhui University, told the Global Times.

"We have to be cautious," an official with the CPC Gaomi City Committee surnamed Wang told the Global Times. "So far we haven't come up with a workable plan. It will have to pass a feasibility study and be evaluated by experts," said Wang.

Although Mo's family rejected a 2010 proposal to renovate their home, Fan is confident he can convince Mo's 90-year-old father, who still lives in the village, to cooperate.

"I'll tell him 'Your son no longer belongs only to you,'" said Fan, suggesting that Mo's international fame will undoubtedly lead tourists to the village and the family home.

Neither Mo Yan nor any of his relatives could be reached Thursday.