Mo Yan reaches out to wider readership

Chinese Nobel Literature Laureate Mo Yan gave a lecture at the Stockholm University on Sunday afternoon. With the help of a local actor, he performed excerpts from his books, giving local readers greater accessibility and relevance to his works, and to the Chinese culture as a whole.

In Swedish, Johan Rabaeus is telling Mo Yan's stories. Without understanding a single word, Mo Yan was fascinated by his own works, translated and performed in another language.

Mo Yan, Chinese Nobel Literature Laureate, said, "I will learn from this gentleman to stand up and read. But whether I stand up or sit down, I cannot read it as well as he does."

With the help of scholars and translators, Mo Yan is able to reach out to a much wider audience. This also greatly facilitated his winning of the Nobel Prize for Literature this year."

One of the excerpts performed on Sunday was taken from Mo Yan's novel "life and death are wearing me out". It's about how a Chinese farmer called Ximen Nao upholds his beliefs and goes through several transmigrations until he finds justice for himself.

Johan Rabaeus was introduced to Mo Yan's work only days ago. But once he started reading it, he was drawn into Mo Yan's works.

Johan Rabaeus, Royal Dramatic Theatre of Stockholm, said, "It's full of images, pictures, a lot of colored powers. This is my first step with Mo Yan and I am very excited."

Sinologists such as Howard Goldblatt, Goran Malmqvist and Anna Gustav Chen, have helped translate Mo Yan's books into English and Swedish. Only then did his works start to gain international fame. His unique story telling style also makes it easy for people to follow his stories.

For the 1200 odd audience members, it was not just a great opportunity to hear Mo Yan's stories in both Chinese and Swedish, but also to know Mo Yan as a Chinese writer and a person.

Lina Johnson said, "I am so surprised there are so many people coming. I think not just Mo Yan, but Chinese literature will gain from this."

Mo Yan is in Stockholm to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is the first Chinese writer living in China to receive this prize. His works include the Red Sorgham Clan, on which the famous movie Red Sorgham was based.