Nobel winner ‘brings Chinese literature to the world’  

综述：莫言获诺奖让中国当代文学进入世界视野

“莫言的高度就是中国当代文学的高度”，北京大学中文系教授陈晓明曾如是说。今天，中国当代文学的高度得到了世界的承认——诺贝尔奖委员会在瑞典斯德哥尔摩宣布，2012年诺贝尔文学奖得主花落中国作家莫言。

Beijing (CNS) – Mo Yan's prize has brought Chinese contemporary literature to the world, a critic has said, referring to the surprising news on Thursday that Mo had won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Mo Yan winning the prize will make the world pay more attention to Chinese writers and Chinese literature, said famous critic Bai Ye.

Mo has said that he bases his work on his rich knowledge of the Chinese countryside where he grew up, and uses folk language to express his thoughts.

Since 1981, Mo has published many acclaimed works including "Fengru feitun" ("Big Breasts and Wide Hips"), "Honggaoliang jiazu" ("Red Sorghum"), Tanxiangxing ("Sandalwood Death") and "Shengsi pilao" ("Life and Death are Wearing Me Out"). His latest novel, 2009's "Wa"("Frog"), won him the Mao Dun Literature Prize in 2011.

The academy gave the prize to Mo the individual as well as to modern Chinese literature, said Cheng Guangwei, a professor at Renmin University of China. "It symbolizes that Chinese modern and contemporary literature have stepped to the front in the world," Cheng added.

A Chinese writer winning the Nobel Prize for literature will increase Chinese people's confidence in literature and ethnic literature, added Bai Ye.

"Through a mixture of fantasy and reality, historical and social perspectives, Mo Yan has created a world reminiscent in its complexity of those in the writings of William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, at the same time finding a departure point in old Chinese literature and in oral tradition," the Swedish Academy said.

On hearing the news that he had won the award, the 57-year-old writer said from his home in rural Shandong Province that "I will focus on creating new works."