Novelist Mo Yan, 2012's Nobel Prize winner for literature, is practised in the art of challenging the status quo without offending those who uphold it.
Mo, whose popular, sprawling, bawdy tales bring to life rural China, is the first Chinese winner of the literature prize who is not a critic of the authoritarian government. And Thursday's announcement by the Swedish Academy brought an explosion of pride across Chinese social media.
The state-run national broadcaster, China Central Television, reported the news moments later, and the official writers' association, of which Mo is a vice-chairman, lauded the choice. But it also ignited renewed criticisms of Mo from other writers as too willing to serve or too timid to confront a government that heavily censors artists and authors, and punishes those who refuse to obey.
The reactions highlight the unusual position Mo holds in Chinese literature. He is a genuinely popular writer who is embraced by the Communist establishment but who also dares, within careful limits, to tackle controversial issues like forced abortion. His novel The Garlic Ballads, depicts a peasant uprising and official corruption.
"He's one of those people who's a bit of a sharp point for the Chinese officials, yet manages to keep his head above water," said his long-time U.S. translator, Howard Goldblatt of the University of Notre Dame.
"That's a fine line to walk, as you can imagine."
Typical of his ability to skirt the censors' limitations, Mo had retreated from Beijing in recent days to the rural eastern village of Gaomi where he was raised and which is the backdrop for much of his work. He greeted the prize with characteristic low-key indifference.
"Whether getting it or not, I don't care," the 57-year-old Mo said in a telephone interview from Gaomi. He said he goes to his childhood hometown every year around this time to read, write and visit his elderly father.
"I'll continue on the path I've been taking, feet on the ground, describing people's lives, describing people's emotions, writing from the standpoint of the ordinary people," said Mo, whose real name is Guan Moye and whose pen name "Mo Yan" means "don't speak."
He chose the name while writing his first novel to remind himself to hold his tongue.
The state media hoopla and government cheer contrasted with the Nobel prizes given to Beijing disowned China-born French emigr脙漏 dramatist, novelist and government critic Gao Xingjian in 2000. He is the only other Chinese writer to win the literary prize. After imprisoned democracy campaigner Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Peace Prize two years ago, the government heaped scorn on the award as a tool of the West and cooled diplomatic and economic relations with Norway, which awards the prize.
The Swedish Academy disputed suggestions that it had selected Mo to seek Beijing's favour and rehabilitate the Nobel's image in the minds of many Chinese.
"As we've been trying to, naggingly, say: This is a literature prize that is awarded on literary merit alone. We don't take other things in consideration," said Peter Englund, the academy's permanent secretary.
The reaction in a winner's homeland "doesn't enter into our calculus."
Mo writes of visceral pleasures and existential quandaries and tends to create vivid, mouthy characters. While his early work sticks to a straightforward narrative structure enlivened by vivid descriptions, raunchy humour and farce, his style has evolved, toying with different narrators and embracing a freewheeling style often described as "Chinese magical realism."
Among the works highlighted by the Nobel judges were Red Sorghum (1987) and Big Breasts & Wide Hips (2004), as well as The Garlic Ballads (2009), which looked at forced abortions and other coercive aspects of the government's policies restricting most families to one child.
His output has been prolific, which has contributed to his popularity and his impact. His works have been translated into English, Russian, French, German and many other languages, giving him an audience well beyond the Chinese-speaking world.
