Mo Yan (born Guan Moye, February 17, 1955) is a Chinese author.
His first novel Red Sorghum Clan, published in 1986, brought him national recognition.
In 2012, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature with the Nobel Committee describing him as an author "who with hallucinatory realism merges folktales, history, and the contemporary."
Selected Bibliography:
- Red Sorghum Clan
- The Garlic Ballads
- The Republic of Wine
- Big Breasts & Wide Hips
- Life and Death are Wearing Me Out
Tropes:
- Author Appeal: LiquorMo Yan: People who are strangers to liquor are incapable of talking about literature.
- Author Avatar: Often shows up as a character in his own novels. His portrayal of himself is usually not flattering.
- Black Comedy: This aspect of his work has drawn comparisons to Joseph Heller and Franz Kafka.
- Nom De Plume: Mo Yan means "Don't speak" in Chinese. The name comes from his parents warning him as a child not to speak his mind due to China's political situation at the time.
- Rags to Riches: The son of poor farmers, he has become one of China's most famous writers.
