Herta Muller calls Mo Yan's Nobel win 'a catastrophe'
Nobel Prize laureates will always have their detractors 鈥� it鈥檚 a given considering the eminence of the award 鈥� but rarely have the detractors been as critical as those of Mo Yan. After the Chinese novelist鈥檚 2012 win, critics have been emerging from the woodwork with regularity, accusing Mo Yan of complicity with Communist leaders.
The latest criticism comes from 2009 Nobel Prize laureate Herta Muller, who told the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter this weekend that Mo Yan鈥檚 victory was 鈥渁 catastrophe鈥� and an 鈥渋ncredibly upsetting choice,鈥� according to the .
She accused the Chinese novelist of praising his country鈥檚 tough censorship laws and called his win 鈥渁 slap in the face for all those working for democracy and human rights.鈥�
Known for his depiction of rural Chinese life, and particularly its women, Mo Yan was compared to William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez and praised by the Nobel committee for his 鈥渉allucinatory realism鈥� that 鈥渕erges folks tales, history, and the contemporary.鈥�
Since the win, Mo Yan, the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, has been accused of compromising his independence by being a member of the Communist Party and vice president of the official writers association. That association is especially troubling for Muller, who came of age under the totalitarian regime of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and whose own work was often subject to censorship. (She now lives in Germany.)
鈥淭he Chinese themselves say that Mo Yan is an official of the same rung as a (government) minister,鈥� she told Dagens Nyheter, according to the UK鈥檚 .
She isn鈥檛 the only one to call him out. Immediately after he won the award, dissident artist Ai Weiwei told the , "Giving the award to a writer like this is an insult to humanity and to literature. It鈥檚 shameful for the committee to have made this selection which does not live up to the previous quality of literature in the award.鈥�
We鈥檙e curious to see whether the Nobel Committee or Mo Yan himself respond to these escalating attacks.
Of course, Mo Yan鈥檚 homeland, which is planning a Mo Yan theme park, has nothing but praise for the writer. As the reports, 鈥淐hinese officials have openly celebrated Mo鈥檚 Nobel 鈥� an ominous sign.鈥�
Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.
