Dissidents blast awarding of Nobel prize to Mo Yan, a 'supporter of censorship'
Lin Hsin-yi and Staff Reporter 2012-12-08 13:46
Dissident Chinese writer Liao Yiwu. (File photo/China Times)
As Chinese writer Mo Yan arrived in Stockholm to receive his Nobel prize in literature, Liao Yiwu, a Chinese dissident writer in exile in Germany, wrote a public letter to the judges criticizing them for granting the prize to a "ranking communist official of autocratic China and a supporter of censorship." A number of international media outlets, including as the Chinese networks of Deutsche Welle and Radio France Internationale, published the letter.
Liao Yiwu said out that Mo Yan is a close associate to the Chinese communist regime, as evidenced by his compliment of Bo Xilai, former party chief in Chongqing in a poem. He noted that Mo's writings are distort the narrative of Chinese stories.
Liao believes that as vice chairman of the China Writers Association, Mo Yan adopted a submissive stance after the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident and never expressed his concern over the unpleasant realities in China, either publicly or in private occasion.
Liao, 54, a writer renowned for several books critical of the regime, was jailed after the Tiananmen incident and was subsequently banned by the Chinese government from leaving the country. He escaped to Germany in July 2011.
In October 2011, Liao was granted the German book industry and peace award. In his speech for accepting the award, he criticized China as an “inhumane and bloody empire,” which will fracture. His speech was widely covered in the international media, greatly boosting his profile.
In his speech, he criticized that Mo Yan’s novel as "a rather sophisticated marriage between a translation style and various real features of specific areas." He remarked that Mo Yan’s Red Sorghum reflects a pathological nationalism and Big Breasts and Wide Hips is mere vulgar pornography.
Liao also said that some of Mo Yan’s works expose the darkness of the regime, but only darkness at the grassroots level, rather than at the centre of the empire. Mo only unveils regional evil and darkness in the Mao Zedong era. "Mo skillfully became popular under the rule of Hu Jintao, only criticizing Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, a practice which has actually become quite common inside and outside of the communist party. This is safe and disguised as justice."
Mo's win has met with more forgiving words. David Der-wei Wang, a professor at Harvard university, commented that "Not everyone wants to become a dissident. If you just want to become a writer within the system, Mo Yan has achieved that. He is smart to know how to survive under the communist regime."
