The Nobel Prize, Mo Yan, and Contemporary Literature in China

Abstract

Zhang Qinghua was one of the first Chinese literary critics to promote Mo Yan's work in China. In this essay, Zhang asks whether the awarding of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature to Mo Yan can finally put to rest the dichotomy that praises modern Chinese literary accomplishments by pre-WWII writers like Lu Xun while summarily dismissing the accomplishments of contemporary writers. Zhang argues that Mo Yan's international recognition offers an opportunity to take down such reductive divisions within Chinese literature so that the rich complexities of the entire modern era can be appreciated. The real question for Zhang lies not with whether contemporary Chinese literature has upheld the promise of China's “New Literature,” but whether the upcoming generation of writers—whom he sees as being less serious—can live up to the aesthetic and intellectual rigor of writers like Mo Yan.