Dissidents attacked Mo Yan’s (莫言) Nobel Prize in Literature as a disgraceful vindication of the Chinese Communist Party’s control of creative expression yesterday, accusing the author of being a “stooge” of officialdom.
However, Mo Yan defended his Nobel prize yesterday and expressed hope for the early release of jailed fellow laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波).
While China continued to bask in the reflected glory of the prize with an outpouring of pride that contrasted with the fury that greeted other Nobel awards linked to the country, opponents of China’s government branded it a shameful validation of state controls on publishing.
Dissident artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) attacked Mo Yan as a government stooge and ridiculed the official response by Beijing, which criticized earlier Nobel Peace Prizes for the Dalai Lama and Liu.
“He will always stand on the side of power and he will not have one bit of individualism,” Ai said, referring to Mo Yan.
Prominent Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng (魏京生), considered by many to be the father of China’s modern democracy movement, criticized the prize as an effort to appease Beijing, which lashed out in 2010 over Liu’s peace award.
Wei praised Mo Yan, 57, as a writer, but questioned actions such as his copying by hand of a speech by late Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) — delivered to the Communist revolutionary base at Yanan during China’s civil war — for a commemorative book this year.
In the speech, Mao states that art and culture should support the Chinese Communist Party.
“Just look at the elated hype on the Nobel prize by the Chinese government before and after the announcement. We could tell that this prize was awarded for the purpose of pleasing the communist regime and [it] is thus not noteworthy,” Wei said.
China’s government mouthpieces went into overdrive to praise Mo Yan and his prize.
“Chinese authors have waited too long for this day, the Chinese people have waited too long. We congratulate Mo Yan,” the People’s Daily said.
However, Yu Jie (余杰), an exiled dissident writer, was quoted by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle as calling the award “the biggest scandal in the history of the Nobel Prize in Literature.”
“That an author who copied Mao Zedong’s Yanan text and sang the praises of Mao Zedong can earn the prize — the number of people Mao Zedong slaughtered surpasses even that of Stalin and Hitler,” he reportedly said.
However, Mo Yan stood his ground in a press briefing likely to anger both sides.
He dismissed his detractors, saying they probably had not read his books.
“Some say that because I have a close relationship with the Communist Party, I shouldn’t have won the prize. I think this is unconvincing,” Mo Yan said.
He called his award “a literature victory, not a political victory.”
Mo Yan also defended Mao, who wrote that Chinese art must serve the party.
“I think some of Mao’s remarks on art were reasonable,” the author said.
Looking relaxed and confident, he also courted official anger by saying he hoped that Liu could be freed soon.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
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