Mo Yan’s (莫言) Nobel lecture did little to dispel controversy in literary circles yesterday, with China’s state media widely covering the Nobel Prize in Literature winner’s speech, while dissident artists piled on derision.
In the traditional lecture in Stockholm on Friday, Mo, the vice-chairman of the government-backed China Writers’ Association, took a swipe at his critics, saying their target “had nothing to do” with him, and urging them to read his books.
Mo has walked a tightrope during his stay in Stockholm, where he will pick up the award tomorrow, with some pundits supporting his claims that he is “independent,” and others casting him as a Beijing stooge.
In China, his lecture did little to dispel the divide.
“In the last few days, he has defended the system of censorship ... then in his lecture he talks about storytelling — to use a Chinese expression, he is like a prostitute insisting her services are clean,” dissident poet Ye Du (野渡), a member of the non-government Independent Chinese Pen Center, told reporters.
“As far as an assessment of him, in literature he has some merit, but as a living human being, he is a dwarf,” Ye said.
Ye said Chinese intellectuals had hoped Mo would use the lecture to renew his call for the Chinese government to release jailed 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波), but instead he voiced support for China’s system of state censorship.
China’s state media covered Mo’s lecture widely, focusing on how he grew up in rural China with an illiterate mother and detailing the inspiration behind novels such as Red Sorghum, Frog and Life and Death are Wearing Me Out.
His victory has brought Chinese literature into the world spotlight and will help bridge the gap between Chinese culture and the rest of the world, Xinhua news agency cited Lan Lijun (蘭立俊), Chinese ambassador to Sweden, as saying.
“This is the first time that a non-dissident Chinese has won a Nobel prize, so it is not Mo Yan’s fault that the state media is praising him,” a Beijing intellectual, who only wanted to be identified by her surname, Wang, told reporters.
“It is clear he is against censorship, but he lives in China and he has the freedom to choose not to take on the views of a dissident,” she said.
Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) condemned the lecture in a tweet, saying: “Mo Yan’s talk about storytelling is about covering things up and hiding, it was powerless, disgraceful, a betrayal and a sellout.”
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
‘LIMITING MYSELF’: New Zealand’s foreign minister said that the omments by Phil Goff were ‘disappointing’ and made the diplomat’s position in the UK ‘untenable’ New Zealand’s most senior envoy to the UK has lost his job over remarks he made about US President Donald Trump at an event in London this week, New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said yesterday. Phil Goff, who is New Zealand’s High Commissioner to the UK, made the comments at an event held by international affairs think tank Chatham House in London on Tuesday. Goff asked a question from the audience of the guest speaker, Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen, in which he said he had been re-reading a famous speech by former British prime minister Winston
RSS