ABSTRACT
Mo Yan (b. 1955), one of the most proliferate fiction writers in contemporary China, has so far published over 10 novels, about 30 novellas, more than 80 short stories, and numerous essays. Born into a family of landlord class in Gaomi County, Shandong province in northern China, Mo Yan experienced hunger, exclusion, and solitude during his childhood. Meanwhile, he indulged himself in observing the natural world of the countryside, listening to folktales that are full of ghosts and foxes, and extensive reading in classical and socialist literature. In 1966, when the Cultural Revolution started, he dropped out of school when all schools were closed. He then started to work as a farmer in the People’s commune and then a worker until 1976. As a young farmer, he herded sheep for the production team. These life experiences became the inexhaustible resources and inspirations for his literary creation. The life-changing event is his joining the People’s Liberation Army in 1976. Later on he was admitted to the Army’s art institute in 1984 on the strength of publishing a short story “Folk Music.” In 1986, Mo Yan became nationally renowned with the publication of Red Sorghum (Hong gaoliang jiazu), a novel consisted of five novellas with a theme on “the retrogression of modern civilized man comparing to their Dionysian ancestors.” From 1988 to 1991, Mo Yan attended Beijing Normal University’s graduate program for writers and received an MA. While studying there he finished The Republic of Wine (Jiuguo, 1992), a critique of metaphorical cannibalism through surrealistic imaginations.
