SWEDEN: Mo Yan, the Chinese winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature, declines to issue a direct call for the release of jailed compatriot and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo

Record ID: 187188

  • Title: SWEDEN: Mo Yan, the Chinese winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature, declines to issue a direct call for the release of jailed compatriot and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo
  • Date: 6th December 2012
  • Summary: STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN (DECEMBER 6, 2012) (REUTERS) **CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY** NOBEL LITERATURE LAUREATE MO YAN ENTERING ROOM WIDE OF ROOM CAMERA DISPLAY (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) NOBEL LITERATURE LAUREATE MO YAN, SAYING: "At that time my friends were joking with me: 'Write well and maybe in the future one day you will have the possibility to win the prize here, you'll be standing here.' Inwardly I was thinking yes, I should write well, I should work hard and maybe one day I'll stand here." WIDE OF ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) NOBEL LITERATURE LAUREATE MO YAN, SAYING: "I've never given any compliments to the system of censorship. But I also believe that in every country of the world censorship exists. The only difference is in the degree and way censorship happens." WIDE OF ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) NOBEL LITERATURE LAUREATE MO YAN, SAYING: "Indeed, I said that my prize is a victory for literature but not a victory for politics." WIDE OF ROOM (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) NOBEL LITERATURE LAUREATE MO YAN, SAYING: "Firstly Mr Liu Xibobo won the peace prize, and I won the literature prize. Of course the effects generated in China were different." WIDE OF ROOM/ JOURNALIST ASKS QUESTION AND MO SAYING HE DOES NOT WANT TO REPEAT IT (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) NOBEL LITERATURE LAUREATE MO YAN, SAYING: "I have always been independent, I like it that way. When somebody forces me to do something I will never to it. When I want to speak, I will speak. When I'm forced to express my opinion I will not do it." WIDE OF ROOM
  • Embargoed: 21st December 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Sweden
  • Country: Sweden
  • Topics: International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA81DM9JFCSTN8FP2QE34OVFGRK
  • Story Text: Mo Yan, the Chinese winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday (December 6) discussed the significance of the award in Stockholm, where he will pick up the prestigious prize on Monday (December 10).
    Last time Mo was in Stockholm, his friends had shown him the royal palace and joked that one day he could visit as a Nobel laureate.

    "At that time my friends were joking with me: 'Write well and maybe in the future one day you will have the possibility to win the prize here, you'll be standing here.' Inwardly I was thinking yes, I should write well, I should work hard and maybe one day I'll stand here," he said just a stone-throw away from the palace.
    A number of dissidents and other writers have said Mo was unworthy of winning as he had shied away from commenting on the plight of his jailed compatriot and Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo .
    They have also denounced Mo for commemorating a speech by former paramount leader Mao Zedong.
    Mo, whose adopted pen name Mo Yan means "don't speak", again refused to express support for Liu, responding that his award was not a "victory for politics."

    "Indeed I said that my prize winning is the victory for literature but not a victory for politics," he said.
    Mo also said his case was completely different to that of Liu.

    "Firstly Mr Liu Xibobo won the peace prize, and I won the literature prize. Of course the effects generated in China were different," Mo said.
    The Liu case has drawn attention to China's human rights record, although China itself says that Liu is a criminal and decries such criticism as unwarranted interference in its internal affairs.
    A group of 134 Nobel laureates including the Dalai Lama, wrote to Chinese Communist Party chief and president-in-waiting Xi Jinping urging that he release detained Liu, who won the prize two years ago, and his wife.
    Pressed on whether he would support the call from the 134 laureates, Mo said he had "always been independent".

    "I have always been independent, I like it that way. When somebody forces me to do something I will never to it. When I want to speak, I will speak. When I'm forced to express my opinion I will not do it," he said.
    Liu, a veteran dissident involved in 1989 pro-democracy protests crushed by the Chinese army, won the prize in 2010.
    He was jailed the year earlier and is serving an 11-year sentence. His wife Liu Xia is under house arrest.
    Mo is best known in the West for "Red Sorghum", which portrays the hardships endured by farmers in the early years of communist rule and was made in a film directed by Zhang Yimou.
    His books also include "Big Breasts and Wide Hips" and "The Republic of Wine".
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