Yan Mo

Mo Yan (real name Guan Moye) is a Chinese writer and the 2012 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature. He is an honorary Doctor of Literature of the Open University of Hong Kong (2005) and a visiting professor at Qingdao University of Science and Technology (since November 2011).

He was born on March 5, 1955, in Gaomi County, Shandong Province.

During the Cultural Revolution, Mo Yan was forced to drop out of school and worked in the countryside for many years.

In 1976, he joined the People’s Liberation Army of China (PLA), serving as a squad leader, security officer, and political instructor.

In 1981, he published his first works, including “Rain on a Spring Night,” “Dry River,” “Autumn Waters,” and “Folk Music,” among others. He rose to fame in 1986 with the publication of his novel Red Sorghum. In 1987, director Zhang Yimou made his famous film of the same name based on this work. In 2000, the weekly Asiaweek included Red Sorghum in its list of the 100 best Chinese novels of the 20th century.

In 1986, Mo Yan graduated from the Literature Department of the PLA Arts Institute. In 1991, after completing postgraduate studies at the Lu Xun Literary Institute of Beijing Normal University, he received a master’s degree in literature and the arts.

In 1997, he left the army, began working for the newspaper Jiancha Ribao, and also started writing screenplays for film and television. Mo Yan is the screenwriter of the films Red Sorghum (1987), Happy Hour (2000), and Nuan (2003), which were made based on his works.

Mo Yan’s works have been translated into more than a dozen languages, including English, French, German, and Norwegian.

Mo Yan serves as vice chairman of the China Writers Association.

In 2006, Mo Yan was included in the list of the twenty “Richest Chinese Writers” with 3.45 million yuan in royalties from book publications.