Editing Mo Yan (section)

==Biography==
Mo Yan was born in February 1955 into a peasant family in Ping'an Village, Gaomi Township, northeast of [[Shandong|Shandong Province]], the People's Republic of China. He is the youngest of four children with two older brothers and an older sister.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Literature 2012 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2012/yan/biographical/ |access-date=2022-05-31 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref> His family was of an upper-middle peasant class background.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Leung|first=Laifong|title=Contemporary Chinese Fiction Writers: Biography, Bibliography, and Critical Assessment|publisher=Taylor & Francis Group|year=2016|pages=197|language=en}}</ref> Mo was 11 years old when the [[Cultural Revolution]] was launched, at which time he left school to work as a farmer. In the autumn of 1973, he began work at the cotton oil processing factory. During this period, which coincided with a succession of political campaigns from the [[Great Leap Forward]] to the [[Cultural Revolution]], his access to literature was largely limited to novels in the [[Socialist realism|socialist realist]] style under Mao Zedong, which centred largely on the themes of class struggle and conflict.<ref name=Kenyon>Anna Sun. [http://www.kenyonreview.org/kr-online-issue/2012-fall/selections/anna-sun-656342/ "The Diseased Language of Mo Yan"], The Kenyon Review, Fall 2012.</ref>

At the close of the Cultural Revolution in 1976, Mo enlisted in the [[People's Liberation Army]] (PLA),<ref name="reutersNobel"/> and began writing while he was still a soldier. During this post-Revolution era when he emerged as a writer, both the lyrical and epic works of Chinese literature, as well as translations of foreign authors such as [[William Faulkner]] and [[Gabriel García Márquez]], would make an impact on his works.<ref name="Laughlin">{{cite news|url=http://cn.nytimes.com/article/culture-arts/2012/12/17/c17moyan/en/?pagemode=print|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130130074940/http://cn.nytimes.com/article/culture-arts/2012/12/17/c17moyan/en/?pagemode=print|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 January 2013|title=What Mo Yan's Detractors Get Wrong|first=Charles|last=Laughlin|date=17 December 2012|access-date=17 December 2012|work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

In 1984, he received a literary award from the ''PLA Magazine'', and the same year began attending the [[People's Liberation Army Arts College]], where he first adopted the pen name of Mo Yan.<ref name="Williford"/> He published his first novella, ''A Transparent Radish'', in 1984, and released ''Red Sorghum'' in 1986, launching his career as a nationally recognized novelist.<ref name="Williford"/> In 1991, he graduated from the joint master's program in literature  by the [[Lu Xun]] School of Literature and [[Beijing Normal University]].<ref name="reutersNobel" />

Mo Yan was among a group of 100 artists who celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the [[Yan'an Forum|Yan'an Talks]] in 2012 by hand copying the text of the talks.<ref name=":Yi" />{{Rp|page=58}} In 2012, Mo Yan received the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]].<ref name=":Wang" />{{Rp|page=184}}Upon his receipt of the Nobel Prize later that year, some Chinese writers and artists criticized him for being too close to the Chinese government, which takes a strong role in cultural affairs.<ref>{{Cite news |last=York |first=Josh Chin and Paul Mozur in Beijing and Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg in New |title=Chinese Writer Wins Literature Nobel |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444799904578050120766714576?mod=article_inline |access-date=2024-03-21 |work=WSJ |language=en-US}}</ref> Mo stated that he had no regrets for participating in the Yan'an Talks celebration.<ref name=":Yi" />{{Rp|page=58}}

Mo was also criticised by the author [[Salman Rushdie]] in 2012 after the announcement of the [[Nobel Prize|Nobel]] win, who called him a "patsy of the regime", after he refused to sign a petition calling for the freedom of [[Liu Xiaobo]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Daley |first=David |date=2012-12-07 |title=Rushdie: Mo Yan is a "patsy of the regime" |url=https://www.salon.com/2012/12/07/rushdie_mo_yan_is_a_patsy_of_the_regime/ |access-date=2024-09-19 |website=Salon |language=en}}</ref> a dissident involved in campaigns to end one party rule in China and the first Chinese citizen to be awarded the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] in 2010.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Liu Xiaobo {{!}} Facts, Biography, & Nobel Prize {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Liu-Xiaobo |access-date=2024-09-19 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> Mo later suggested in a press conference in [[Stockholm|Stockholm, Sweden]], that he would not join the appeal calling for the release of [[Liu Xiaobo]] from jail, although he hoped that Liu would be set free soon and had defended censorship as something equivalent to airport security checks.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |date=2012-12-07 |title=Censorship is a must, says China's Nobel winner |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/dec/07/mo-yan-censorship-nobel |access-date=2024-09-19 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077 |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> According to Mo, censorship should not stand in the way of truth, but defamation or rumors should be censored.<ref name=":0" />

{{As of|2016}}, Mo Yan was the deputy chair of the [[China Writers Association|Chinese Writers Association]].<ref name=":Wang">{{Cite book |last=Wang |first=David Der-wei |author-link=David Der-wei Wang |title=Red Legacies in China: Cultural Afterlives of the Communist Revolution |date=2016 |publisher=[[Harvard University Asia Center]] |isbn=978-0-674-73718-1 |editor-last=Li |editor-first=Jie |series=Harvard Contemporary China Series |volume= |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |chapter=Red Legacies in Fiction |doi= |jstor= |editor-last2=Zhang |editor-first2=Enhua}}</ref>{{Rp|page=184}} He is a member of the [[Chinese Communist Party]].<ref name=":0" />