Birth of Mo Yan

Mo Yan was born on 17 February 1955 in Gaomi. A Chinese novelist and short-story writer, Mo Yan is a pen name meaning don't speak. Born into a peasant family in Shandong province, he served in the army and began writing in the early 1980s. His works, including Red Sorghum, The Garlic Ballads, Big Breasts and Wide Hips and Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, blend folk tales, history and magic realism to depict rural China with harshness and humor. Red Sorghum was adapted into a film by Zhang Yimou. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012, a decision that drew criticism because of his ties to the Chinese state.

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