Mo Yan

Mo Yan married Du Qinlan in 1979. They have a daughter Guan Xiaoxiao born in 1981.

His daughter manages all his business and public relation affairs including copyright issues.

Guan Moye was born on 5th March 1955 and grew up in Gaomi in Shandong province in north-eastern China in a poor farming family.

He dropped out in the fifth grade of a primary school in his hometown during the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.

He participated in farm work for years and then started working in a cotton factory in 1973.

He joined the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 1976.

His writing stint started in 1981 with short stories. This was the time when he adopted his pen name ‘Mo Yan’, which means “Don’t Speak.”

From 1984 to 86 he studied literature at the PLA Academy of Art. During this period, he published stories such as ‘Touming de hongluobo’ (Transparent Red Radish) and ‘Baozha’ (Explosions). This was a turning point in his literary life.

In 1986, he wrote a romantic historical story ‘Honggaoliang’ (Red Sorghum). In 1987, this story was published with four additional stories in ‘Honggaoliang jiazu’ (Red Sorghum Family).

In his later works he handled various approaches—from myth to realism, from satire to love story—but his tales were always marked by an impassioned humanism.

In 1989 his novel ‘Tiantang suantai zhi ge’ (The Garlic Ballads) and ‘Shisan bu’ (Thirteen Steps) were published.

In 1992, the collection of stories ‘Jiuguo’ (The Republic of Wine) came out. His novel ‘Shicao jiazu’ (The Herbivorous Family) was published in 1994, whereas in 1995, ‘Mo Yan wenji’ (Collected Works of Mo Yan) was published.

One of his most acclaimed novels is ‘The Red Sorghum Family’, published in 1987. This book gave him fame and recognition as a writer. It was adopted into a film of the same name in 1987. The film won the Golden Bear Award at the 1987 Berlin International Film Festival - the first major international prize awarded to a post-Mao Chinese film. The book consists of five stories that unfold and interweave in Gaomi in several turbulent decades in the 20th century, with depictions of bandit culture, the Japanese occupation and the harsh conditions endured by poor farm workers. This novel was selected by the magazine ‘World Literature Today’ as one of the ‘Top 40’ in its first 75 years of publication and as the best of 1987.