Chinese Nobel litreature laureate Mo Yan on Friday took a swipe at his critics in the traditional Nobel lecture, saying their target “had nothing to do” with him and urging them to read his books.
The writer has walked a tightrope during his stay in Stockholm, where he will pick up the award on Monday, with some pundits supporting his own claims that he is “independent”, and others casting him as a Beijing stooge.
Mo Yan is the vice-chairman of the government-backed China Writers’ Association, and the country’s state-run media have hailed him as a national hero.
“The announcement of my Nobel Prize has led to controversy. At first I thought I was the target of the disputes, but over time I’ve come to realise that the real target was a person who had nothing to do with me,” he said on Friday.
The best way for a writer to speak was through his work, he argued, adding that everything he needed to say could be found there. “Speech is carried off by the wind; the written word can never be oblitreated,” he told the audience.
He wrapped up the annual Nobel Lecture in Literature with a sarcastic comment seemingly aimed at his critics: “Many interesting things have happened to me in the wake of winning the prize and they have convinced me that truth and justice are alive and well.”
