Mo Yan's Nobel Prize lecture scorned by China dissidents

Mo Yan's Nobel lecture did little to dispel ongoing controversy in China's literary circles, with state media widely covering this year's literature prize winner even as dissident artists piled on derision.

In the traditional Nobel lecture in Stockholm on Friday, Mo, the vice-chairman of the government-backed China Writers' Association, took a swipe at his critics, saying their target "had nothing to do" with him and urging them to read his books.

Mo has walked a tightrope during his stay in Stockholm, where he will pick up the award tomorrow, with some pundits supporting his own claims that he is "independent" and others casting him as a Beijing stooge.

"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.

The best way for a writer to speak was through his work, Mo argued, adding that everything he needed to say could be found in his works.

"Speech is carried off by the wind; the written word can never be obliterated," he told his audience on Friday.