| Chapter : | Introduction: Hunger and Loneliness: Mo Yan’s Muses in Becoming a Writer |
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decades, and they rejuvenated literature and art with new subject matter and writing styles. The open-door policy that came about after the Maoist era allowed the Chinese to see—much to their astonishment—the tremendous changes that had taken place in the outside world while they were isolated. This also spurred intellectuals into embarking on a painstaking introspection process regarding the events of the recent past. They began to question the Maoist legacy and to reexamine their history, culture, and the notion of “Chineseness” per se.
Consequently, the Chinese literary world began to flourish in the late 1970s. Different styles of production—especially in fiction writing—shifted rapidly, and the tastes of writers in this period changed remarkably. Novelists were interested in trying a variety of new styles of writing—both borrowed (such as stream of consciousness) and domestic (such as root seeking), which examines tradition and culture and searches for the roots of the Chinese people. Many gifted writers emerged in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s; some are now famous not only nationally but also internationally. Standing out in this talented group is Mo Yan (
, 1955–), the most prolific writer in present-day China as well as one of the country’s most prominent avant-gardists, whose literary productions have enjoyed an enormous readership and have captured a great deal of critical attention not only in Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan but also in many other countries.
Mo Yan has published eleven novels to date: Honggaoliang jiazu (
) [The red sorghum family] (1987), Tiantang suantai zhi ge (
) [The garlic ballads] (1988), Shisan bu (
) [Thirteen steps] (1989), Jiuguo (
) [The republic of wine] (1992), Shicao jiazu (
) [The herbivorous family] (1994), Fengru feitun (
) [Big breasts and wide hips] (1996), Hong shulin (
) [Red grove] (1999), Tanxiang xing (
) [Sandalwood punishment] (2001), Sishiyi pao (
) [Forty-one bombs] (2003), Shengsi pilao (
) [Life and death are wearing me out] (2006), and Wa (
) [Frog] (2009). In addition to these novels, he has produced a large corpus of novellas and short stories. Thus far, five of Mo Yan’s novels and a considerable number of his novellas, short stories, and essays have been