| Chapter : | Introduction: Hunger and Loneliness: Mo Yan’s Muses in Becoming a Writer |
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of school at the age of twelve and began his life as a peasant, working all day long in the field as the adults did. When the representatives of the lower and poor peasants entered and were stationed in schools, Mo Yan was denied the opportunity of going back to school because he was from a middle-peasant family. In spite of the hard labor he was forced to endure, however, Mo Yan’s enthusiasm for reading did not wane; on the contrary, his hunger for books greatly increased. In addition to his older brother’s textbooks, he read every book he could get his hands on, regardless of its subject. The more Mo Yan read, the more he grew to dislike boring manual labor, and the greater his desire became to leave the countryside. Even though he had completed only five years of elementary school education, he dreamed of going to college. University entrance examinations had been abandoned during the Cultural Revolution, however, and entry into colleges was now only possible through the recommendations of lower and poor peasants, which was out of the question for Mo Yan. As a result, the only way out of his life of hard labor was to join the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), although accomplishing this was not much easier than going to school because family backgrounds were equally important for military conscription. Mo Yan and his family tried persistently, and in 1976 he finally enlisted and realized his dream of leaving his rural hometown.
This golden opportunity was, in fact, a major turning point in Mo Yan’s life. He bid farewell to hunger forever—and most importantly—in the army, he was able to study. As many others had done, Mo Yan lied about his age and academic credentials: he claimed to be a senior high school student when he filled out the personnel form. The same year Mo Yan enlisted, the Gang of Four was arrested, and the university entrance examinations resumed. Looking at Mo Yan’s personal information and believing him to be a high school graduate, the army leaders told him to prepare for the examination. But because he had not actually finished his elementary education, Mo Yan was faced with a dilemma: this was his only chance to realize his dream of going back to school, but he knew it would be nearly impossible to prepare adequately for the examination in six months. Nevertheless, he was determined to try