Stockholm: Chinese writer Mo Yan, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, described himself as a storyteller in a lecture at the Swedish Academy.
It is telling stories that earned me the prize, Mo Yan said Friday.
In the lecture titled “Storytellers”, he talked about how he started story telling as a child and shared with the listeners his memory of his childhood and mother, “the person who is most on my mind at this moment”.
“As repayment for mother’s kindness and a way to demonstrate my memory, I’d retell the stories for her in vivid detail,” said Mo Yan.
He also recalled being surrounded by adults instead of children of his age after he dropped out of school, which “created a powerful reality” in his mind and later became a part of his own fiction.
By introducing the background of his most famous works such as “Frog”, “Life and Death are Wearing Me Out”, “Big Breasts and Wide Hips”, “The Garlic Ballads”, “Sandalwood Death” and “The Transparent Carrot”, Mo Yan shared the inspiration behind the stories and the way they were produced.
“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,” said Mo Yan.
“So I will continue telling my stories in the days to come,” he said.
Mo Yan, who arrived in Sweden Thursday, will attend the Nobel Prize award ceremony and the Nobel banquet next Monday.
