Dissidents attacked Mo Yan’s (莫言) Nobel Prize in Literature as a disgraceful vindication of the Chinese Communist Party’s control of creative expression yesterday, accusing the author of being a “stooge” of officialdom.
However, Mo Yan defended his Nobel prize yesterday and expressed hope for the early release of jailed fellow laureate Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波).
While China continued to bask in the reflected glory of the prize with an outpouring of pride that contrasted with the fury that greeted other Nobel awards linked to the country, opponents of China’s government branded it a shameful validation of state controls on publishing.
Dissident artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未) attacked Mo Yan as a government stooge and ridiculed the official response by Beijing, which criticized earlier Nobel Peace Prizes for the Dalai Lama and Liu.
“He will always stand on the side of power and he will not have one bit of individualism,” Ai said, referring to Mo Yan.
Prominent Chinese dissident Wei Jingsheng (魏京生), considered by many to be the father of China’s modern democracy movement, criticized the prize as an effort to appease Beijing, which lashed out in 2010 over Liu’s peace award.
Wei praised Mo Yan, 57, as a writer, but questioned actions such as his copying by hand of a speech by late Chinese leader Mao Zedong (毛澤東) — delivered to the Communist revolutionary base at Yanan during China’s civil war — for a commemorative book this year.
In the speech, Mao states that art and culture should support the Chinese Communist Party.
“Just look at the elated hype on the Nobel prize by the Chinese government before and after the announcement. We could tell that this prize was awarded for the purpose of pleasing the communist regime and [it] is thus not noteworthy,” Wei said.
China’s government mouthpieces went into overdrive to praise Mo Yan and his prize.
“Chinese authors have waited too long for this day, the Chinese people have waited too long. We congratulate Mo Yan,” the People’s Daily said.
However, Yu Jie (余杰), an exiled dissident writer, was quoted by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle as calling the award “the biggest scandal in the history of the Nobel Prize in Literature.”
“That an author who copied Mao Zedong’s Yanan text and sang the praises of Mao Zedong can earn the prize — the number of people Mao Zedong slaughtered surpasses even that of Stalin and Hitler,” he reportedly said.
However, Mo Yan stood his ground in a press briefing likely to anger both sides.
He dismissed his detractors, saying they probably had not read his books.
“Some say that because I have a close relationship with the Communist Party, I shouldn’t have won the prize. I think this is unconvincing,” Mo Yan said.
He called his award “a literature victory, not a political victory.”
Mo Yan also defended Mao, who wrote that Chinese art must serve the party.
“I think some of Mao’s remarks on art were reasonable,” the author said.
Looking relaxed and confident, he also courted official anger by saying he hoped that Liu could be freed soon.
RISK REMAINS: An official said that with the US presidential elections so close, it is unclear if China would hold war games or keep its reaction to angry words The Ministry of National Defense said it was “on alert” as it detected a Chinese aircraft carrier group to Taiwan’s south yesterday amid concerns in Taiwan about the possibility of a new round of Chinese war games. The ministry said in a statement that a Chinese navy group led by the carrier Liaoning had entered waters near the Bashi Channel, which connects the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean and separates Taiwan from the Philippines. It said the carrier group was expected to enter the Western Pacific. The military is keeping a close watch on developments and “exercising an
FIVE-YEAR WINDOW? A defense institute CEO said a timeline for a potential Chinese invasion was based on expected ‘tough measures’ when Xi Jinping seeks a new term Most Taiwanese are willing to defend the nation against a Chinese attack, but the majority believe Beijing is unlikely to invade within the next five years, a poll showed yesterday. The poll carried out last month was commissioned by the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taipei-based think tank, and released ahead of Double Ten National Day today, when President William Lai (賴清德) is to deliver a speech. China maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan and has held three rounds of war games in the past two years. CIA Director William Burns last year said that Chinese President Xi Jinping
RESILIENCE: Once the system is operational, there would be no need to worry about the risks posed by disasters or other emergencies on communication systems, an official said Taiwan would have 24-hour access to low Earth orbit satellites by the end of this month through service provided by Eutelsat OneWeb as part of the nation’s effort to enhance signal resilience, a Chunghwa Telecom Co (中華電信) official said yesterday. Earlier this year the Ministry of Digital Affairs, which partnered with Chunghwa Telecom on a two-year project to boost signal resilience throughout the nation, said it reached a milestone when it made contact with OneWeb’s satellites half of the time. It expects to have the capability to maintain constant contact with the satellites and have nationwide coverage by the end
REACTION TO LAI: A former US official said William Lai took a step toward stability with his National Day speech and the question was how Beijing would respond US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday warned China against taking any “provocative” action on Taiwan after Beijing’s reaction to President William Lai’s (賴清德) speech on Double Ten National Day on Thursday. Blinken, speaking in Laos after an ASEAN East Asia Summit, called the speech by Lai, in which he vowed to “resist annexation,” a “regular exercise.” “China should not use it in any fashion as a pretext for provocative actions,” Blinken told reporters. “On the contrary, we want to reinforce — and many other countries want to reinforce — the imperative of preserving the status quo, and neither party taking any
RSS