Mo Yan's self-reported literature road

■ Theme: How do I become a novelist?

■Location: Hong Kong Open University

■ Speaker: Mo Yan, a famous contemporary Chinese writer

■ Speaker Xiao Chuan: Mo Yan, formerly known as Guan Yiye, was born in Gaomi County, Shandong Province in 1955. He is the author of "Red Sorghum Family", "Liquor Country", "Ferrous Breasts and Buttocks", "Sanlu Penalty", "Life and Death Fatigue" and other novels, "Transparent Carrots", "The Commander's Woman" and other short stories. There are more than one hundred novels, and there are many plays and prose. Many of these works have been translated into English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Polish, Arabic, Vietnamese and other languages, and have extensive influence in the literary world at home and abroad. The 2019 Nobel Prize in Literature was announced, and Chinese writer Mo Yan won the award and became the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

■ Host language:

The Chinese writer Mo Yan won the Gui Nobel Prize for Literature and became the first Chinese writer to receive this honor. This award is considered to be a high recognition of Mo Yan himself and Chinese contemporary literature in the international literary world. Mo Yan posted Weibo after the award: "In this process, I saw people's hearts and saw myself." This article is based on Mo Yan's speech after being awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University of Hong Kong, aiming to make readers more Learn about Mo Yan’s growth and writing experience and tell the world a true Mo Yan.

When I saw the words "Dr. Mo Yan", I was uneasy in my heart. How can I become a doctor?

Forty years ago, I stole a doctoral pen from my uncle and was beaten by my father. "You still use a pen? The pencils are not good." Who knows that forty years, the words "Doctor" are actually linked to my name.

A few months ago, I received a message from the Open University of Hong Kong to give me an honorary doctorate. I immediately reported it to my father. I said, "Remember when you yelled at me? I stole my uncle's pen. Are you still laughing at me?" He said: "Is there something?" Then he asked me again: "Dr. Growing up?" I said: "This is hard to compare, almost, equivalent to the deputy magistrate." He was very happy to say: "This cadre has already done a lot." In short, the Open University awarded me this degree, let I am afraid of it. In fact, it feels like a wave of fame and awkwardness.

Generally speaking, a doctor must be proficient in more than three languages, and he must write a book, and learn Chinese and Western. I will write two novels. Chinese is not fluent. In English, I learned the word "toilet" and now I have forgotten it. So I don't have language wealth. At least I don't have a language talent, I am learning foreign languages.

Since I have awarded me an honorary doctorate, I am very happy and thank you very much. This title will often be printed on my book in the future. I will also hang the photos taken at the time of my degree at the wall of our house. Let my father look at this position equivalent to the deputy county level, the son is still a bit of a promising.

Until I was 20, there were only two pieces of clothing a year. In the summer, a scorpion is placed in the scorpion in the winter, and a layer of cotton is placed in the middle.

■The ambition of childhood is how to fill your stomach

Just now the principal of the school said that Mo Yan is a writer with great ambitions. This is definitely a compliment to me. I have never been ambitious. My ambition and my ambition have gradually expanded with the growth of my age.

When I was young, my ambition was the same as that of a small animal. I was born in the 1950s, and my childhood was in the most difficult period of the Chinese economy. At that time, eating and dressing were very problematic. There are many people who are struggling on the death line. Every day, I think about how to get something to eat and fill my stomach.

As for dressing, it doesn't matter. For rural children, before the age of ten, they were basically naked and did not have as much clothes. If you go to our village in the summer, you will see that the children are bare-chested. It's not that we like to be naked, but we don't really wear clothes. Until I was 20, there were only two pieces of clothing a year. In the summer, a scorpion is placed in the scorpion in the winter, and a layer of cotton is placed in the middle.

In this situation, it is absolutely exaggerating to say that a person has great ambitions. People are products of the material environment. Only when they are full, dressed very warm, and live comfortably, will they have such ideas, and they will have literature and art pursuits and requirements.

Except for individual geniuses, Chinese children in the 1960s did not have any associations with art and literature. At that time, my biggest ideal was how to eat a full meal, how to get into the city, how to get out of the countryside. This desire was actually the highest ideal of many young people at that time.

The neighbor told me that when I was in Jinan, I knew a famous writer in Shandong Province. This writer is particularly corrupt. I asked what extent corruption was, and he said that the writer had three dumplings a day.

■ Writer dreams that one can eat three dumplings a day

Without great ambition, how did you embark on the road of literature? This is also related to the neighbors of the village where I live.

When I was in my teens, there was a college graduate in my neighborhood. In 1957, there were many intellectuals in China, including some college students. They were put on the right-wing hats and became peasants. My college student neighbor, who was classified as a rightist at school, is now called the wrong right.

College students work with us. He is a Chinese-speaking department. Later, he also worked as a middle school language teacher and learned more about literature. He often instills some literary topics in the gap between labor.

He said that when he was in Jinan, he knew a famous writer in Shandong Province. This writer is particularly corrupt. I asked what extent corruption was, and he said that the writer had three dumplings a day. We thought at the time that only the gods could eat three dumplings a day. Because we can't eat a dumpling every year. Only in good years, you can have a dumpling on New Year's Eve. And the dumplings are still two kinds of skin, one is black leather black, one is white leather white. This writer can actually eat dumplings three times a day. I asked him at the time: "Uncle, if I can write a novel in the future, can I eat dumplings three times a day?" He said: "Of course!" So, I originally said about literature, about dreams of being a writer. It started with eating dumplings three times a day.

It was during the "Cultural Revolution" period in China. At that time, many older people knew that there were only eight model operas in the drama, and there were only a dozen novels and only one writer. Even the novels, known as the Red Classics of the 1950s and 1960s, were banned during the Cultural Revolution. The novel has become a kind of propaganda for politics. What we can read is the "three prominent" that was popular at the time.

At that time, it made me have a literary dream. It was very difficult to implement. It was not easy to make a pen or a few sheets of paper. But I still picked up the pen in 1973 to try to write a novel. The first sentence of the novel is, "The great leader Chairman Mao taught us."

At the time, I didn't know that people couldn't float when they were sitting on a balloon. It is Taiwan’s flyer that can float over the balloon. Our place is closer to Qingdao. In the spring, once the southeast wind is blowing, there will be balloons from Taiwan floating with our propaganda on our heads. We picked it up and saw that the building in Taiwan is very beautiful and people are dressed very beautifully. At that time, if anyone had hidden these flyers and did not hand in them, they might have to suffer a lot. But let us know through these things that have drifted over, that Taiwanese do not live as badly as we advertise. Of course, when we are blowing the northwest wind, our balloons are also floating in Taiwan, and we also show them the most beautiful things on the mainland. All in all, I grew up in a society where the economy is so poor and the political environment of the society is so depressed. Therefore, the literary dreams produced at this time are far from the true literary understanding.

The books "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", "Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio", and "The Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties" were obtained by helping people work and exchange things.

■Reading the book has some real literary concepts

The novel I understood at that time was different from the novel that was popular in the society at the time. Later, after reading some books borrowed from the village, I also had some concepts about real literature.

There are still more than a dozen books in the village. For example, in our village, there are classical chapters in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, and The Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. I have exchanged these novels in various ways. Sometimes I work for others, sometimes I exchange them with other things.

After reading the dozens of books in the village, I thought I had finished reading all the books in the world. After the soldiers, I entered a library in the county and found that I have not read so many books. It is still only a county library. If you enter a large library in Beijing, you will feel that you have spent all your life studying for a long time.

I was a child who was very willing to talk when I was a child. I was called a "cannon child" in the countryside. Because I especially like to tell the truth, I have brought a lot of trouble to my family.

■ Use Mo Yan this pen name to warn yourself to talk less

Of course, the President of the Principal just said that I am a writer who dares to tell the truth. I really agree with this. If I am awarded the honorary doctor because I am telling the truth, I think it is well deserved.

Because I think the environment in which we live is actually in a double discourse. Before and after the "Cultural Revolution", that is, between the 20s and 30s before the 1980s, the Chinese had two sets of discourse systems: one was when it was outside, and the other was speaking to the society. False words and phrases are all rhetoric and slogans; the other is spoken at home, when parents educate their children, or between husband and wife. Of course, sometimes when it is extremely extreme, the couple do not dare to tell the truth. Because I just said the truth, I was told by my wife the next day. The son and the father did not dare to tell the truth. The truth that the father just spoke was immediately betrayed by his son.

When the village opened a fight, my father was also very passionate and revolutionized with a very primitive curse. As a teenager, I also deeply felt that adults are wearing a mask. If a child dares to tell the truth outside, he will be punished as soon as he returns home.

I was a child who was very willing to talk when I was a child. I was very rapper and was called a "cannon child" in the countryside. This child is particularly innocent, especially fond of speaking, especially like talking to people. Later, I wrote a novel called "The Forty-one Cannon", and the "Cannon Kid" inside has my shadow.

Because I especially like to talk, and because I especially like to tell the truth, I have brought a lot of trouble to my family. I have seen leaflets floating in Taiwan. When the villagers said that Taiwanese lived in dire straits, I said, "Their buildings are particularly beautiful." This is a very bad thing. They immediately called my father to the brigade's office. Tell my father, what did your son say today? Of course, my father will clean me up soon after I go back.

Because I like to talk and talk indiscriminately, it really makes my parents very angry. They often said to me, "Why do you have to say so much? Do others still sell you as a dumb? If you talk about it, find a rope to sew your mouth." Later my My sister also opposed me. She said that even if he used his hemp rope to sew his mouth, he would leak out of the gap.

So, when I started writing novels, I used a pen name called Mo Yan. Mo Yan is telling himself to talk less. As it turns out, I have not said a word, especially on some solemn occasions.

I think that telling the truth is undoubtedly a valuable quality of a writer. Writers who are telling lies are not only unhelpful to society, but also unhelpful to the people, and will greatly affect the character of literature.