Mo Yan became the first resident of mainland China to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Malcolm Moore discussed the way that people in China have responded to his success:

• Local officials told the author’s father that whether “you agree or not” his son was no longer just his son; rather, he now belonged to the rest of China.
• The government is planning to build a “Mo Yan Culture Experience Zone” with Mo Yan’s house as the center piece.
• Chinese tourists from around the country have come to Mo Yan’s county. Some have picked vegetables from the area and plan to feed it to their children so that they, too, can go on to win a Nobel Prize.
• Mo Yan himself has seemed somewhat ambivalent to the fame. When asked if he was happy he responded that he didn’t know.
• The author wanted to use the £750,000 prize money to buy a big home for himself, but later realized that property prices were so high in China, he could barely afford a two bedroom apartment.

Read more about China’s reaction to the prize over here.

Source: The Telegraph

Via: Marginal Revolution