Mo Yan:
I hope to be known as a playwright in the future, said Mo Yan, 2012 Nobel Laureate in Literature, at Fudan on May 17. The Chinese novelist and short-story writer renowned for his imaginative and humanistic fiction shared his ideas on literary creation in a talk with Wang Anyi, famous Chinese novelist and professor of modern Chinese literature at Fudan University, and Chen Sihe, contemporary literary critic and professor of modern Chinese literature at Fudan University in Xianghui Theatre in front of a large student audience.
Mo said a novelist should also be a playwright, like Lao She and Jean-Paul Sartre, who wrote both novels and plays. In his opinion, every good novel contains one or even several plays.
While Mo's novels have been well known around the world, his plays are also making their way onto the world stage. Premiered in Russia this April, a Russian play based on his novel Frog has been well received by overseas audience. In fact, in the novel Frog, Mo creatively adopts the special structure of epistle and drama, with a 9-act play as the end of the book. With simple narration, he created in the novel a female gynecologist living in the countryside, highlighting his humane care for life.
I will spend the rest of my life transforming myself from a novelist to a playwright, said Mo in 2019 when he visited Shakespeare's former residence with Chinese writers Yu Hua and Su Tong, standing in front of a statue of Shakespeare.
For a playwright, it's quite a happy feeling to watch his own scripts played by actors on the stage.
Mo's new book Crocodile, which is to be published soon, is also a play script. He began working on the script 14 years ago. Crocodile is a challenging genre, but I think I got it right. What makes me feel satisfied is that the book seems like an anti-corruption drama, but it's actually about human. I've created a complex archetypal character. According to Mo, this drama breaks through the boundary of realistic drama, combing elements of fantasy and even magic.
In China, the most diligent female writer is Wang Anyi. Mo spoke highly of Wang, who is also trying to write plays under the influence of Mo. In Wang's opinion, there is a biological chain in Mo's works, there are many animals in his world, such as crocodiles, frogs, cows and dogs.
Agricultural society and rural life, to a certain extent, is the harmonious coexistence between humans and animals, said Mo, who believes the key to writing about the city and the countryside is no different, which is exploring human nature. Nothing can be written well if the author doesn’t understand human nature.
Mo’s last visit to Fudan was 11 years ago, and he visited Fudan several times as a guest lecturer for Fudan’s creative writing program. One of Mo’s referees for the Nobel Prize was Prof. Chen Sihe, who also accompanied Mo to Sweden to receive the award 10 years ago.
Even after winning the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature, Mo is still diligent in writing, and published short stories and collections of short stories. He also dabbled in various genres, including Chinese opera, drama and poetry.
“The most important work for a writer is to write. That will never change.” The Nobel Laureate said, he will continue to work hard.
As one of the activities of the 11th Fudan University Reading Festival, the talk was organized by Fudan University Library and Department of Chinese Language and Literature. Chen Yinchi, director of Fudan University Library, attended the event.
Presented by Fudan University Media Center
Writer: Wang Mengqi
Editor: Li Yijie
Designer: Zhu Shuaimo
