Mo Yan wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

It has just been announced that Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for 2012.

Mo Yan was born Guan Moye to a peasant family in Gaomi in Shandong Province in 1955. His education ended in 1966 when the Cultural Revolution broke out when he worked as a peasant. He subsequently worked in a factory before joining the army, where he became a member of the cultural department. His main inspiration still remains the Gaomi area though he combines both the urban and the rural and the historical and the present. His pen name means don't speak.

To read more about him visit Wikipedia