Do Nobels oblige?
IN 1917, Chen Duxiu, a Chinese revolutionary, asked: “Pray, where is our Chinese Hugo, Zola, Goethe, Hauptmann, Dickens or Wilde?”1917年，中国的革命先驱陈独秀问到：“请问我们中国的雨果、左拉、歌德、豪普特曼，狄更斯和王尔德在哪儿？”
China has long fretted that it lacked a great modern literary voice with international appeal. In the decades since Mao the tendency has transmogrified into a full-blown “Nobel complex”. The quest for a Nobel Prize in Literature was made the object of official policy by the Chinese Communist Party, eager for validation of its national power and cultural clout. It has also been a heartfelt desire for those Chinese intellectuals and writers who have felt inferior in global influence and reach.
长期以来，中国一直因为缺少在国际上具有吸引力的伟大现代文学作家而感到焦虑。自毛泽东时代的几十年来，这种趋势完全变成了一种“诺贝尔情结”。对诺贝尔文学奖的追求是中国共产党制定的官方政策的目标，并且其渴望通过该奖项证明中国的国力和文化影响力。这也是那些对其全球影响力和影响范围感到自卑的中国知识分子和作家们的夙愿。
Almost a century later, Chen’s plea has been answered. Yesterday a Chinese writer, Mo Yan, won the 2012 Nobel prize for works described by the Swedish Academy as “hallucinatory realism”, which mix folk tales, history and the modern day.
在近一个世纪之后，陈独秀的提问得到了回应。昨天，中国的一位作家——莫言，赢得了2012年诺贝尔文学奖，瑞典皇家科学院描述其作品 “用魔幻现实主义手法将民间故事、历史和当代社会融合在了一起”。
Mr Mo has not only broken the streak of European writers who have dominated the Nobel Prize in recent years. He is being hailed as the first Chinese citizen to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Technically this is true, but it would be more accurate to say that he has won the first Nobel that the Communist Party can celebrate.
莫言先生不仅打破了近几年来欧洲作家对诺贝尔文学奖的连续统治。也被人们誉为赢得诺贝尔文学奖的第一个中国公民。严格来说这是对的，但是更准确的讲，他获得的是第一个中国共产党可以为之庆祝的诺贝尔奖。
In 2000, Gao Xingjian, a Chinese-born dissident with French citizenship, won the Nobel for writing that was laden with criticism of the Party and banned from sale on the mainland. China declared that his prize had been awarded with “ulterior political motives”, huffing that the award was not worthy of a comment. Mention of Mr Gao is still banned in state media (although Mr Mo, for one, has applauded his “enormous contribution” to literature). China’s other Nobel laureate, Liu Xiaobo, who won the peace prize in 2010, is serving a lengthy prison sentence for other crimes committed with words.
2000年，一位出生在中国的异见作者高行健(现法国公民)获得了诺贝尔奖，但其作品因充满对中国共产党的批评而被禁止在大陆销售。中国政府宣称他的奖金被用于“不可告人的政治目的”，并且抱怨该奖不值一提。至今为止，大陆媒体仍被禁止提及高先生（但对于本次获奖的莫言先生，媒体却称赞其对文学的“巨大贡献”）。中国其他的诺奖得主——获得2010年诺贝尔和平奖的刘晓波，由于其“言语罪”而在经受着漫长的刑期。
Mr Mo writes within a system of state censorship. Unlike exiled dissident writers—who enjoy recognition abroad but little influence at home—he is widely read and respected within China. He is also a Communist Party member and vice-chairman of the state-run China Writers’ Association. For him, the government has sung a very different tune.
莫言先生是在国家审查系统内进行写作的。不同于那些流亡的异见作家，后者在国外收到认可但在中国本土影响不大，莫言的作品在中国被广泛阅读并受到尊重。他是一个共产党员，并且现任中国作家协会的副主席。他认为，政府已经做出了调整。
Yesterday evening, most unusually, state news broadcasts were interrupted for the announcement of the prize. Thousands of China’s micro-bloggers showered congratulations on Mr Mo. Many here believe this to be the first time a Chinese person has ever won a Nobel.
昨晚最不同寻常的事，就是新闻联播被莫言获奖的公告所打断。成千上万的中国网民沐浴在对莫言先生的庆贺中。许多网民都认为，莫言是首位获得诺贝尔奖的中国人。
Mr Mo was born with the name Guan Moye in 1955, into a peasant household in Gaomi, Shandong province, in north-eastern China. He left school at the age of 12 to work in a farm and factory, and started to write after joining the People’s Liberation Army in 1976. He is regarded as a key member of a canon of influential authors from the 1980s, alongside Yu Hua and Su Tong, who all wrote about the experience of life under Communism following Mao’s death. Mr Mo is best known for “Red Sorghum”, an epic spanning three generations, starting with the Japanese invasion in the 1930s—which was eventually made into a film directed by Zhang Yimou.
1955年，莫言先生出生在中国东北地区山东省高密县的一个农民家庭，别名管谟业。他12岁就离开学校进入农场和工厂工作，1976年加入人民解放军后开始写作。他和余华、苏童被认定为20世纪80年代起最具影响力的作家，他们都写了自毛泽东逝世之后各自在共产主义社会中的生活经历。莫言先生最出名的作品是《红高粱》，书中故事开始于20世纪30年代的日本侵略时期、这是一部跨越三代人的史诗巨作，该书最终由张艺谋执导拍成了电影。
Along with the accolades for his writing, Mr Mo has garnered criticism for his comfortable—some say cosy—standing within the Party. Earlier this year he contributed to a handwritten, commemorative edition of Mao’s “Yan’an Talks on Literature and Art”, which preach that art should serve society.
除了写作所获的赞誉，莫言先生因其与共产党在一起的舒适或是另一些人所说的安逸而饱受指责。今年的早些时候，他参与了《毛泽东同志手抄纪念册》一书的抄写，该讲话宣称艺术应该为社会服务。
Others have questioned whether the prize will boost Chinese literature—or simply prop up the status quo, under which more rebellious writers suffer. Chen Xiwo, a maverick author whose banned short story “I Love My Mum” uses incest and matricide as metaphors for the decay of society, believes the prize sends a dangerous message to other Chinese writers. Namely, that they can win worldwide applause for buckling under China’s repressive political system. Artist Ai Weiwei has judged the choice of Mr Mo “an insult to humanity and to literature”.
其他人则质疑该奖是否能推动中国文学的发展，或者仅仅维持更多的反叛作家遭受痛苦的现状。陈希我，一位特立独行的作家，其短篇小说《我爱我妈》因用乱伦、弑母隐喻的社会的腐败而被禁，他相信该奖项给中国其他作家发出了一个危险的信号。即他们屈服于中国抑制自由的政治制度却能赢得全世界的掌声。艺术家艾未未则评价选择莫言先生“是对人性和文学一种侮辱”。
Mr Mo has batted away similar criticism in the past. In an interview with Granta he said that “censorship is great for literary creation”. Mr Mo’s rural stories feature an absurdist brand of magical realism and opaque images set within China’s past, a technique, he implied, that he employs to avoid the censor’s wrath. This has not always worked. In 1988, his novel “The Garlic Ballads”, about a peasant uprising, was banned for a period after its publication.
过去，莫言先生回击了类似的批评。在格兰塔接受记者采访时他说：“审查制度对于文学创作是有利的”。莫言先生的乡村故事以魔幻现实主义的荒诞烙印和设定在中国过去的晦涩景象为特点，他暗示道，使用这样的手法以避免审查人员的愤怒。但这并非一直有效。 1988年，他的小说《天堂蒜薹之歌》，因涉及农民起义，在出版后一段时间即被禁。
“Frog”, his latest novel, addresses China’s one-child policy. It tells the story of a midwife who has been complicit in forced abortions and sterilisations. She has a hallucinatory vision of thousands of frogs, whose croaks sound like the cries of aborted babies. Not light fare, nor the stuff of happy-faced propaganda. Mr Mo is “not afraid of offending people”, in the words of Charles Laughlin, a professor of Chinese literature at the University of Virginia. Mr Mo’s award is a “triumph” for literature, in Mr Laughlin’s view. As he sees it Mr Mo’s writing is not a platform for politics; nor should it have to be. The prize is purely recognition of great literary writing.
《蛙》是他最新的一部小说，直指中国的计划生育政策。它讲述了一位参与强制堕胎与绝育的妇产科医生的故事。当面对成千上万的青蛙时，她产生了幻觉，因为它们呱呱的叫声听起来就像流产婴儿的啼哭。没有耀眼的费用，也没有高兴的面对宣传。用美国弗吉尼亚大学中国文学教授查尔斯•劳克林的话来说，莫言先生是 “不怕得罪人”的。在劳克林看来，莫言先生获奖是中国文学的一次“巨大的成功”。在他看来，莫言先生的作品并不是也不应该成为一个政治平台。该奖项纯粹是对伟大文学作品的认可。
There is something ironic in the conviction that Chinese writers should, perforce, indict the Party. It is worth remembering that not all Chinese writers yearn to be held up as the lonely “Chinese voice” that rebels against a repressive state. Neither do all Chinese writers need to make a forced choice between exile and artistic compromise.
具有讽刺意味的是，中国作家不可避免的控诉着中国共产党。值得记住的是，并非所有的中国作家都渴望高举孤独的“中国之声”以反对抑制自由的政府。也并非所有中国作家都需要被迫在流亡与艺术妥协之间做出选择。
China may have come unknotted from its Nobel complex. But Mr Mo will find it hard to outrun politics forever. The pen name he chose for himself means “be silent”, which might have been a warning of sorts. The day after he won the big prize, on October 12th Mr Mo told reporters in his hometown that he hopes Mr Liu can “achieve his freedom as soon as possible”. This marks a startling shift for Mr Mo, just as he was being criticised for having failed to comment directly on the plight of the other laureate. He might be expected to begin speaking out much more, as he adjusts to the glare of worldwide fame.
中国也许会从诺贝尔情结中解放出来。但是莫言先生将发现自己永远难以逃离政坛。他为自己选取的笔名意为“保持沉默”，这也许是一定程度上的警告。10月12日，在他获奖的第二天，莫言先生在他的家乡告诉记者，他希望刘晓波能“尽早重获自由”。对莫言先生来说这是一个惊人的转变，正如他因为没有直接评论其他获奖者而受到批评。预计他可能会开始毫无保留的说更多的东西，因为其必须适应享誉世界的名声所带来的目光。
(Picture credit: AFP)
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