Chinese Mo Yan is bashed as ‘state poet’

BERLIN - Agence France-Presse

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Dissident Chinese writer Liao Yiwu, who lives in Germany, on October 13 savaged China’s Nobel Prize-winning author Mo Yan as a “state poet”, close to the communist regime.

“I was shocked,” Liao told German news magazine Der Spiegel, according to excerpts from an interview published on Saturday.

Mo Yan is “a state poet (who) withdraws to his world of craftsmanhip whenever necessary,” added Liao who will receive the peace prize of Germany’s book trade during a ceremony in Frankfurt on Sunday.

Mo Yan has been on the defensive against activists who accuse him of being a communist stooge, amid an outpouring of praise from the government in Beijing.

He has also defended Communist Party founder Mao Zedong, who wrote that Chinese art must serve the party.

In his interview Liao told Der Spiegel he had been asked by friends in China whether “the West sees itself as an extension of the Chinese system”, after awarding the Nobel Literature Prize to Mo Yan onOctoebr 11.