Tell me about your recitation this semester.

Attached are two articles about the origin and motivation of Mo's creation, which are very frank self-reports. After reading it, you may know more about Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Mo than reading his novels.

Pick out the length suitable for your back, no matter which paragraph, your teacher will be satisfied Because it's so modern and touching. ..... Not only do you have to recite, but we and your teacher will also follow? !

Theme: Hunger and loneliness are my creative wealth-Mo Yan, Nobel Prize in Literature writer 20 12.

Every writer has his reasons for becoming a writer, and I am no exception. But why did I become such a writer instead of Hemingway and Faulkner? I think it has something to do with my unique childhood experience. I think this is my luck and the reason why I can continue to write in the future.

About forty years ago from now, that is, in the early 1960s, it was a strange and fanatical period in the modern history of China. At that time, on the one hand, the material was extremely poor, and the people were not enough to eat and wear, and they were almost dying; But on the other hand, the people's political enthusiasm is very high, and the hungry people tighten their belts and follow the * * * production party to carry out * * * production experiments. At that time, although we were half hungry, we thought we were the happiest people in the world, and two-thirds of the people in the world, including Americans, still lived a miserable life of "hot water". We semi-hungry people still shoulder the sacred responsibility of saving you from your pain. Of course, it was not until China opened to the outside world in the 1980s that we suddenly realized that it was a rude awakening.

When I was a child, I didn't know there was such a thing as taking pictures in the world, and I couldn't afford to take pictures if I knew it. So I can only imagine my childhood image based on some historical photos I saw later and my own memories. I can assure you that the image I imagined is true. At that time, our five or six-year-old children were basically naked in spring, summer and autumn, and only in the cold winter would they casually put on a dress. The rags of those clothes are beyond the imagination of children in China today. I believe my grandmother often taught me. She said that people only have blessings that they can't enjoy, and there is no sin that they can't stand. I also believe in Darwin's theory of survival of the fittest, and people may glow with amazing vitality in a sinister environment. Those who can't adapt are all dead, and those who can survive are excellent varieties. Therefore, I am probably an excellent breed. At that time, we all had amazing cold resistance. When the feathered birds were chirping with cold, we were naked and didn't feel unbearable cold. I was full of admiration at that time. At that time, I was really not simple, many times better than now.

At that time, our children were very simple-minded, thinking about what to eat and how to eat every day. We are like a group of hungry puppies, sniffing around the village streets, looking for food to eat. Many things that seemed impossible to eat today became our delicious food at that time. We eat leaves from trees. After the leaves on the tree are finished, we eat the skin of the tree. After the bark is finished, we chew the trunk. At that time, the trees in our village were the most unlucky trees on earth, and we chewed them all over. At that time, we all had sharp teeth, and there was probably nothing in the world that we couldn't bite. A friend of mine later became an electrician. There are neither pliers nor knives in his toolkit. He can easily break a pencil-thick steel wire. What other electricians can do with knives and pliers, he can also do with his teeth. At that time, my teeth were also very good, but not as good as my friend who was an electrician, otherwise I would probably become an excellent electrician instead of a writer. 196 1 In the spring of last year, the primary school in our village pulled a load of shiny coal. We are ignorant and don't know what it is. A clever boy picked up a piece of coal and ate it. Seeing that his food is sweet, it must be delicious, so we swarmed and each grabbed a piece of coal and ate it. I feel that the more I chew coal, the more fragrant it is. It is really delicious. Seeing that we were eating well, the adults in the village rushed to eat, and the headmaster of the school came out to stop us, so people began to plunder. As for the feeling of coal in my stomach, I have forgotten it, but I still remember the feeling of eating it in my mouth and the smell of coal. Don't think that we were unhappy then. In fact, we still had a good time at that time. We are glad to find something edible.

These years of hunger probably lasted for more than two years. By the mid-1960s, our life was getting better and better. Although we still don't have enough to eat, each person can get 200 kilograms of grain every year. In addition, digging some wild vegetables in the field can basically maintain people's lives, and fewer and fewer people starve to death.

Of course, just being hungry doesn't necessarily make me a writer, but hunger makes me a writer with a particularly profound experience of life. Long-term hunger has taught me the importance of food to people. What glory, career, ideal, love, are all things that happen when you are full. I lost my self-esteem because of eating, I was humiliated like a dog because of eating, and I embarked on the road of creation because of eating.

When I became a writer, I began to recall the loneliness of my childhood, just like recalling the hunger when I was faced with a full table of food. My hometown, Gaomi Northeast Township, is the border area of three counties. The traffic is blocked, and the land is vast and sparsely populated. Outside the village is an endless depression with lush weeds and many wild flowers. I have to herd cattle in the depression every day, because I dropped out of school when I was very young, so when other people's children are studying at school, I keep company with cattle in the field. I know more about cows than I know about people. I know the joys and sorrows of cows, I know their expressions, and I know what they are thinking. In Yuan Ye, which is almost boundless in children's eyes, I am the only one who keeps a few cows. Cattle graze peacefully, and their eyes are as blue as sea water. I want to talk to the cow, but the cow just eats grass and ignores me. I lay on my back on the grass and watched the white clouds in the sky move slowly, as if I were a lazy man. I want to talk to Baiyun, and Baiyun ignores me. There are many birds in the sky, including larks and larks, and some I know but can't name. They are so touching. I am often moved to tears by the cries of birds. I want to communicate with birds, but they are also busy, and they ignore me. I was lying on the grass, and my heart was full of sadness. In this environment, I learned to dream for the first time. This is a state of half dream and half waking. Many wonderful ideas poured in. I lay on the grass and understood what love is and what kindness is. Then I learned to talk to myself. At that time, I was really talented, eloquent and rhyming. Once I talked to myself in front of a tree. My mother was shocked, too. She said to my father, "Dad, is there anything wrong with our children?" Later, when I grew up, I took part in the collective labor of the production team and entered the adult society. My habit of talking while herding cattle has caused a lot of trouble at home. My mother painfully advised me, "Son, will you stop talking?" I was so moved by my mother's expression that my nose was sore and my eyes were hot, and I vowed never to talk again, but in front of people, the words in my stomach rushed out like a nest of mice. After that, I regretted it very much and felt that I had failed my mother's teaching. So when I started my career as a writer, I gave myself a pen name: Mo Yan. But just as my mother often scolds me that "dogs can't change eating shit and wolves can't change eating meat", I can't change my habit of speaking. For this reason, I have offended many people in the literary world, because what I like best is telling the truth. Now, as I get older, I talk less and less. My mother must feel some relief in the spirit of heaven, right?

My dream of becoming a writer came true long ago. At that time, my neighbor was a student of the Chinese Department of a university, who was beaten to the right, expelled from school and sent home. I work with him. At first, he couldn't forget that he was a college student and he spoke elegantly. However, hard rural life and hard work soon turned his petty intellectuals into a farmer like me. During the break from work, we are hungry and have sour water in our stomachs. Our greatest pleasure is to get together and talk about delicious food. Everyone tells the delicious food they have eaten or heard of for everyone to enjoy. This is a real spiritual feast. The speaker enjoyed it and the listener swallowed. The college student said that he knew a writer who wrote a book and got thousands of contributions. He eats jiaozi three times a day, and jiaozi is full of fat. When he takes a bite, the fatty oil will chirp out. We don't believe that there are people who can afford to eat jiaozi three times a day, but college students tell us in a contemptuous tone that they are writers! You got it? Writer! From then on, I knew that as long as I became a writer, I could eat jiaozi three times a day, and jiaozi was full of fat. What a happy life it is to eat fat three times a day in jiaozi! So much for the gods in the sky. From then on, I made up my mind to be a writer when I grow up.

When I started writing, I really didn't have such lofty ideals and my motives were vulgar. I dare not imagine myself as an "engineer of human soul" like many writers in China, let alone use novels to transform society. As I said before, the original motivation of my creation is the desire for food. Of course, after becoming famous, I also learned to say some high-sounding words, but I don't believe those words myself. I am a low-level person, so my works are full of secular views. Anyone who wants to read elegance and beauty from my works will probably be disappointed. There is nothing we can do about it. What people say, what vines are, what birds call, and what writers write. I am a person who grew up in hunger and loneliness. I have seen too much suffering and injustice in the world. My heart is full of sympathy for human beings and anger at the unequal society, so I can only write such a novel. Of course, with my stomach gradually full, some changes have taken place in my literature. I have come to know that even if people eat jiaozi three times a day, there will still be pain, and this mental pain is no less than hunger. It is also a writer's sacred duty to express this spiritual pain. But when I describe people's mental pain, I can't forget the physical pain caused by hunger. I don't know if this is my strength or weakness, but I know this is my destiny.

My earliest creation is not worth mentioning, but it can't be ignored, because it belongs to my history and the history of contemporary literature in China. I remember that my earliest work was to write a novel about digging a river, in which a militia company commander got up in the morning and stood in front of our portrait of Chairman Mao to pray to him, wishing him a long life. Then the man got up and went to the village for a meeting and decided to let him lead the team to dig a big river outside. His girlfriend decided to postpone the wedding for three years in order to support him in digging a river. When an old landlord heard the news, he sneaked into the feeding room of the production team in the middle of the night and broke the leg of a black mule who was about to pull a cart at the river digging site with a shovel. This is class struggle, and it is fierce. Everyone became nervous, mobilized in succession, and launched a fierce struggle with class enemies. Finally, the river was dug and the old landlord was arrested. No one wants such a story today, but at that time, China's literary world was full of such things. If you don't write it like this, it is impossible to publish it. Even if I wrote it, it was not published. Because my writing is not revolutionary enough.

By the end of 1970s, our Chairman Mao had passed away, the situation in China had changed, and the literature in China had also begun to change. But this change is weak and slow. At that time, there were many forbidden areas, such as not writing about love and not writing about the mistakes of the * * * production party. However, the passion of literature for freedom cannot be suppressed, and writers try their best to break through the forbidden area. This period is China's scar literature. I started writing in the early 1980s. At that time, China's literature had made great progress, and almost all the forbidden areas were broken. Many western writers introduced me, and everyone imitated them almost crazily. I am a child who grew up lying on the grass. I haven't been to school for a few days, and I know almost nothing about literary theory. But I intuitively realized that I couldn't learn from those who are becoming popular in the literary world and take things from western writers as my own. I think it's second-rate stuff, and it won't become a big climate. I think I must write something that belongs to me and is different from others, not only by foreign writers, but also by China writers. This is not to deny the influence of foreign literature on me. On the contrary, I am a China writer who is deeply influenced by foreign writers, and I dare to frankly admit that I am influenced by foreign writers. I think this problem should be treated as a special topic. But I am smarter than many China writers. I don't deliberately imitate the narrative style of foreign writers and the stories they tell, but I deeply study the connotation of their works and understand their way of observing life and their views on life and the world. I think that when a writer reads another writer's book, it is actually a dialogue, even a love affair. If it is speculation, it may become a lifelong partner. If it's not speculation, then go their separate ways.

Up to now, three of my books have been published in the United States, one is Red Sorghum Family, the other is Song of Young Garlic in Heaven, and the other is Wine Country, which has just been published. The Red Sorghum Family shows my view of history and love; The Song of Young Garlic Bunches shows my criticism of politics and sympathy for farmers; The Wine Country shows my regret for the fall of mankind and my hatred for corrupt bureaucrats. These three books look very different, but the deepest thing is still the same, that is, a hungry child's longing for a better life.

Uncle Faulkner, how are you? Uncle Faulkner, how are you?

-The Second Story of Hungry Children

After reading Faulkner, I felt like a dream. It turns out that novels can be so nonsense, and trivial things that happen in the countryside can also be written into novels openly. His "York Napatafa County" especially made me understand that a writer can not only fabricate characters and stories, but also fabricate geography. So I threw his book aside, picked up a pen and began to write my own novel.

When I gave a speech at Stanford University the other day, I said that reading another writer's book by one writer is actually a kind of dialogue, even a kind of love. If the heart-to-heart talk is successful, it is likely to become a lifelong partner. If it weren't for speculation, everyone would go their separate ways (editor's note: see Hunger and Loneliness are the Wealth of My Creation, the same below). Today, I will specifically talk about my dialogue with writers from all over the world, which can also be said to be the process of love. In my mind, a good writer is immortal. His body, like ordinary people, will turn to dust sooner or later, but his spirit will be immortal because of the spread of his works. In today's society, it is obviously inappropriate to say such a thing ―― because there are too many things more interesting than reading ―― but I still want to say this sentence in order to comfort myself and encourage myself to continue writing.

Decades ago, when I was an urchin herding cattle and sheep in my hometown grassland, I started my reading career. At that time, books were a very rare luxury in our remote and backward place. In dozens of villages in Gaomi Northeast Township, I basically know who has what kind of books. In order to get the right to read these books, I often work for families with books. A stonemason in our neighboring village has a set of illustrated Romance of the Gods, which seems to be telling the history of China 3,000 years ago, but actually tells many stories about Superman. For example, if a person's eyes are gouged out, two hands grow in their eye sockets, and two eyes grow in their hands, and they can see things three feet underground. There is another person who can drop his head around his neck and sing in the air. His enemy turned into an eagle, and his head was put back on his neck. As a result, when he ran forward, he was actually retreating, and when he ran backward, he was actually advancing. Such a book is irresistible to a child like me who is immersed in fantasy all day. In order to read this set of books, I pulled and ground flour for the masons. I can read this set of books for two hours in the morning and I have to read it in his mill. When I was studying, the stonemason's daughter stood behind me and supervised me. When the time came, she took it away at once. If I want to keep reading, I have to keep grinding. At that time, we didn't have a clock at all, so the so-called two hours depends on the mood of the stonemason's daughter. Time passes slowly when she is in a good mood, and quickly when she is in a bad mood. In order to make the little girl happy, I had to climb to the apricot tree next door and steal apricots for her to eat. A greedy ghost like me can give the stolen apricots to others, just like letting a greedy cat spit out the fish in its mouth, but I still gave the hard-won apricots to that girl. Of course, the beauty of the stonemason's daughter is also an important reason.

In short, in my childhood, I paid a huge price and read all the books in dozens of villages around me. I had a good memory at that time. I not only read at an amazing speed, but also almost unforgettable. As for reading as a communication with the author, it was impossible at that time. At that time, it was purely for reading stories, and I was very involved. I often cry because of the characters in the book and often fall in love with those lovely women in the book.

I have read more than a dozen books in the surrounding villages, but I have hardly read any books for more than ten years. I thought there were more than a dozen books in the world, and reading them meant reading all the books in the world. During this time, I worked in the countryside, and I had more opportunities to deal with cattle and sheep than people. I almost forgot all the words I learned at school. But my heart is still full of illusions, hoping to become a writer and live a happy life.

When I was fifteen, the stonemason's daughter had grown into a beautiful girl. She wore a big braid that hung to her hips, with two furry eyes and a pair of sleepy eyes? The way it looks. I'm crazy about her, and I often buy her candy with my hard-earned money. Her garden is next to mine. In the evening, we all go to the river to fetch water and water vegetables. I had mixed feelings when I saw her carrying a bucket and letting big braid fly down from the riverbank behind her. I think she is the most beautiful person in the world. I followed her, barefoot stepping on her footprints on the beach, as if there was an electric current flowing from my feet to my head, and my heart was full of happiness. I got up the courage to tell her at dusk that I love her and hope she can marry me. She was taken aback and then smiled. She said, "You are a toad who wants to eat swan meat!" " I felt a heavy blow to my self-esteem, but I didn't change my infatuation and asked my sister-in-law to propose to her family. She asked her eldest sister-in-law to send me a message, saying that she would marry me as long as I could write her set of books like The Romance of the Gods. I went to her house to show her my ambition. She didn't come out to see me, but her fierce big dog rushed out like a tiger. When I gave a speech at Stanford University the other day, I said that I work hard because I have to eat jiaozi three times a day. Actually, besides jiaozi, my inspiration comes from the stonemason's sleepy head? Girl. I haven't been able to write such a book as Love of the Gods, and the stonemason's daughter is already the mother of three children.

I read a lot of books when I was studying in the literature department of the university. By that time, I had written many bad novels. I was shocked when I first walked into the school library. I never dreamed that so many people in the world had written so many books. But by this time, I have passed the age of reading, and I find that I can't bear to read a book from beginning to end. I don't think the story in the book is beyond my imagination. I turned a book over a dozen pages and saw through the author. I admit that many writers are excellent, but I have nothing in common with them. Their books are of no use to me. Reading their books is like being polite to guests. This was the case until I read Faulkner.

I clearly remember it was a snowy afternoon in February of 1984. I borrowed a copy of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury from my classmates. I looked at the old man with a suit, tie and pipe printed on the title page, but I didn't agree. Then I began to read a long preface written by a famous translator in China. I am very happy to read it, and I feel very understanding and cordial about many untimely behaviors of this old American man. For example, he didn't study hard since he was a child; For example, he likes to talk nonsense; For example, he likes to lie. He has never even been to the battlefield, but he has the audacity to tell people that he is flying a plane to fight the enemy in the sky. He also said that he left a huge shrapnel in his head, which caused his complicated and obscure language style. He went to win the Nobel Prize and got so drunk that even the gold medal was thrown into the trash can. President Kennedy invited him to the White House for dinner, but he even said it was not worth going to the White House for dinner. He never pretends to be a writer, but a farmer. In particular, the "York Napatafa County" he created fascinated me. I feel that Faulkner, like those old farmers in my hometown, impatiently taught me how to put a halter on a pony. Then I started reading his books. Many people think his book is obscure, but I read it very easily. I think his books are as kind as those eccentric old farmers in my hometown. I don't care what story he told me, because my ability to make up stories is by no means worse than his. What I appreciate is his tone and attitude in telling stories. He talked about himself, just as I talked to the cows and birds in the sky when I was herding cattle on the grass in my hometown.

Before that, I have been writing novels according to the method in our novel tutorial. Such writing is true asceticism. I feel that I can't find anything to write, and according to our textbooks, if I feel that there is nothing to write, I should go down and go deep into life. After reading Faulkner, I felt like a dream. It turns out that novels can talk nonsense like this, and those trivial things that happened in the countryside can also be written into novels openly. His "York Napatafa County" especially made me understand that a writer can not only fabricate characters and stories, but also fabricate geography. So I threw his book aside, picked up a pen and began to write my own novel. Inspired by his York Napatafa County, I boldly wrote my "Gaomi Northeast Township" on the manuscript paper. His Yorknapatafa County is completely fictional, and my Gaomi Northeast Township is the real place. I also made up my mind to write about my hometown, a place as big as a stamp. It's like opening a floodgate of memory, and childhood life all begins. I remembered what I said to cows, clouds, trees and birds lying on the grass, and then I wrote it intact in my novel. After that, you don't have to worry about not finding something to write, but worrying about not writing it. It often happens that when I am writing a novel, many new ideas, like dogs, shout behind me and chase me to write. I used to write novels, but now novels are written for me.

Later, at the Faulkner International Symposium held in Peking University, I met an American university professor who taught in a university not far from Faulkner's hometown. He and their headmaster invited me to visit their school, but I didn't make it, so I was given a photo album about Faulkner. There are many precious photos there. There is a picture of Faulkner standing in front of a stable in rags and boots. This image of Faulkner immediately sent me back to my northeast Gaomi town. He reminds me of my grandfather, father and many old people. At this time, Faulkner's image as a great writer has completely disintegrated in my mind. I feel that there is no longer any distance between me and him. I feel like we are soul mates. We talk about the weather, crops and livestock together. We smoke and drink together. I also heard him scold American critics and satirize Hemingway. He also asked me to touch the scar on his head. He said that the scar was actually bitten by a zebra, but for those fools, it must be said that it was blown up by a German plane. He told me that a writer should be bold in lying, not ashamed, not only making up novels, but also making up personal experiences. He also taught me that a writer should avoid busy cities and settle in his hometown, just as a tree must take root in the land. I really want to do what he taught me, but there are often power outages in my hometown, the water is bitter and astringent, and there is no heating equipment in winter. I'm afraid of suffering, so I haven't returned yet.

I must confess that I haven't finished reading Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, but I put Faulkner's album given to me by an American professor on my desk and chat with him every time I lose confidence in myself. I admit that he is my mentor, but I once brazenly said to him, "Hey, old man, I have more than you!" " "I saw a mocking smile on his face, and then he said to me," Tell me where you surpassed me. "I said," You Yorknapatafa County will always be a county, and it took me less than ten years to turn my Gaomi Northeast Township into a very modern city. In my new book "Big Breasts and Fat Buttocks", I have built many tall buildings and added many modern entertainment facilities in the northeast township of Gaomi. Besides, I am braver than you. What you wrote is only what happened in your place, and I dare to bring all the things that happened in the world to my northeast Gaomi township in a new guise, as if those things really happened there. My real Gaomi Northeast Township has no mountains at all. I forced it to move to the mountains, and there is no desert. I forced it to create a desert without a swamp. I turned it into a swamp with forests, lakes, lions and tigers ... I made it up. In recent years, overseas students and translators have been going to Gaomi Northeast Township to see the things described in my novels. When they got there, they were all disappointed. There is nothing there, only a desolate plain and some uncharacteristic villages on the plain. " Faulkner interrupted me and said to me coldly, "The latecomers are always bolder than the first! " "

Writing is equal to enjoying the pleasure of power.

My Gaomi Northeast Township is a literary kingdom that I started, and I am the king of this kingdom. Every time I pick up a pen and write down my story about Gaomi Northeast Township, I feel the happiness of being in power. In this land, I can move mountains and fill the sea, call the wind and rain, let whoever dies die, and let whoever lives live. Of course, there are also some bold robbers who turned against me and I had to surrender to them.

After my series of novels about Gaomi Northeast Township came out, some local people protested against me. They called me a traitor in my hometown. I have to write many articles to explain this. I told them: Gaomi Northeast Township is a literary concept rather than a geographical concept; Gaomi northeast township is an open concept rather than a closed concept; Gaomi Northeast Township is a literary fantasy based on my childhood experience. I tried to make it a microcosm of China; I try to make the bitterness and happiness there consistent with the bitterness and happiness of all mankind; I try my best to impress readers all over the world with my story about Gaomi Northeast Township, which will be my lifelong goal.

Now, I finally set foot on the land of my long-cherished teacher, Uncle Faulkner. I hope to see his back in the busy street. I know his rags and his big pipe. I am familiar with the smell of horse manure and tobacco on him. I am familiar with his swaying steps like a drunk. If I find him, I will shout after him, "Uncle Faulkner, I'm coming!" " "