Is text meant to expose darkness or praise beauty?

Recently, a video in which Sima Nan questioned Mo Yan’s literary views sparked heated discussions across the Internet.

On April 14, 2021, Mo Yan was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the Chinese University of Hong Kong. At the award ceremony, Mo Yan took the stage and delivered a wonderful speech.

In this speech, Mo Yan said: I have a prejudice that literary works can never be a tool for singing praises. Literature and art should expose darkness and reveal social injustice. It should also reveal the dark side deep in the human soul and reveal the elements of evil.

He also said, "If anyone wants to use literature to whitewash reality, or use literature to praise a certain society, I think the quality of this work is very questionable."

We all know that in October 2012, Mo Yan became the first Chinese winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and became a celebrity overnight.

As everyone knows about the Nobel Prize, in addition to the relatively authoritative sciences such as physics and chemistry, other awards, such as the Literature Prize and the Peace Prize, some winners just use it to make fun of them. It's like a farce. For example, some people who have won the Peace Prize are just farces played by Western politicians to express their political views. I won’t give examples of specific award-winning names here to avoid failing the review.

Therefore, from this aspect, there is probably a question mark as to whether the literary award Mo Yan won really represents the highest level of literature in the world. Let alone the world, it is China. Whether it can represent the highest level of Chinese literature is debatable. It is more likely that his works are more in line with the tastes of Western politicians, or their needs.

Sima Nan’s question about Mo Yan is his view of literature that “literature cannot be used to praise, but should be used to expose”.

We will not discuss their arguments for now. Mo Yan is a literary master, and we are just ordinary fans, and we are not qualified to comment on Mo Yan. I just want to express my own views on the issue of "should literature be used to expose darkness or praise beauty?"

I think there is nothing wrong with Mo Yan’s literature being used to expose darkness. But if he says that it can only be used to expose darkness, that is to say it cannot be used to praise beauty, then I think it is a bit arbitrary.

Telling the truth is undoubtedly a valuable quality for a writer. Indeed, not all literary works are meant to sing praises. Those literary works that reveal the darkness and ugliness also play a great role in the development of society and the progress of mankind.

This means that there is a most basic principle, that is, the original intention of exposing darkness should be to hope that this society can eliminate these dark things in the morning, society can make more progress, and the future can be better. It is not that this exposure of darkness makes readers disgusted with this society and creates negative emotions of world-weariness. If so, I think this literary work that exposes darkness is not a good work with positive energy.

Similarly, works that directly write about good people and good deeds in society and praise the spirit of justice are not necessarily not profound, and there are no good works. For example, "Who is the Cutest Person", we have learned it in Chinese textbooks since we were young, giving spiritual inspiration and strong patriotism education to generations of people. Isn't this what good literature should achieve?

As literature lovers, we practice writing and writing on the Internet. Although we cannot write as generous works as Mr. Mo Yan, any article, even a small story or a small diary, can It should also add positive energy to society and provide readers with what they need.