MO YAN WINS NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

THE FIRST CHINESE RESIDENT AUTHOR MO YAN WINS NOBEL PRIZE FOR LITERATURE.

Chinese author Mo Yan has been awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature.

A prolific author, Mo has published dozens of short stories, with his first work published in 1981.

The Swedish Academy praised his work which “with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary”.

The 57-year-old is the first Chinese resident to win the prize. Chinese-born Gao Xingjian was honoured in 2000, but is a French citizen.

Mo is the 109th recipient of the prestigious prize, won last year by Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer.

Presented by the Nobel Foundation, the award – only given to living writers – is worth 8 million kronor (£741,000).