China's Mo Yan Wins 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature

Chinese writer Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel prize for literature on Oct. 11, 2012 for works which combine "hallucinatory realism" with folk tales, history and contemporary life grounded in his native land.

The prize, awarded by the Swedish Academy, is worth 8 million crowns.

Mo, who grew up in Gaomi in Shandong province in the northeast of China and whose parents were farmers, sets his works mainly in China.

Mo is best known in the West for "Red Sorghum," which portrayed the hardships endured by farmers in the early years of communist rule. His titles also include "Big Breasts and Wide Hips" and "The Republic of Wine."