2012 Nobel Prize winner a 'catastrophe'?

Herta Müller calls Mo Yan's Nobel Prize in literature a “catastrophe.” 

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  Mo Yan.

• Herta Müller calls Mo Yan's Nobel Prize in literature “catastrophe”
  German author and Nobel Prize Winner in Literature 2009, Herta Müller, calls this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature to Chinese Mo Yan a “catastrophe”.

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  2009 Nobel Prize winner in Literature Herta Müller criticizes the Nobel committee’s choice of giving this year’s prize in literature to Mo Yan. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Amrei-Marie

• According to an article in the British Guardian (which in turn cites an interview Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter conducted with Müller), Müller said she wanted to cry when she heard of Mo Yan’s win, calling it “extremely upsetting”.

• "The Chinese themselves say that Mo Yan is an official of the same rung as a (government) minister," she told DN, criticizing the Chinese author for copying by hand Mao Zedong's speech on how art should serve communism, and for failing to speak out about the imprisonment of the jailed 2010 Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo.
  The day after winning the Nobel, Mo did tell reporters: "I hope [Liu] can achieve his freedom as soon as possible." But Müller said: "He should have said that four years ago, or at least two weeks before receiving the prize." Müller herself came of age under the totalitarian regime of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu (Müller was born in Romania) and her own work was often subject to censorship. It should be added that she is not the only one criticizing the choice of Mo Yan. Chinese artist Ai Weiwei told the press: "Giving the award to a writer like this is an insult to humanity and to literature. It’s shameful for the committee to have made this selection which does not live up to the previous quality of literature in the award.”