Mo Yan is the pseudonym of Guan Moye, who was born in Gaomi, Shandong Province, China on March 5, 1955. He became a teenager during the Cultural Revolution, leaving school to work first on a farm and then in a cottonseed oil factory. He started writing while he was serving in the People's Liberation Army. His first short story was published in 1981. His works include Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, Red Sorghum, The Garlic Ballads, Big Breasts and Wide Hips, The Republic of Wine, and Sandalwood Death. He received the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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