Bu Bei Dafeng Chuidao (Standing Strong against the Winds) by Mo Yan

Beijing. Beijing Daily Press. 2024. 189 pages.

Mo Yan, as a representative figure of contemporary Chinese literature, has garnered widespread attention and recognition for his works globally since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2012 (WLT, July 2009, 25–31). His writing is renowned for the use of hallucinatory realism, weaving together elements of folktales, history, and contemporary society. His literary achievements not only reflect the profound heritage of traditional Chinese culture but also showcase the unique charm of Chinese literature on the world stage.

A collection of forty essays penned between 1981 and 2024, Standing Strong against the Winds is both Mo Yan’s reflection on his literary journey and an articulation of his view on literature. The collected essays are divided into six chapters, centering on themes of childhood, growth, family, friends, reading, and writing and related in a sincere and honest tone that is not without humor. In a sense, this book reflects Mo Yan’s examination of human nature and his philosophy of life. Therefore, this book provides deep insights into Mo Yan’s literary creation and the development of his writing style.

The title of the book, also the name of the first essay in this collection, intends to be a message for youth on how to face adversities in life: no matter how strong the whirlwinds of difficulties are, one should stand firm and never be blown over. In essence, this message can also be seen as Mo Yan’s response to his own situation. After becoming the first Chinese Nobel laureate in literature, Mo Yan was caught in a whirlwind of controversies and criticism. He used eight Chinese characters to indicate his stance after winning the award: xin ruo ju shi, ba feng bu dong (A man with a heart as steadfast as a rock is unmoved by the eight winds of gain, loss, honor, defamation, praise, ridicule, joy, and sorrow). He does not allow himself to be influenced by either praise or defamation, and he stays true to what he thinks a writer should do. He believes that literary writing should be able to reach the depth of one’s heart, especially in difficult times. In several essays in this book, Mo Yan recalls his past experiences of hardship and how reading and writing have empowered him. He writes about miseries and sufferings, but he places such experiences against a broader background to prompt a deeper concern for the destinies of others and a genuine concern for humanity.

Mo Yan stresses the importance of a writer’s bond with the people. Many essays in this book record his past experiences in relation to his family, his homeland, Gaomi, in Shandong Province, and the folks there, with a nostalgic tone tinged with love and gratitude. He maintains that his connection to his hometown and the people there is crucial to his literary creation. To create works that deeply reflect the essence of an era, a writer must always stand with the broadest masses and share their experiences. Only in this way can one’s writing resonate with readers on a deep level.

Meanwhile, literature is dialogic; a successful literary work builds on an interaction with other writings. This is part of Mo Yan’s literary theory conveyed in Standing Strong against the Winds. Reading another writer’s works is like having a conversation with them. He reveals how he has been inspired by both Chinese writers such as Sun Li, Yu Hua, and Shi Tiesheng and international writers such as William Faulkner, Franz Kafka, August Strindberg, and Gabriel García Márquez for their ways of storytelling, their constructing and deconstructing of stories for a greater meaning. He sees the uniqueness of each of these writers and how they have contributed to the development of world literatures. He argues that a writer’s maturity is indicated by the formation of their distinctive voice; that is, an atmosphere or aura generated by a combination of factors, including the types of stories they choose, the ways they approach these stories, and the narrative forms they employ.

Mo Yan’s stories are all rooted in the Chinese soil, blending reality and imagination in the narration and exploring the forms of humanity in his own voice. Yet at the same time, his works, together with other Chinese writings, engage in a dialogue with world literature.

Yaxiao Cui
China University of Petroleum, Beijing