"Mo's achievements mark China's breakthrough at the 'Literature Olympics'." "This is a historic moment for Chinese literature." On October 11, the news from Stockholm, Sweden that Chinese writer Mo Yan was awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature sets off a boom in China. The Swedish Academy said Mo Yan was the one "who with hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary".

Market value of IPR

"The reason that I can win the prize is mainly because I portrayed people's lives at the perspective of person, and my works displayed Chinese people's life, unique Chinese culture and ethnic customs." Mo explained in this way. Mo is a productive writer who has written more than thirty novels including "Red Sorghum", "The Republic of Wine", "Sandalwood Death", "Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out", "The Garlic Ballads", "Wa" and other high-quality works.
In fact, the explosion of Mo Yan with his fast-selling works is spreading rapidly across the whole country. "Mo Yan's prize, as well as other Chinese elite writers' making noise in the global scene in recent years, is closely associated with  enhancement of China's IPR protection." Professor Cao Xinming, executive deputy director of the IPR research center of Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, said the popularity of Mo Yan's works reflected the market value of IPR.

The interesting thing is that the price of a 200,000-word screenplay manuscript written by Mo over a decade ago shot up from ￥200,000 to ￥1,200,000 immediately after the Nobel Prize."

"Starting with ourselves, we will obey Chinese laws, be strictly self-disciplined, and never associate ourselves with any pirates in order to strengthen copyright protection." For IPR protection, Mo Yan expressed his opinion in this way. On December 21, 2009, 94 Chinese writers, including Mo Yan, Zhang Kangkang and Han Han, jointly signed the Anti-Piracy Declaration to call on the whole society to "be against piracy and support the originals".

Opportunity for culture industry development

"Mo Yan's award reflects world literature's concern for Chinese literature and writers, and Chinese modern writers' practice and efforts have a growing impact on the international literature field." said Tie Ning, the Chairman of Chinese Writers Association, who fully affirmed the positive role of the award for Chinese culture "going-out".

The positive role reflects in two ways. On one hand, it has become a trend for Chinese culture stepping out. As the growing of Chinese economy, more and more Chinese works have been translated and popularized, which have drawn much attention from foreign countries especially Europe and the U.S., and Nobel Prize Committee have more chance to know Chinese literature. On the other hand, Mo Yan's award can also facilitate Chinese cultural industry "going-out". Because the development of culture need brand power, the brand power in turn can also promote the international influence of Chinese cultural products, which would lay a solid foundation for massive cultural products export.

The international influence of brand power can be witnessed by the success of Harry Potter and Disney. Meanwhile, Mo Yan is becoming a representative symbol of Chinese culture in the world. At present, licensing negotiations are going on with several countries' publishing houses.

"If you like Edgar Allan Poe, you might enjoy Mo Yan's Sandalwood Death. If you were Rabelais style oriented, you might like the Republic of Wine. If you love allegorical novels, I recommend Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out to you." said sinologists Goldblatt, who translated Mo Yan's novels into English. He bracketed Mo Yan and Dickens together, saying that the novels collapsed distance and geographic limit by the features from the perspective of human nature, unique literary symbols and attractive languages, and were well received by the readers all over the world.

At present, Chinese literature is shaping its position in the world. Some experts said that with the faster pace of communication between China and the world, Chinese literature is becoming more powerful in the world, and would exert increasing influence on the world stage.

(China IP News)