Chinese writer Mo Yan beats favourites to take Nobel Prize for Literature A writer who has chronicled the changing landscape of 20 century China was today awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, beating favourites Haruki Murakami and William Trevor. Peter Englund, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy, announced at midday that Mo Yan was the 2012 Nobel laureate for literature. In a brief statement, he said the writer "with hallucinatory realism, merges folk tales, history and the contemporary." Mo Yan, who lives in China, was hailed in his home country where he is regarded as one of their finest living authors. The interest was so great, live news of the announcement was run on screens across the country including Beijing airport. Michel Hockx, professor of Chinese at the University of London's School of Oriental and African Studies, said: "He has a substantial oeuvre. He writes big novels about big issues. His most famous global work is Red Sorghum, published in Chinese in 1987, which was later made into a film. Others include The Garlic Ballads and Big Breasts & Wide Hips. The Nobel Prize adds to a string of awards including the Mao Dun Literature Prize last year and the Newman Prize for Chinese Literature. Professor Hockx said he was surprised the Chinese writer won the award just 12 years after fellow countryman Gao Xingjian. Yet Mr Xingjian had emigrated to France and taken French citizenship by the time of his award, and China met his award with more reticence, according to the professor. Jonathan Ruppin, web editor of bookseller Foyles, said the award "recognises the talents of one of the world's most distinctive and visionary writers" adding it coincided with a growth in interest in Chinese literature.