China's Mo Yan wins Nobel Prize in literature The story was later made into an acclaimed film by leading Chinese director Zhang Yimou. In a style that has been compared to the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Mo Yan authored other acclaimed works including "Big Breasts and Wide Hips," "Republic of Wine" and "Life and Death are Wearing Me Out." His latest novel, 2009's "Frog," is considered his most daring yet, due to its searing depiction of China's "one child" population control policy and the local officials who ruthlessly implement it with forced abortions and sterilisations. The heroine of the novel is a midwife who is an enthusiastic advocate of such practices. But she later breaks down in remorse after a drunken hallucination in which she is attacked by thousands of frogs whose croaks are the wails of the babies she has aborted. Despite such content, Mo Yan has so far deftly managed to avoid running into serious trouble with Communist authorities. This has been aided by his position as vice chairman of the state-sanctioned Chinese Writers Association. Though Mo is the first Chinese national to win the Nobel literature prize, he's not the first Chinese. A Chinese emigre to France, Gao Xingjian, won in 2000 for his absurdist dramas and inventive fiction, especially the novel Soul Mountain. His works are laced with criticisms of China's communist government and have been banned in China. Yan as quoted saying by the official China News Service as saying today: "On hearing the news that I won the award, I was very happy. I will focus on creating new works. I will strive harder to thank everyone. Last year, the literature prize went to Swedish poet Tomas Transtroemer. The literature prize is the fourth and one of the most watched announcements this Nobel season, following the prizes for medicine, physics and chemistry earlier this week. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced tomorrow, wrapping up the Nobel season. As tradition dictates, the laureates will receive their prizes at formal ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of prize creator Alfred Nobel in 1896.