Censorship is a must, says China's Nobel winner

[jsr]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/07/mo-yan-censorship-nobel

Censorship is a must, says China's Nobel winner
Mo Yan, who has won this year's Nobel Prize in literature, says censorship is as necessary as checks at airport security
Associated Press in Stockholm

This year's Nobel Prize in literature winner, Mo Yan, who has been criticised for his membership in China's Communist Party and reluctance to speak out against the country's government, has defended censorship as something as necessary as airport security checks.

He also suggested he won't join an appeal calling for the release of the jailed 2010 Peace Prize laureate, Liu Xiaobo, a fellow writer and compatriot.

Mo has been criticised by human rights activists for not being a more outspoken defender of freedom of speech and for supporting the Communist Party-backed writers' association, of which he is vice president.

His comments on Thursday, made during a news conference in Stockholm, appear unlikely to soften his critics' views toward him. ...

[upi402]

1. Cool, lets close all our factories and send all the jobs there!

God bless 'mehrica!

[niyad]

2. can the nobel committee rescind its prize?

[frazzled]

3. Well, I hope he's a damned good writer

Because he doesn't rate very high in the political or philosophical department. I don't know his work. But I guess the Nobel Prize for Literature should be neutral as to politics and should be about great literature alone.

Though it hasn't always been. No one probably deserved the prize more than Jorge Luis Borges, who unfortunately had very bad right-wing politics in his personal life (supported Pinochet and other dictators). He was nominated several times but never won it, purportedly because of his politics.

[brentspeak]

4. Another brilliant selection from the Nobel committee

What do you expect from the same organization which handed out Nobel prizes to the likes of Milton Friedman and Yasser Arafat?

[LittleBlue]

5. Rescind his prize? lol

Yeah, let's rescind his literature prize for his political views. In fact, let's punish anyone who doesn't agree with mainstream political views.

*shakes head*

[Bonobo]

6. Good thing he beat that lousy Haruki Murakami!

[h1]Haruki Murakami Denounces Nationalism in Island Dispute; Reading in Prison[/h1]
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2012/09/haruki-murakami-denounces-nationalism-island-dispute-reading-prison/57390/


Haruki Murakami wants Japanese and Chinese nationalists to calm down. The Japanese novelist is best known for his dreamlike plots and everyman protagonists, but Haruki Murakami has a definite political streak too. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle contained a long section on Japanese atrocities in World War II, and Underground criticized the the media's portrayal of a 1995 terrorist attack on the Tokyo subway. Now, Murakami has decided to speak up about the escalating dispute between China and Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands. In an op-ed for the Asahi Shimbun, he compares the nationalism on both sides to intoxication, writing:

When a territorial issue ceases to be a practical matter and enters the realm of 'national emotions', it creates a dangerous situation with no exit. It is like cheap liquor. Cheap liquor gets you drunk after only a few shots and makes you hysterical. It makes you speak loudly and act rudely... But after your drunken rampage you are left with nothing but an awful headache the next morning. We must be careful about politicians and polemicists who lavish us with this cheap liquor and fan this kind of rampage.