School Of Modern Languages and Cultures
Modern China Studies Programme Announcement:

MO YAN WINS NEWMAN PRIZE FOR CHINESE LITERATURE

The Chinese writer Mo Yan has been chosen by an international jury as the winner of the inaugural Newman Prize for Chinese Literature. The Newman Prize is sponsored by the University of Oklahoma’s Institute for US-China Issues. It is awarded biennially in recognition of outstanding achievement in Chinese prose or poetry that best captures the human condition. A jury of seven distinguished literary experts both nominated the candidates and selected the winner in a transparent voting process on 30 September 2008.

Mr. Mo Yan will receive USD 10,000 and a commemorative plaque, and will be invited to the University of Oklahoma to attend an award ceremony and academic symposium in March 2009. The University of Oklahoma is also home to World Literature Today, a leading journal of world literature, and the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. A special section of World Literature Today will be dedicated to Mo Yan’s work in Fall 2009.

Dr. Haiyan Lee, Assistant Professor of Modern China Studies in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, acted as chief consultant and jury coordinator for the Prize. The jurors were: Kirk Denton (Ohio State University), Howard Goldblatt (University of Notre Dame), Liu Hongtao (Beijing Normal University), Peng Hsiao-yen (Academia Sinica, Taiwan), Xu Zidong (Lingnan University, Hong Kong), Zhang Yiwu (Beijing University), and Zhao Yiheng (Sichuan University).

For more information, please visit the Newman Prize homepage (http://www.ou.edu/uschina/newman/home.html), or contact Haiyan Lee at haiyan@hku.hk