He [Mo Yan] can afford to get sick now — or, to extend the metaphor, at least wear less cumbersome clothing in this frosty and pathogen-plagued environment. Perhaps that’s the best thing the Nobel Committee did by awarding this year’s literature prize to a non-dissident, someone whom Peter Englund of the Swedish Academy said was “more a critic of the system, sitting within the system.” They’ve given him a chance to bust out.
Anthony Tao from Beijing Cream comments on Chinese Nobel Literature Prize winner Mo Yan's wish for jailed dissident and fellow Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo's freedom.