Introduction

This chapter introduces Mo Yan’s 2012 Nobel Prize for literature and its impact on the international recognition of Chinese literature as a whole. Howard Goldblatt’s translation played an important role in the award of Mo Yan’s prize. In asking how Mo Yan won his Nobel Prize and what it means for the future development of Chinese literature, this chapter proposes to explore Howard Goldblatt’s translation of Mo Yan’s representative work 生死疲劳(Sheng Si Pi Lao) (Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out, shortened as L&D) from the perspective of André Lefevere’s rewriting theory and previous research on translator subjectivity.