Nobel laureate's new book debuts amid 'Mo-mania'

"Farewell to My Concubine" is about the melancholy love story between Xiang Yu, a Chinese warlord during the second century BC and his concubine who killed herself.

"The Wife of the Boiler Worker" tells of a story about a female pianist who was re-educated in the countryside and married a boiler worker.

In "To Write with a Focus on People", the preface to his new book, Mo said although the anthology of plays consists of "simple contents," he treasured the book.

"It is easy to reveal society's dark side, but really hard to reveal the dark side of oneself. I need to dissect myself in the future in a heavy-handed way, to write with a focus on myself," he said. "It is an important part when 'writing with a focus on people'."

In the preface, which Mo wrote after being awarded the Mao Dun Literature Prize, China's most prestigious award for novels, last year he wrote "I will try my best to forget the award in 10 minutes...to curb my growing vanity".

The writer, whose pen name "Mo Yan" literally means "Do not speak", was not at the launch.

The 57-year-old writer has published 11 novels, 20-plus novellas and over 80 stories since 1982.

Since Mo Yan's success, Chinese readers have been hunting for his books. Many had heard of Mo but did not know what he had written, except for "Red Sorghum", which was adapted into an internationally award-winning movie.

Bookstores in Chinese cities have been left with empty shelves.

"Books written by Mo Yan did not sell well until last week," said a manager surnamed Wang with the Xinhua Book Store in Zibo city of East China's Shandong province, where Mo's hometown Gaomi city is located.

"We have ordered more of his books, especially the best-selling 'Frog'," he said, referring to Mo's latest novel that tells of China's "One-Child Policy".