Mo Yan, the first Chinese national to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, was awarded the professor title by a prestigious Chinese university on Tuesday, China News Service reported.
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The Beijing Normal University, where Mo got his master's degree in arts in 1991, gave him the title of professor at the university's school of Chinese language and literature.
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Mo said at the ceremony that he had been feeling calm after winning the Nobel Prize despite the great honor, and that he is still a "writer focused on rural life".
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Mo, 57, was born into a farmer's family in a village in East China's Shandong province. He has been popular since the late 1980s for his novels.Â