Eleventh International Conference on The Image

Abstract

This paper will examine plant, animal, and human bodies images employed in the Chinese Nobel Prize winner, Mo Yan’s three representative novels. In Red Sorghum Clan, Red sorghum as the plant image is a symbol of suffering and blood, on the one hand; it also signifies vigorous love and tenacious vitality, on the other hand. In Frog, frog as the animal image is the totem of Chinese local culture, which symbolizes breeding, and it also sounds the same as “baby” in its Chinese character. One main theme of the novel is the reflection of Chinese birth control, and the moral ethics of treating the lives of unborn babies. Moreover, “frog” is similar to “Nu wa.” Nu wa is the goddess who created human beings in Chinese mythology. Family planning policy, however, stifles those who create it, which is a sharp irony. In Big Breasts and Wide Hips, Mo Yan uses the “big breasts and wide hips” images, and thus offers an artistic representation of a complex view of procreation, fertility, and reproduction worship, the maternal love and even greater love of the earth. The paper finally concludes that the different images in Mo Yan’s novels not only reflect the rich Chinese cultural values, but also have profound anthropological significances.