Sales stall for winner

Bookstores across China returned thousands of copies of writer Mo Yan's novels to his publishers at the end of last year. Is literature facing a crisis? Xing Yi finds out.

Mo Yan's novels are not doing well.

According to Wen Hui Daily, a Shanghai-based newspaper with a tradition of reporting on culture, bookstores around China returned copies of the Nobel laureate's books - valued at 9.5 million yuan ($1.53 million) based on their prices - to his publishers at the end of 2014. They account for 10 percent of the total printed copies of his books.