Long red banners congratulating Mo hang from the sides of concrete homes along major thoroughfares. Gaomi residents are intensely proud of their Nobel laureate, whom they fondly refer to as "Teacher Mo Yan". Mo, who was born Guan Moye – his pen name means "don't speak" – could not be reached for comment. "It's impossible that the government here would spend so much money on such a surface thing," Guan says. Mo's brother, neighbours, and 90-year-old father say they had not heard of plans for a theme park. Last week, officials in the far-western Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region unveiled plans to build a £600,000 Malan Military Expo Park at China's first atomic bomb test site.
In July, authorities announced a 810-hectare, £2.9bn Tibetan Culture theme park, currently being developed on the outskirts of Lhasa. "If you go to almost any Chinese county or city, you'll see that they're building new cities, new industrial parks, and new theme parks every day," he says. According to Tao Ran, an economics professor at Renmin University in Beijing, local governments often borrow massive sums of money from state-owned banks to finance expensive development projects, hoping that they will drive up the value of local property. However, a large-scale tourism project in Gaomi remains unsurprising, analysts claim. "Although the idea sounds promising, we have yet to take the whole situation into consideration," he says, adding that "this might be the regulatory commission's long-term plan over five or 10 years." The director of the Gaomi press centre, Wang Youzhi, told the official Xinhua news agency that the theme park was more a "vision" than a concrete plan. Although villagers counter that they stopped growing the cereal in the 1980s, the government is reportedly planning to pay local farmers to plant 1,600 acres (650 hectares) of the unprofitable crop. Inspired by Mo's 1997 novel Red Sorghum, which Zhang Yimou adapted into an award-winning film, the government also plans to create a Red Sorghum Culture and Experience Zone in Ping'an. For Gaomi city officials, it could prove to be a goldmine. For many ordinary Chinese, however, the prize was a sign that China's cultural influence may now rival its economic clout. The author has worked with the Chinese Communist party for decades – many outspoken dissidents were outraged by the award. The plan adds a touch of avarice to the range of reactions with which China has received Mo's Nobel victory.
Authorities in Gaomi, the municipality that administers Ping'an, plans to build a £67m "Mo Yan Culture Experience" theme park around the writer's old home, according to the Beijing News.
Ping'an, population 800, may soon be hard-pressed to maintain its rustic charm.
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