莫言的想象飞掠整个的人生境遇。他是描绘自然的能手；有关饥饿的方方面面，他几乎全都熟知。中国在20世纪中的暴虐无道，也许还从未如此直白地被他描写在他那些英雄、恋人、施虐者、强盗，特别是坚强无畏的母亲的故事之中。他向我们呈现了一个没有真理，缺乏常识或同情心的世界，其中的人群都显得鲁莽、无助而荒诞。
Proof of this misery is the cannibalism that recurs in China’s history. In Mo Yan, it stands for unrestrained consumption, excess, rubbish, carnal pleasures and the indescribable desires that only he can attempt to elucidate beyond all tabooed limitations.
中国历代反复出现的人相食现象就是这一悲惨世界的证据。在莫言的笔下，它还呈现为毫无节制的消费，大肆铺张，胡说八道，食色之乐，以及种种难以言说的欲望，唯独莫言能够冲破所有的禁忌限制，试图将那一切阐述出来。
In his novel Republic of Wine, the most exquisite of delicacies is a roasted three-year-old. Boys have become exclusive foodstuff. The girls, neglected, survive. The irony is directed at China’s family policy, because of which female foetuses are aborted on an astronomic scale: girls aren’t even good enough to eat. Mo Yan has written an entire novel, Frog, about this.
