The beloved Chinese author -- whose pen name means "not talking" -- has captivated his countrymen by intertwining fantasy and gritty everyday life.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Mo the prestigious prize Thursday, praising the way the author's "hallucinatory realism merges folk tales, history and the contemporary."

Mo plies his trade in a country where running afoul of party lines could lead to censorship. His work packs a punch but he walks a fine line. He is considered a writer within the system and even has embraced official restrictions on writing.

He's a Communist Party member and was elected to a vice-chairman spot in the state-sanctioned China Writers Association.

State media reported Mo's victory immediately after the announcement -- a sharp contrast to Chinese dissident's Liu Xiabo's win of the Nobel Peace Prize two years ago, when international news coverage was blacked out.

"I think this comes at a really important time for Chinese literature. China is an extremely literate and energetic society. The bookstores are full. There's a lot of interesting writing going on now," said Larry Siems of Pen American Center -- which promotes literary freedom and free exchange of literature around the world.

Mo, Siems said, is one of the most notable writers to come out of a system that's been "a rigid combination of patronage and censorship." Mo has produced compelling literature as he navigated that line, he said, but many in China think the author has been too "reticent" on some topics.

Siems said the award is "a really good thing for Chinese literature."

"I think in some ways, the award may be recognizing the fact that there's lively literature happening in China and I hope this stimulates people to read Chinese writers, not only Mo Yan," he added.

Patrick Poon, executive secretary of the independent Chinese Pen Center, said Mo is famous for the book on the country's policy that restricts couples -- with few exceptions -- to having one child.

Poon called Mo "one of the most influential" contemporary writers and a "good writer." However, he said, there are better and bolder writers who didn't get a Nobel. He said he senses that the award appears to be a recognition of -- or trying to please -- the Chinese government.

"I don't think it's a very wrong decision to give it to Mo Yan," he said. But "we can't understand it."

However, Poon said, now that Mo won the prize, maybe he can ask the Chinese government to free the more than three dozen or so imprisoned writers in the country.

"He should have this responsibility," Poon said.

Mo was born in Gaomi in Shandong province into a family of farmers in 1955 as Guan Moye. He joined the People's Liberation Army as a young man and began his career, becoming, according to literary magazine Granta, one of the country's "most celebrated and widely translated writers."

"He's an earnest and pragmatic person," his brother said, according to news reports before the award was announced. "I hope he will continue writing earnestly and create more literary work enjoyed by the masses."

Mo told local media in 2003 that his pen name is a word play on his original middle name, but also a reminder to himself that he should talk less and write more.

The author sets his novels in a community based on his hometown. Granta asked him in a recent interview if he has been influenced by other writers, such as American novelist William Faulkner, who set many of his stories in one specific fictional county in Mississippi.

"When I first started writing it was the year of 1981, so I didn't read any books by Marquez or Faulkner," he said, referring to Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

"It was 1984 when I first read their works and undoubtedly those two writers have great influence on my creations. I found that my life experience is quite similar to theirs, but I only discovered this later on. If I had read their works sooner I would have already accomplished a masterpiece like they did."