1955年，莫言出生在山东省高密县，在家乡念的小学，后来因为文革辍学了。1976年，莫言参军，那年他20岁，在部队里他当过班长、保密员、图书管理员……

 Biography: 莫言英文版简介

 Mo Yan was born in 1955, in Gaomi County in Shandong province to a family of farmers, in Dalan Township . He left school during the Cultural Revolution to work in a factory that produced petroleum. After the Cultural Revolution he joined the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and began writing while he was still a soldier, in 1981. Three years later, he was given a teaching position at the Department of Literature in the PLA Academy of Art and Literature, where he published his first novella, A Transparent Radish （透明的红萝卜）(1984). In 1991, he obtained a master's degree in Literature from Beijing Normal University.