When talking with young Swedish students, Mo Yan showed respect for Chinese authors that he learned writing from, particularly Shen Congwen, who was twice nominated for the Nobel Prize. "Lu Xun, Lao She, Mao Dun and Shen Congwen, they are more qualified for the Nobel Prize than me," he said,. Among the writers he learned from, he said he especially felt close to Shen Congwen, as they have similar life experiences. Both of them left school early and did not get formal education. Shen quit after high school and Mo only finished the fifth grade. They both joined the army after school. " We both learned from the book of life," said Mo. The themes of their writing are also similar. Both writers have their hometown as the theme and root of their writings. Shen'works are mostly about his hometown, Xiangxi, and most of Mo's stories are set in his hometown, Gaomi, in Shandong Province. Mo said he also learned from Shen how to deal with characters in a fiction. Unlike most Chinese writers, Shen has a humanistic  touch towards all of his characters. Said Mo, "In his works, there are no particularly bad person or good person. Even gangsters  and thieves have their humane side," he said. "I try to use the same approach in my writing. It shows the ability of a novelist when he treats all the characters as humans," he said. Mo said he also learned Lu Xun's depth and Lao She's humor. "They are all my teachers, and I am the student," he said. "I feel ashamed from my heart that teachers did not get the prize, but the student got it." According to Mo Yan, Shen Congwen was special in the way   _  .
he described bad persons he created characters he made sentences he told stories