He is known as the writer of Shifu, You¡¯ll Do Anything for a Laugh and The Republic of Wine, Mo Yen was born in a pile of mud in a small rural village in Shandong Province, China in 1955. This birth was based on the customary belief of his hometown that human beings are to be born and raised amid the sky, wind and soil just like sheep or horses. Before he joined the military in 1976, he was raised like a moocher amongst his extended family. He said he was rather relieved to leave his hometown to join the military. But he realized in military camp that sceneries like red sorghum that whirled around on the fields, the sounds of the cows, and the old-time legends dominated his subconscious. To him, his hometown was the home of his childhood with dreams that helped him forget about his reality. It  has truly been was the never-drying fountain of his literature.