BEIJING (AP) – Novelist Mo Yan, this year’s Nobel Prize winner for literature, is practiced in the art of challenging the status quo without offending those who uphold it.

Mo, whose popular, sprawling, bawdy tales bring to life rural China, is the first Chinese winner of the literature prize who is not a critic of the authoritarian government. And Thursday’s announcement by the Swedish Academy brought an explosion of pride across Chinese social media.

The state-run national broadcaster, China Central Television, reported the news moments later, and the official writers’ association, of which Mo is a vice chairman, lauded the choice. But it also ignited renewed criticisms of Mo from other writers as too willing to serve or too timid to confront a government that heavily censors artists and authors, and punishes those who refuse to obey.