Mo Yan, the first Chinese national to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, was awarded the professor title by a prestigious Chinese university on Tuesday, China News Service reported.

The Beijing Normal University, where Mo got his master's degree in arts in 1991, gave him the title of professor at the university's school of Chinese language and literature.

Mo said at the ceremony that he had been feeling calm after winning the Nobel Prize despite the great honor, and that he is still a "writer focused on rural life".

Mo, 57, was born into a farmer's family in a village in East China's Shandong province. He has been popular since the late 1980s for his novels.

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