Lu Yao was short of traveling expenses to accept the 3rd Mao Dun Literature Prize in Beijing. [File photo]

Lu Yao

Different from the prize winners nowadays, Lu Yao, author of the famous work Ordinary World, was worried about his traveling expenses for accepting the award when he won the 3rd Mao Dun Literature Prize in 1988.

In Suffering is his Eternal Companion, a memoir written by Lu’s younger brother Wang Letian, Lu told Wang in a telephone conversation that he didn't have enough money to travel to Beijing. "He told me that he could borrow enough traveling expenses but didn't have money to treat his friends in Beijing. He wished to buy 100 books, his Ordinary World, as gifts for his friends as well. He asked me to help him," Wang wrote in the book.

In 1988, the winners of the prize only received 5,000 yuan (about $604 in 1988) as a bonus. Lu spent most of his on traveling expenses and fees for books. His brother told him:"Please don't win any awards in the future. If you win the Nobel Prize, I can't help to get US dollars then."