The novel, Life, Death, Exhaustion, (right) drew on personal experiences, he says, having being born into a farming family. It portrays the sorrows and joys of people amid transformation in the Chinese countryside.

Mo was named as the recipient of Hong Kong Baptist University's The Dream of the Red Chamber Award for his work.

His award-winning tale begins in 1950, when the protagonist, who is a landlord, is shot dead during land reforms. He is then reincarnated as a donkey, an ox, a pig, a dog and a monkey and becomes a witness to the rapid changes taking place in the village over a 50-year period.

"Though it only took me 43 days to write the whole novel, the idea has been in my mind since I was eight," said the 54-year-old author from Shandong province.

Outside his school every day he would observe a couple pushing a wooden cart pulled by a lame donkey, and that became a trigger for his tale.

Mo says he wrote about 500,000 characters on paper in the summer of 2005, shutting himself out of civilization in a very remote town near Beijing, and managed only four hours of sleep every day.

"Mo has successfully produced a satirical, modern Chinese version of the classic novel, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka," said chairman of the judging panel Professor David Wang Der-wei of Harvard University.

He praised the work for blending Buddhist beliefs in the six realms of existence, or Samsara, with his writing full of magic realism.

He said he was deeply impressed by the historical background of the book, which he believes is an essential element to an inspiring Chinese contemporary novel. "Change is the theme of Mo's book, which also constitutes a modern historical metaphor," he added.

Another judge, Sihma Jhong-yuan, a novelist from Taiwan, said the story truly reflected the farmer's life under the Communists. He said he also appreciates the central government for allowing Mo's novel to be published.

Mo notes that he could not have written the book in the 1980s as the problems faced by the characters in the story were from his personal experience. The award, he says, will be an encouragement for his future work.

Launched in 2006, The Dream of the Red Chamber Award runs every two years with a cash award of HK$300,000, the highest of its kind.

It aims to encourage the publication of excellent Chinese novels, and to recognize outstanding Chinese novels to improve standards of writing.

The prize presentation ceremony is scheduled for next month, when the winner will meet the judges and his fans.

Judges also recommended Taiwanese writer Chu Tien-wen's Words of Shamaness, local writer Dung Kai-cheung's Multi-Histories of Time: Light on Matte Porcelain, and Chinese writer Wang Anyi's An Era of Enlightenment.