The Modern Novel

Biography

Gao Xingjian was the surprise winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize, being unknown to the majority of Chinese (he left China and became a French citizen) and to all but specialists in Chinese literature. None of his works was even available in English. He was born in 1940 in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province. He came of a cultured family and, as a child, was encouraged to paint, write and play violin. He studied French literature, in which he took his degree in 1962. However, at this time his mother drowned and he had to become a farm labourer. During the Cultural Revolution he was sent to a re-education camp. He had started to write but destroyed most of his work but, nevertheless, continued to write. After camp, he became a translator and a playwright but also painted. In 1986 his play The Other Shore was banned and he was allowed to travel abroad. He went to Paris, where he stayed and, eventually, became a French citizen. He has continued to write plays and prose fiction as well as paint.

Other links

Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjian
Profile: Gao Xingjian
Gao Xingjian: Life As A Literature Laureate
Contemporary Technique and National Character in Fiction By Gao Xingjian
The Case for Literature (2000 Nobel lecture)
Interview