Gao Xingjian (Chinese: 高行健; born January 4, 1940) is a Chinese person who later became a French citizen. He is a novelist, playwright, critic, painter, photographer, film director, and translator. In 2000, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature for his work, which has universal value, deep insights, and creative use of language. He is also known for translating works by Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco. He has worked as a screenwriter, stage director, and painter.

Gao’s plays are often described as unconventional and experimental in China. His play Absolute Signal (1982) was a major breakthrough in Chinese experimental theatre. The Bus Stop (1983) and The Other Shore (1986) were stopped from being performed by the Chinese government. Wild Man (1985) was the last of his plays to be publicly performed in China. He left the country in 1987, and his later plays focused more on universal themes rather than Chinese-specific issues. However, his 1989 play Exile upset both the Chinese government and overseas democracy groups because of its portrayal of China and intellectuals. In 1997, he was granted French citizenship.

Gao was influenced by classical Chinese opera, folk traditions, and 20th-century European drama, such as that of Antonin Artaud. In 1987, he said he saw himself as a bridge between Western and Eastern cultures. He is a private person and later stated, "I do not believe in or belong to any political group, school, or ideology, including nationalism and patriotism." His prose works are less well-known in China but are highly respected in Europe and the West. His book Soul Mountain was specifically mentioned in the Nobel Prize announcement.

Early life

Gao Xingjian was born in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China, during World War II in 1940. His family's original home town was in Taizhou, Jiangsu, and his mother's family was from Zhejiang. After World War II ended, his family moved to Nanjing. He became a French citizen in 1997. In 1992, the French government honored him with the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Gao's father worked as a clerk at the Bank of China, and his mother was a member of the YMCA. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, his mother was part of an anti-Japanese theater group. Because of her influence, Gao developed an interest in painting, writing, and theater as a child. During middle school, he read many translated books from Western authors and studied art techniques like sketching, ink painting, oil painting, and clay sculpture under the guidance of painter Yun Zongying.

In 1950, his family moved to Nanjing. In 1952, Gao entered Nanjing Number 10 Middle School, which later became Jinling High School, a school connected to Nanjing University. In 1957, he graduated and followed his mother's advice to attend Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) instead of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, even though he was considered talented in art.

In 1962, Gao graduated from the French department at BFSU and worked at the Chinese International Bookstore. During the 1970s, he was affected by the Down to the Countryside Movement. He was treated unfairly because he was a public intellectual, forced to destroy his early writings, and sent to work in the countryside in Anhui Province for six years. He briefly taught at Gangkou Middle School in Ningguo County, Anhui. In 1975, he returned to Beijing and became the group leader for French translations at the magazine China Reconstructs.

In 1977, Gao worked for the Committee of Foreign Relations at the Chinese Association of Writers. In May 1979, he traveled to Paris with a group of Chinese writers, including Ba Jin. In 1980, he became a screenwriter and playwright for the Beijing People's Art Theatre.

Gao is known as a pioneer of absurdist drama in China. During his time as a resident playwright at the Beijing People's Art Theatre from 1981 to 1987, he created Signal Alarm (1982) and Bus Stop (1983). These plays were influenced by European theater styles and earned him recognition as an innovative writer. Signal Alarm was considered a major breakthrough in Chinese experimental theater. His book Preliminary Explorations Into the Art of Modern Fiction, published in 1981 and reprinted in 1982, was praised by established writers. His plays Wild Man (1985) and The Other Shore (1986) openly criticized government policies. The production of The Other Shore was stopped after one month.

In 1986, Gao was incorrectly diagnosed with lung cancer. He then traveled for 10 months along the Yangtze River, which inspired his novel Soul Mountain (1990). First published in Taipei and later in English in 2000, the book blends different literary styles and uses multiple perspectives. It was noted by the Swedish Nobel committee as a unique literary work. The book describes his journey from Sichuan Province to the coast and his experiences living among minority groups like the Qiang, Miao, and Yi peoples.

By the late 1980s, Gao moved to Bagnolet, a city near Paris, France. His 1989 play Fugitives (also called Exile), which depicted three people fleeing to a warehouse after tanks entered Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, led to all his works being banned in China. He was officially declared persona non grata.

Works

During the 1970s, Gao Xingjian was forced to work as a peasant. This was a form of "education" during the Cultural Revolution. He wrote many plays, short stories, poems, and critical pieces during this time. To avoid problems, he had to burn these works because they were considered dissident literature. Later, he did not publish poetry collections and was better known for plays, stories, and essays. However, one short poem remains. It shows a unique style similar to his other writings:

(April 13, 1986, Beijing)

Gao Xingjian is a painter, especially known for his ink and wash painting. His exhibitions have included:

Reception

Gao first gained success and received praise from critics after publishing his novella Hanye de xingchen (1980; "Stars on a Cold Night"). When the Chinese Writers' Association held two public meetings to criticize Preliminary Explorations Into the Art of Modern Fiction, a book that caused nationwide debate, well-known writers defended it. In 1983, Australian scholar Geremie Barmé said the book helped Chinese writers understand Western art and literature after World War I, but noted it "reads more like a loose collection of jottings and reflections." He added that the book became important to Chinese modernists because few similar works were available for non-specialists.

In 1981, Gao became a resident playwright with the Beijing People's Art Theatre. In 1982, he wrote his first play, Absolute Signal. A committee from the Ministry of Culture voted Absolute Signal the best play in a collection of recent works, though the play was later excluded from the collection as "ineligible for selection." By this time, Gao had become a controversial figure. His absurdist play Chezhan (1983; Bus Stop) used techniques from European theater. While writer Cao Yu praised Bus Stop as "wonderful," Communist Party officials criticized it. Gao left Beijing and went into self-exile, returning in November 1984. His 1985 play Yeren (Wild Man) was well-received. Scholar Gilbert C. F. Fong said Wild Man showed "the pinnacle of the development of experimental drama at the time" and noted that drama did not need to focus on socialist education or political messages to be effective.

Both Western and Chinese critics described Bus Stop as the first Chinese play to introduce elements of the Theatre of the Absurd. Wild Man was influenced by Chinese theatrical traditions and praised for expanding the range of expression for Chinese performing artists. Absolute Signal, Bus Stop, and Wild Man are described as "both the origin and culmination of the initial phase of the Chinese avant-garde." In 1986, Gao's play The Other Shore was banned, and none of his other plays have been performed on the mainland since.

Premier Zhu Rongji of the State Council of the People's Republic of China sent a congratulatory message to Gao Xingjian when interviewed by the Hong Kong newspaper East Daily (《东方日报》): "Gao's work has led to fierce discussion among Chinese writers, both positive and negative."

In a 2008 article in Muse, a now-defunct Hong Kong magazine, scholar Leo Ou-fan Lee praised the use of Chinese language in Soul Mountain: "Whether it works or not, it is a rich fictional language filled with vernacular speeches and elegant classical formulations as well as dialects, thus creating a 'heteroglossic' tapestry of sounds and rhythms that can indeed be read aloud."

Before 2000, a dozen Chinese writers and scholars predicted Gao would win the Nobel Prize for Literature, including Hu Yaoheng and Pan Jun as early as 1999. Hong Kong Baptist University professor Jessica Yeung praised Gao's story "Twenty-Five Years Later" (1982), noting that the use of different narrative perspectives created effective humor and irony.

Gilbert C. F. Fong called Preliminary Explorations Into the Art of Modern Fiction "a rather crude attempt at theory." His plays Absolute Signal, Bus Stop, and Wild Man earned him praise overseas. A review in The Christian Science Monitor called Wild Man "truly amazing." Deirdre Sabina Knight of Smith College praised Gao's "inventiveness" in a review of Fong's translations of five of his plays. Each play is followed by notes written by Gao, and John B. Weinstein of Simon's Rock College of Bard argued that these notes "combine the practical with the theoretical." Weinstein said that "tripartition allows Gao to explore his characters more deeply by presenting multiple perspectives for each one," and that Weekend Quartet (which integrates characters' self-analyses with more realistic settings) is a step toward applying Gao's theories to plays beyond his own.

The primary translators of Gao's work into English are Mabel Lee (novels and essays from Chinese to English), Gilbert Fong (plays and poetry from Chinese to English), Noel Dutrait (novels and essays from French to English), and Claire Conceison (plays from French to English). English-language scholars who have written books about Gao's work include Sy Ren Quah, Letizia Fusini, Todd Coulter, Izabella Labedzka, and Mary Mazzilli.

Gao Xingjian's work inspired professor Jin Hsu-ren from the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at National Taiwan Normal University to create a psychological therapy called "Psychological Displacement Paradigm in Diary-writing" (PDPD), based on how Soul Mountain was written. This method uses the three pronoun positions of "I," "you," and "he/she."

Gao Xingjian Center at National Taiwan Normal University

For many years, Gao Xingjian has considered Taiwan his home and has a strong connection with National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU). In 2008, he accepted President Gou Yih-shun's invitation to become an honorary chair professor at the university. In 2011, President Chang Kuo-En traveled to France to invite him, and in 2012, Mr. Gao became a chair professor at the Graduate Institute of Performing Arts. He has taught courses there for several years. His achievements and contributions to society earned him an honorary doctorate in literature from NTNU in 2017.

Since 2012, NTNU has worked closely with Professor Gao to organize events and performances. For example, in 2012, the university held the event "Encounter Gao Xingjian at NTNU – Commemorating the Visit of Nobel Laureate in Literature Gao Xingjian." In 2014, NTNU partnered with the National Palace Museum to present the Taiwanese premiere of the cinematic poem "Requiem for Beauty" and published an art book about it. Professor Gao also donated and unveiled the Xingjian Hall, a rehearsal room for the Graduate Institute of Performing Arts. Later events included the "Gao Xingjian Art Festival" in 2017, where his ink wash painting "The Thinker" was displayed, and the "Gao Xingjian Week" in 2019, which introduced courses such as "The Literature and Art of Gao Xingjian" and "Studies on Plays of Gao Xingjian," which NTNU continues to offer each semester. The Graduate Institute of Performing Arts also performed several of his works, including the Mandarin debut of "Nocturnal Wanderer" (2012), the rock-and-roll musical "Mountains and Seas" (2013, 2017), the dance theater production "Soul Mountain" (2016, 2017), the monologue "Soliloquy" (2019), and the university repertory production "Soliloquy on Soul Mountain" (2019).

In 2020, Professor Gao celebrated his 10th year as an NTNU chair professor. To mark this milestone, he donated many of his manuscripts and related books to the university. To honor his academic connection and support research on his works, NTNU created the Gao Xingjian Center on the sixth floor of the NTNU Library. This center stores his writings, documents, and research materials. With its focus on arts and humanities and collaboration across the College of Liberal Arts, College of Arts, and College of Music, NTNU has become a research hub for Gao Xingjian's works in the Chinese-speaking world.