Gao Xingjian facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Gao Xingjian
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Gao in 2012
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| Born | January 4, 1940 Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China |
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| Occupation |
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| Language | Chinese | ||||||||||
| Citizenship |  (1940–49) People's Republic of China (1949–98) France (since 1997) |
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| Alma mater | Beijing Foreign Studies University | ||||||||||
| Genre | Meta-theatre, genre resistant | ||||||||||
| Notable works | Absolute Signal (1982) The Bus Stop (1983) Wild Man (1985) The Other Shore (1986) Soul Mountain (1990) |
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| Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Literature (2000) |
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| Spouse | Wang Xuejun (王学筠); divorced | ||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 高行健 | ||||||||||
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Gao Xingjian (Chinese: 高行健; born January 4, 1940) is a famous Chinese writer, artist, and director. He later became a French citizen. In 2000, he won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He received this award for his amazing writing, which explores deep truths and uses language in a very clever way.
Gao is also known for translating works by famous writers like Samuel Beckett. He is a talented screenwriter, stage director, and a celebrated painter.
His plays are often seen as "absurdist," meaning they explore life's meaning in a strange or illogical way. They were quite new and experimental in China. Plays like Absolute Signal (1982) and The Bus Stop (1983) were very important in Chinese experimental theatre. However, some of his plays, like The Other Shore (1986), were stopped by the Chinese government. Wild Man (1985) was the last of his works to be shown publicly in China.
Gao left China in 1987. After that, his plays began to focus on ideas that were important to everyone, not just people in China. In 1997, he became a French citizen.
Gao's work is inspired by old Chinese opera, folk stories, and European theatre. He once said his writing connects Western and Eastern cultures. He is a very private person and believes in being independent. He said, "I do not believe in or belong to any party or school." His novels are especially loved in Europe, and his book Soul Mountain was highlighted when he won the Nobel Prize.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Gao Xingjian was born in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China, in 1940, during a time of war. After World War II, his family moved to Nanjing. He has been a French citizen since 1998. In 1992, the French government honored him with the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres award for his contributions to art and literature.
Growing Up in China
Gao's father worked at the Bank of China, and his mother was part of the YMCA. His mother was also an actress in plays that spoke out against the Japanese during the war. Because of her, Gao loved painting, writing, and theatre from a young age. As a teenager, he read many translated books from Western countries. He also learned to draw, paint with ink and oil, and sculpt.
In 1950, his family moved to Nanjing. He attended the Nanjing Number 10 Middle School, which is now called Jinling High School.
University Years and Early Career
In 1957, Gao finished high school. His mother advised him to study at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) instead of an art school, even though he was very talented in art.
He graduated from BFSU in 1962, where he studied French. After graduating, he worked for the Chinese International Bookstore. In the 1970s, during a period called the Down to the Countryside Movement, he was sent to the countryside in Anhui Province for six years to do hard labor. This was a difficult time for many intellectuals in China. He had to destroy his early writings to avoid trouble.
In 1975, he was allowed to return to Beijing. He became the head of the French translation team for the magazine China Reconstructs. In 1977, he joined the Chinese Association of Writers. He visited Paris in 1979 with other Chinese writers. In 1980, he started working as a writer for the Beijing People's Art Theatre.
A Pioneer of Absurdist Drama
Gao Xingjian is known for bringing "absurdist" drama to China. His plays, like Signal Alarm (1982) and Bus Stop (1983), were performed while he worked at the Beijing People's Art Theatre from 1981 to 1987. These plays were new and experimental, influenced by European theatre. Absolute Signal was seen as a major breakthrough in Chinese experimental theatre.
His book Preliminary Explorations Into the Art of Modern Fiction was published in 1981 and was praised by many writers. However, his later plays, Wild Man (1985) and The Other Shore (1986), openly questioned government policies. The rehearsals for The Other Shore were stopped after only one month.
In 1986, Gao was wrongly told he had lung cancer. This led him to travel for 10 months along the Yangtze River. This journey inspired his famous novel Soul Mountain (《靈山》). This book is part-memoir and part-novel, mixing different writing styles and voices. The Nobel Prize committee called it "one of those singular literary creations that seem impossible to compare with anything but themselves." The book describes his travels and his experiences with different minority groups in China.
Life in Europe
By the late 1980s, Gao had moved to Bagnolet, a city near Paris, France. His 1989 play Fugitives (also called Exile) was about people escaping after the events in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Because of this play, all his works were banned in China, and he was officially declared a "persona non grata," meaning he was no longer welcome.
Gao's Creative Works
Gao Xingjian has created many different types of art.
Plays and Performances
- 《絕對信號》 (Signal Alarm / Absolute Signal, 1982)
- 《車站》 (Bus Stop, 1983)
- 《野人》 (Wild Men / Wilderness Man, 1985)
- 《彼岸》 (The Other Shore, 1986)
- 《逃亡》 (Fugitives / Exile, 1989)
- 《生死界》 (Death Sector / Between Life and Death, 1991)
- 《山海經傳》 (A Tale of Shan Hai Jing, 1992)
- 《對話與反詰》 (Dialogue & Rhetorical, 1992)
- 《週末四重奏》 (Weekend Quartet, 1999)
- 《夜游神》 (Nighthawk / Nocturnal Wanderer, 1999)
- 《八月雪》 (Snow in August, 2000)
Novels and Short Stories
- 《寒夜的星辰》 ("Constellation in a Cold Night", 1979)
- 《有隻鴿子叫紅唇兒》 ("Such a Pigeon called Red Lips", 1984) – a collection of novellas
- 《給我老爺買魚竿》 (Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather, 1986–1990) – a short story collection
- 《靈山》 (Soul Mountain, 1989)
- 《一個人的聖經》 (One Man's Bible, 1999)
Poetry
During the 1970s, when he was forced to work as a peasant, Gao Xingjian wrote many plays, stories, and poems. He had to burn them to avoid trouble. Later, he didn't publish many poetry collections, but one short poem shows his unique modern style.
Other Writings
- 《巴金在巴黎》 (Ba Jin in Paris, 1979, an essay)
- 《現代小說技巧初探》 ("A Preliminary Examination of Modern Fictional Techniques", 1981)
- 《沒有主義》 (Without -isms, 1995–96)
Paintings
Gao is also a talented painter, especially known for his ink and wash painting. He has had many exhibitions around the world.
- Le goût de l'encre, Paris, 2002
- Return to Painting, New York, 2002
- "無我之境·有我之境", Singapore, 2005–2006
- The End of the World, Germany, 2007
- Calling for A New Renaissance, Taiwan, 2016
- Solitude 幽居 - A Solo Exhibition by Gao Xingjian, iPreciation, Singapore, 2021
Gao Xingjian Center at National Taiwan Normal University
Gao Xingjian feels a strong connection to National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) in Taiwan. In 2008, he became an honorary professor there. In 2012, he became a chair professor, teaching courses at the Graduate Institute of Performing Arts. NTNU also gave him an honorary doctorate in literature in 2017.
Since 2012, NTNU has worked closely with Professor Gao on many projects. They organized events like "Encounter Gao Xingjian at NTNU" in 2012. In 2014, they showed his cinematic poem "Requiem for Beauty." Professor Gao also donated and opened the Xingjian Hall, a rehearsal room for the university.
Other events include the "Gao Xingjian Art Festival" in 2017, where his painting "The Thinker" was shown. In 2019, "Gao Xingjian Week" introduced courses about his literature and plays. Students at NTNU have performed many of his famous works, such as "Nocturnal Wanderer" (2012) and "Soul Mountain" (2016).
In 2020, to celebrate his 10 years as an NTNU professor, Gao donated many of his writings and books to the university. To help people study his works, NTNU created the Gao Xingjian Center. This center holds his writings and research materials. NTNU hopes to become a leading place for studying Gao Xingjian's works in the Chinese-speaking world.
Personal Life
Gao Xingjian is an atheist.
See also
In Spanish: Gao Xingjian para niños
- Chinese literature
- List of Nobel laureates in Literature
- List of Chinese writers
