Gao Xingjian 1940-
Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000, Gao introduced avant-garde ideas from European theatre, as well as the Theatre of the Absurd, to Chinese audiences. He studied French at university, and his first job was as a translator on the French-language edition of China Reconstructs. He spent five years in a cadre school during the Cultural Revolution and later worked as a translator in the Chinese Writers Association. He published his first novella in 1978. In 1981, he transferred to the People's Art Troupe as a writer, and has written many plays, of which the most famous is Chezhan [The Bus-stop]. He now lives in France. Many of his works have been translated into English, Swedish and French. He was honoured with the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 1992.
Works available in English:
Buying a fishing rod for my grandfather (Mabel Lee). London: Flamingo, 2004.
Escape & The Man Who Questions Death (Gilbert C. F. Fong). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2007.
Cold Literature (Gilbert C.F. Fong). Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2005.
One Man's Bible: a novel (Mabel Lee). New York: HarperCollins, 2002.
Snow in August (Gilbert C.F. Fong). Hong Kong: Chinese University Press, 2003.
Soul Mountain (Mabel Lee). Flamingo, 2000.
The Other Shore (Gilbert C.F. Fong). Hong Kong: The Chinese University
Press, 1999.
Studies and Biographies:
Sy Ren Quah, Gao Xingjian and transcultural Chinese theater. Honolulu: University of
Hawaii Press, 2004.
Kwok-kan Tam, Soul of chaos: critical perspectives on Gao Xingjian. Hong Kong:
The Chinese University Press, 2001.
Henry Y.H. Zhao, Towards a modern Zen theatre: Gao Xingjian and Chinese theatre
experimentalism. London: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2000.
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