Gao Xingjian

Gao Xingjian, born January 4, 1940 in Ganzhou (Jiangxi province) in eastern China, is today a French citizen. Writer of prose, translator, dramatist, director, critic and artist. Gao Xingjian grew up during the aftermath of the Japanese invasion, his father was a bank official and his mother an amateur actress who stimulated the young Gao's interest in the theatre and writing. He received his basic education in the schools of the People's Republic and took a degree in French in 1962 at the Department of Foreign Languages in Beijing. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) he was sent to a re-education camp and felt it necessary to burn a suitcase full of manuscripts. Not until 1979 could he publish his work and travel abroad, to France and Italy. During the period 1980-87 he published short stories, essays and dramas in literary magazines in China and also four books: Premier essai sur les techniques du roman moderne /A Preliminary Discussion of the Art of Modern Fiction (1981) which gave rise to a violent polemic on "modernism", the narrative A Pigeon Called Red Beak (1985), Collected Plays (1985) and In Search of a Modern Form of Dramatic Representation (1987). Several of his experimental and pioneering plays - inspired in part by Brecht, Artaud and Beckett - were produced at the Theatre of Popular Art in Beijing: his theatrical debut with Signal d'alarme /Signal Alarm (1982) was a tempestuous success, and the absurd drama which established his reputation Arrêt de bus /Bus Stop (1983) was condemned during the campaign against "intellectual pollution" (described by one eminent member of the party as the most pernicious piece of writing since the foundation of the People's Republic); L'Homme sauvage /Wild Man (1985) also gave rise to heated domestic polemic and international attention.

In 1986 L'autre rive/The Other Shore was banned and since then none of his plays have been performed in China. In order to avoid harassment he undertook a ten-month walking-tour of the forest and mountain regions of Sichuan Province, tracing the course of the Yangzi river from its source to the coast. In 1987 he left China and settled down a year later in Paris as a political refugee. After the massacre on the Square of Heavenly Peace in 1989 he left the Chinese Communist Party. After publication of La fuite /Fugitives, which takes place against the background of this massacre, he was declared persona non grata by the regime and his works were banned. In the summer of 1982, Gao Xingjian had already started working on his prodigious novel La Montagne de l'Âme /Soul Mountain, in which - by means of an odyssey in time and space through the Chinese countryside - he enacts an individual's search for roots, inner peace and liberty. This is supplemented by the more autobiographical Le Livre d'un homme seul /One Man's Bible.

A number of his works have been translated into various languages, and today several of his plays are being produced in various parts of the world. In Sweden he has been translated and introduced by Göran Malmqvist, and two of his plays (Summer Rain in Peking, Fugitives) have been performed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm.

Gao Xingjian paints in ink and has had some thirty international exhibitions and provides the cover illustrations for his own books.

Awards: The Nobel Prize in Literature 2000; Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 1992; Prix Communauté française de Belgique 1994 (for Le somnambule), Prix du Nouvel An chinois 1997 (for Soul Mountain).

From Nobel Lectures, Literature 1995-2000, Editor Horace Engdahl, World Scientific Publishing Co., Singapore, 2002.

Artists

Cast and Crew
Featuring: Doug Bowman, Juan Castaneda, Samantha Garcia, Letitia Guillaud, Irene Kapustina, Josh Johnson, Meghan M. Martinez, Nilsa Reyna, Meghann Tabor, Danny Taylor, Kristine Wakefield

Director: Jennifer Adams, Associate Artistic Director
Assistant Director: Jesus Contreras
Lighting and Sound Design: Tony Adams, Artistic Director
Costume Design: Emily Nelson

Photos

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•  

Reviews

RECOMMENDED

Chinese Nobel Laureate and political dissident Gao Xingjian’s 1986 play, “The Other Shore,” focuses on the quest for spiritual enlightenment as well as the necessary yet problematic connection that binds humans together. Halcyon Theatre Ensemble approaches the script with a committed enthusiasm and fluid pacing that keeps the movement-oriented piece clipping along.

“The Other Shore’s” series of vignettes demonstrate the constant struggle of the individual against the collective consciousness; the audience sees men and women chafe against society’s attitudes towards sex, peer pressure, government and faith. Clunky translations aside, the play effectively explores issues we clash with everyday.

Jenn Adams’ direction prevents the cast from indulging in “bad Godspell” insincerity that could drag the production down; Tony Adams’ lighting and sound design complements the stripped-down set. Ensemble standouts include Danny Taylor, Kristine Wakefield, Samantha Garcia and Irene Kapustina, who invest Gao’s bare-bones language with appealing humor and tenderness.--Lisa Buscani, New City Chicago

What Folks Had to Say

Everyone sees something different in The Other Shore.

"This is Beckett-ish, puzzling, causing astonishment, wonder, and will keep your eyes, ears and brains engaged for the entire 75 minutes. It's a WOW. Great energetic talented young cast." --Lynn B, Audience Member