Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 10:13:38 -0600 (MDT)
From: YAN HAIPING <yan-AT-spot.Colorado.EDU>
Subject: Re: China's Gao Xingjian Wins Nobel Literature Prize (2)



An anthology titled _Theatre and Society: An Anthology of Contemporary
Chinese Drama_, ed. & intro. by Haiping Yan (University of Colorado at
Boulder), published by M.E.Sharpe in 1998, contains a comlete and well
annotated translation of Gao Xingjian's seminal play _Bus Stop_. Yan's
introduction offers a historically and socially contextualized long
discussion of Gao's work in China.

On Sat, 14 Oct 2000, Thomas Palakeel wrote:

> Muhammed,
> 
> Almost nothing of Gao Xingjiang is available in the great United States where
> all
> subversive ideas and all the tortured and the damned are welcomed. The only
> book
> I could find on Amazon.com, they need several weeks to locate for us and ship.
> 
> That's an interesting part of the story. And of course, the press pretty much
> ignored the event, too.
> 
> 
> Thomas Palakeel
> 
> Muhammad Deeb wrote:
> 
> > 12 October 2000
> >
> > The Nobel Prize for Literature 2000
> >
> > Gao Xingjian
> >
> > The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2000 goes to the Chinese writer Gao
> > Xingjian for an ouvre of universal validity, bitter insights and
> > linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and
> > drama.
> >
> > In the writing of Gao Xingjian literature is born anew from the struggle
> > of the individual to survive the history of the masses. He is a
> > perspicacious sceptic who makes no claim to be able to explain the world.
> > He asserts that he has found freedom only in writing.
> >
> > His great novel Soul Mountain is one of those singular literary creations
> > that seem impossible to compare with anything but themselves. It is based
> > on impressions from journeys in remote districts in southern and
> > south-western China, where shamanistic customs still linger on, where
> > ballads and tall stories about bandits are recounted as the truth and
> > where it is possible to come across exponents of age-old Daoist wisdom.
> >
> > The book is a tapestry of narratives with several protagonists who reflect
> > each other and may represent aspects of one and the same ego. With his
> > unrestrained use of personal pronouns Gao creates lightning shifts of
> > perspective and compels the reader to question all confidences. This
> > approach derives from his dramas, which often require actors to assume a
> > role and at the same time describe it from the outside. I, you and he/she
> > become the names of fluctuating inner distances.
> >
> > Soul Mountain is a novel of a pilgrimage made by the protagonist to
> > himself and a journey along the reflective surface that divides fiction
> > from life, imagination from memory. The discussion of the problem of
> > knowledge increasingly takes the form of a rehearsal of freedom from goals
> > and meaning. Through its polyphony, its blend of genres and the scrutiny
> > that the act of writing subjects itself to, the book recalls German
> > Romanticisms magnificent concept of a universal poetry.
> >
> > Gao Xingjian's second novel, One Man's Bible, fulfils the themes of Soul
> > Mountain but is easier to grasp. The core of the book involves settling
> > the score with the terrifying insanity that is usually referred to as
> > China's Cultural Revolution. With ruthless candour the author accounts for
> > his experiences as a political activist, victim and outside observer, one
> > after the other. His description could have resulted in the dissident's
> > embodiment of morality but he rejects this stance and refuses to redeem
> > anyone else. Gao Xingjian's writing is free of any kind of complaisance,
> > even to good will. His play Fugitives irritated the democracy movement
> > just as much as those in power.
> >
> > Gao Xingjian points out himself the significance for his plays of the
> > non-naturalistic trends in Western drama, naming Artaud, Brecht, Beckett
> > and Kantor. However, it has been equally important for him to open the
> > flow of sources from popular drama. When he created a Chinese oral
> > theatre, he adopted elements from ancient masked drama, shadow plays and
> > the dancing, singing and drumming traditions. He has embraced the
> > possibility of moving freely in time and space on the stage with the help
> > of one single gesture or word - as in Chinese opera. The uninhibited
> > mutations and grotesque symbolic language of dreams interrupt the distinct
> > images of contemporary humanity. Erotic themes give his texts feverish
> > excitement, and many of them have the choreography of seduction as their
> > basic pattern. In this way he is one of the few male writers who gives the
> > same weight to the truth of women as to his own.
> >
> > Biobibliographical notes:
> >
> > 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 Gaos interest in the theatre and
> > writing. He received his basic education in the schools of the Peoples
> > Republic and took a degree in French in 1962 at the Department of Foreign
> > Languages in Beijing.
> >
> > During the Cultural Revolution (196676) 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 198087 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 Arrt 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'ame / Soul Mountain in which - by means
> > of an odyssey in time and space through the Chinese countryside - he
> > enacts an individuals search for roots, inner peace and liberty. This is
> > supplemented by the more autobiographical Le Livre dun homme seul / One
> > Mans 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
> > Gran 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:  Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 1992; Prix
> > Communaut franaise de Belgique 1994 (for Le somnambule), Prix du Nouvel
> > An chinois 1997 (for Soul Mountain).
> >
> > A selection of works by Gao Xingjian in English:
> >
> > Wild Man : A Contemporary Chinese Spoken Drama / transl. and annotated by
> > Bruno Roubicek // Asian Theatre Journal. Vol. 7, Nr 2. Fall 1990.
> >
> > Fugitives / transl. by Gregory B. Lee // Lee, Gregory B., Chinese Writing
> > and Exile.  Central Chinese Studies of the Universtity of Chicago, 1993.
> >
> > The Other Shore : Plays by Gao Xingjian / transl. by Gilbert C.F. Fong.
> > Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1999.
> >
> > Soul Mountain / transl. by Mabel Lee.  HarperCollins, 1999. One Mans
> > Bible.  [In transl. by Mabel Lee.]
> >
> > Contemporary Technique and National Character in Fiction / transl. by Ng
> > Mau-sang.  [Extract from A Preliminary Discussion of the Art of Modern
> > Fiction, 1981]
> >
> > The Voice of the Individual // Stockholm Journal of East Asian Studies 6,
> > 1995.
> >
> > Without isms / transl. by W. Lau, D. Sauviat & M. Williams // Journal of
> > the Oriental Society of Australia. Vols 27 & 28, 199596.
> >
> > Literature:
> >
> > Trees on the Mountain : an Anthology of New Chinese Writing / ed. by
> > Stephen C. Soong and John Minford.  Hong Kong: The Chinese U.P., cop. 1984.
> >
> > Gao Xingjian, le moderniste // La Chine aujourdhui No 41, septembre 1986.
> >
> > Basting, Monica, Yeren : Tradition und Avantgarde in Gao Xingjians
> > Theaterstck Die Wilden.  Bochum : Brockmeyer, 1988.
> >
> > Lodn, Torbjrn, World Literature with Chinese Characteristics : On a Novel
> > by Gao Xingjian // Stockholm Journal of East Asian Studies 4, 1993.
> >
> > Lee, Gregory B., Chinese Writing and Exile.  Central Chinese Studies of
> > the Universtity of Chicago, 1993.
> >
> > Lee, Mabel, Without Politics: Gao Xingjian on Literary Creation //
> > Stockholm Journal of East Asian Studies 6, 1995.
> >
> > Lee, Mabel, Pronouns as Protagonists : Gao Xingjians Lingshan as
> > Autobiography // Colloquium of the Sydney Society of Literature and
> > Aesthetics at the Univ. of Sydney. Draft paper the 34 Oct. 1996.
> >
> > Lee, Mabel, Personal Freedom in Twentieth-Century China: Reclaiming the
> > Self in Yang Lians Yi and Gao Xingjians Lingshan // History, Literature
> > and Society.  Sydney: Sydney Studies in Society and Culture 15, 1996.
> >
> > Au plus prs du rel : dialogues sur l'ecriture 19941997, entretiens avec
> > Denis Bourgeois / trad. par Nol et Liliane Dutrait.  La Tour d'Aigues:
> > l'Aube, 1997.
> >
> > Lee, Mabel, Gao Xingjian's Lingshan / Soul Mountain : Modernism and the
> > Chinese Writer // Heat 4, 1997.
> >
> > Calvet, Robert, Gao Xingjian, le peintre de lme // Brves No 56, hiver 1999.
> >
> > Zhao, Henry Y.H., Towards a Modern Zen Theatre :Gao Xingian and Chinese
> > Theatre Experimentalism.  London: School of Oriental and African Studies,
> > 2000.
> >
> > The Swedish Academy
> >
> > http://www.svenskaakademien.se/literat_en00.html
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------
> >
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