Saturday 17 March, 2001
Gao Xingjian: Life As A Literature Laureate
One of China's best known dissidents, the writer and playwright, Gao Xingjian was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000. Gao, who left China in 1987, is the first Chinese Nobel literature laureate.
Prior to winning the award the writer lived in relative obscurity in Paris. In China his work has been banned since 1989, the award consequently has divided the Chinese community.
The criticism comes as no surprise to the writer who has faced disapproval throughout his career. On a recent trip to London, Gao talked to Chen Li of the Mandarin China Reel programme about life after the award.
Symbol Status
A telephone call on 12th October 2000 changed Gao Xingjian's life forever. The call from the Nobel Prize Committee for Literature confirmed that he had become the first Chinese writer ever to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. The committee awarded the prize 'for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama.'
Since then he has been under constant bombardment from the media. He has given hundreds of interviews and answered thousands of questions. In his words he has become 'a society person'; a role that he would rather not play:
'I've had to fly all over the world, with the media at my back. This is not the role I've intended to take on.'
'To some extent, I'm disappearing as a person and becoming a symbol. Of course this symbol is what a lot of Chinese people have been wishing for. People see it as an affirmation of Chinese writers or Chinese literature, or of the Chinese people.'
Dissident Writer
Gao Xingjian was born in the Jiangxi province of Eastern China. Born to a banker father and an amateur actress mother, he grew up in the aftermath of the Japanese invasion of China, but moved to Paris in 1987 and became a French citizen in 1998.
Gao has written 18 plays, four non-fiction titles and five novels. He has introduced avant-garde ideas from European theatre to Chinese audiences.
Writing numerous plays in Chinese, his play entitled Bus Stop was banned in China in 1983 – a government official described it as 'the most poisonous play written since 1949.' In contrast Gao believes Bus Stop to be:
'a comedy, but if people don't have this sense of humour, then it becomes an extremely serious matter, to the extent that the writer should be beaten up, killed, or sent to a labour camp.'
| 'If you put literature on to some sort of combat footing, and turn it into combat literature, then it's the very thing I oppose.' | |
During the Cultural Revolution of 1966 – 1976, Gao had to destroy all his early writing – a trunk full of manuscripts, articles and 15 plays - and was sent to the country for 'rehabilitation'.
He was not able to publish or travel abroad until 1979. Believing his work to be politically motivated, in 1986 his work The Other Shore was banned by the Chinese authorities and his plays have not been performed in China since.
Exile
In 1987 he moved to Paris and sought asylum as a political refugee. He became a French citizen in 1998.
Since his exile he has tried to distance himself from his experiences in China, but winning the award has inevitably led him once again to deal with his critics:
'This sort of criticism is really more or less the same as the cultural policy of China in those days; that's to say it puts the writer into a… if not a political quagmire, then at least a situation that has no way out.'
'In other words, whatever the angle, literature must be subordinate to politics, or be under the control of politics. This is precisely what I have been working hard to break away from. My view is the very opposite. Literature is higher than politics, if not actually above politics.'
Chinese Writer
Gao Xingjian's best-known work is Soul Mountain. Over 81 chapters he portrays an individual's search for roots, inner peace and liberty via an odyssey in time and space through the Chinese countryside.
However after winning the prize the first thing noted by both the western press and the Chinese language press was not the 'linguistic ingenuity', for which the Swedish Academy praised it, but that Gao Xingjian is a Chinese writer and that he writes in Chinese. Something that Gao knows there is no getting away from:
'Of course first and foremost I was born Chinese and I write in Chinese. I don't think there's any need to evade this…to a writer, as to a person, what matters is not his political label or his nationality, but whether he is a person, and whether his work is worth looking at. What needs affirming is a person's self-worth. That's my firm belief.'
Nothingism
In his 1996 writings on 'Nothingism', Gao Xingjian said that he wished to be a 'nothingist'. He did not wish to be fettered with ideology, but be completely free as a writer.
As China is still a totalitarian state, and the West is still dictated and driven by the market, does he believe that is it possible to be a genuinely free intellectual or writer?
'I'm afraid it's hard. A writer has to fully defend his rights and his own worth … Homogenization poses an inherent threat to individuality because it subsumes the worth of the individual. So that in art, market value and fashion overrides the unique quality and individuality of the work.'
'When fashion sweeps in, artists follow suit. I think this is the malady of contemporary art.'
'It takes a tremendous effort for an artist to have a voice and make his mark. That's why I am trying so hard to champion what appears to be a thankless cause. But if I don't do it, if I don't throw down the gauntlet, if I don't raise my voice, then, to put it rather eloquently, the individual will be drowned out by the rolling tides of the times!'
|
 |
 |
|
| Life At A Glance |
 |
|
|
1940 Born 4th January in Ganzhou, Eastern China.
1962 Graduated from French Department of Foreign Languages Institute, Beijing.
1962 Became a member of the communist party, renounced his party membership in 1989 following Tiananmen Square.
1966-76 Sent to re-education camp during The Cultural Revolution.
1982 Diagnosed with lung cancer. After two weeks of quigong (Taoist exercise) doctors were amazed when the tumour disappeared.
1983 Spent 6 months walking 9,300 miles in the Yangtze Valley.
1986 The Other Shore banned by the Chinese authorities. His plays have not been performed in China since.
1987 Moved to Paris and sought asylum as a political refugee. He became a French citizen in 1998.
1989 Completed Soul Mountain.
1992 Named a Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.
2000 Wins the Nobel Prize for Literature. |
|
 |
|
|
|
| Words Of Wisdom |
 |
|
|
Gao Xingjian on love:
'I couldn't live without love because the world is so horrible.'
On religion:
'I may not believe in ghosts, but I have reverence for what can't be known.'
On winning the Nobel Prize For Literature:
'Before I had order with my work, now everything is in chaos.' |
|
|
|
