Gao Xingjian

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  • The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 10.2.1.02: Chinese Writing and Culture: Modern and Contemporary, 1900-present.

Gao Xingjian is a novelist, dramatist, poet, and painter, perhaps most well known for his novel

Lingshan

[Soul Mountain] (1990); he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000. Gao has produced an extensive body of literature, including several short stories, over twenty-five plays, numerous essays, a number of translations, and two novels.

Born in 1940 in Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, Gao grew up in a prosperous and intellectual family. Gao's father was a senior bank official, and his mother graduated from a missionary school and later became an active member of a Christian Drama Troupe. Mostly through his mother, Gao became interested in European literature and drama, a passion that continued to develop throughout his life. These interests in Western art and writing further developed when

2065 words

Citation: Mather, Jeffrey. "Gao Xingjian". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 December 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12627, accessed 28 March 2024.]

12627 Gao Xingjian 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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