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Gao Xingjian

Author of Soul Mountain

56+ Works 3,836 Members 72 Reviews 7 Favorited

About the Author

Xingjian Gao was born on January 4, 1940 in Ganzhou, China. As a child, he was encouraged to paint, write and play the violin, and at the age of 17, he attended the Beijing Foreign languages Institute, majoring in French and Literature. He is known as being at the fore of Chinese/French Literature, show more attempting to revolutionize Chinese literature and art. At the height of the Cultural Revolution, Gao destroyed all of his early work after being sent to the country for "rehabilitation." His "Preliminary Explorations Into the Techniques of Modern Fiction" caused serious debate in the Chinese literary world by challenging the social realism that was at the core of Chinese literature and art. The authorities condemned his work and Gao was placed under surveillance. He left China for Paris in 1987 and was honored by the French with the title of Chevalier de L'Ordere des Artes et des Lettres. None of Gao's plays have been performed in China since 1987, when "The Other Shore" had been banned. In 1989, Gao left the Communist party. After the publication of "Fugitives," which was about the reason he left the communist party, Gao was declared "persona noon grata" by the Chinese regime and all of his works banned. On October 12, 2000, Gao won the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first Chinese writer ever to do so. He is well known for his writing as well as his painting and has had exhibitions all over the world. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Disambiguation Notice:

(yid) VIAF:102266649

Works by Gao Xingjian

Soul Mountain (1990) 2,488 copies
One Man's Bible (2002) 648 copies
The Case for Literature (2000) 60 copies
The Other Shore (1999) 57 copies
Return to Painting (2002) 22 copies
Auf dem Meer. (2000) 11 copies
Fyra dramer (2001) 6 copies
Teatro y pensamiento (2008) 4 copies
Au bord de la vie (1993) 3 copies
Letteratura e ideologia (2012) 3 copies
De la création (2013) 3 copies
车站 (2001) 2 copies
論創作 (2008) 2 copies
沒有主義 (1996) 2 copies
Yalniz Bir Adamin Kitabi (2015) 2 copies
Dušna gora (2004) 1 copy
Au Plus près du réel (1998) 1 copy
˜La œfuite (1992) 1 copy
˜Le œsomnambule (1994) 1 copy
Contra los ismos (2007) 1 copy
Góra duszy 1 copy
Linh Sơn 1 copy
Ruh Dagi (2015) 1 copy
Absolute Signal (2009) 1 copy
L'Errance de l'oiseau (2003) 1 copy
Vingt-cinq ans après (2012) 1 copy
L'Ami (2012) 1 copy

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Reviews

All that needs to be said is that outside, a mist is enclosing the green-blue mountain in a haze and your heart is reverberating with the rushing water of a swift-flowing stream. (p.25)
 
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simonpockley | 37 other reviews | Feb 25, 2024 |
An unsuccessful experiment--for me anyway. He may have something to say, but this collection of six short stories left me unconvinced. In fairness, I only read five and a half. The first four simply didn’t amount to much: simple, straightforward stories, the point of which escaped me in every instance. I don’t mind that nothing much “happened.” I don’t need an intricate plot or story, though I will admit that I do enjoy a narrative of some sort. The first four stories provided that. However. I’m not especially good at delving deep into the structure or text in order to come up with its substance/meaning/significance. But these all require that to one degree or another. The fifth story I finally just gave up on. It lacked narrative, it lacked sense, and finally, even the structure fell apart. As I wrote elsewhere, I quit when I got to this: "'What is not to understand and 'what' is to understand or not is not to understand that even when 'what' is understood, it is not understood, for 'what' is to understand and 'what' is not to understand, 'what' is 'what' and 'is not' is 'is not,' and so is not to understand not wanting to understand or simply not understanding why 'what' needs to be understood or whether 'what' can be understood and also it is not understood whether 'what' is really not understood or that it simply hasn't been rendered so that it can be understood or is really understood..." and so on for another six lines. The prose in the first five stories is comprehensible even if not engaging. I am too lazy to bother with this. I don’t know whether he writes for readers to read or for himself. I will try Soul Mountain at some point, but at least I’ll have a notion of what to expect. I think.… (more)
½
 
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Gypsy_Boy | 16 other reviews | Aug 24, 2023 |
Soul Mountain won the nobel prize for literature, so naturally, I assumed I would be reading a great work of fiction. I was wrong. There's a sentence late in this "novel" in which Xingjian sums up his own thoughts about this book and it pretty much sums up my opinion of this book as well

"You've slapped together travel notes, moralistic ramblings, feelings, notes, jottings, untheoretical discussions, unfable-like fables, copied out some folk songs, added some legend-like nonsense of your own invention, and are calling it fiction."… (more)
 
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kevinkevbo | 37 other reviews | Jul 14, 2023 |
This is a very interesting book but definitely not an easy read. There is a lot of references to Chinese history and culture which are for non Chinese person hard to digest. It is also an interwoven narrative that drifts throughout in different directions. You need willpower to read it.
 
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peterwhumphreys | 37 other reviews | Jan 20, 2023 |

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Anne Sytske Keijser Translator, Editor
Mark Leenhouts Translator, Afterword, Editor
Mabel Lee Translator
Flip Chalfant Cover artist
Michel Hockx Translator
Göran Malmqvist Translator
Yu Hong Translator
Isabelle Vigier Cover designer
Jan De Meyer Translator
Vo Trung Dung Photographer
Göran Malmqvist Translator

Statistics

Works
56
Also by
1
Members
3,836
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Rating
½ 3.5
Reviews
72
ISBNs
220
Languages
19
Favorited
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