Professor GAO Xingjian

Professor Gao Xingjian is a Renaissance man. Best known as the Nobel Laureate in Literature in the year 2000, he is a poet, novelist, playwright, screenwriter and librettist in both Chinese and French. He is also a painter, theatre director and filmmaker. Born in China and presently residing in Paris, he deftly navigates Eastern and Western philosophical and artistic traditions through a broad array of media.

Gao Xingjian is primarily known for his acclaimed novels Soul Mountain and One Man’s Bible, which have been translated into more than 30 languages. His oeuvre of plays is the most frequently translated and staged outside China, among the playwrights of Chinese descent. Professor Gilbert Fong, Dean of School of Translation at HSMC, is the designated English translator of Gao’s plays and films.

Gao has held more than thirty exhibitions around the world. In 2015, a retrospective exhibition was held at the Musee D’Ixelles, Brussels and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts Brussels acquired a work for their permanent collection.