Gao Xingjian: Aesthetics and Creation

271 Pages·2012·0.8 MB·English

by  Xingjian Gao

Gao Xingjian
Aesthetics and Creation

G X
ao inGjian
A c
esthetics And reAtion
translated by
Mabel Lee
Cambria Sinophone World Series
General Editor: Victor H. Mair
Amherst, New York
Copyright 2012 Cambria Press
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Printed in the United States of America
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gao, Xingjian.
[Essays. English. Selections] Gao Xingjian: Aesthetics
and Creation / Gao Xingjian; translated by Mabel Lee.
pages cm – (Cambria Sinophone world series; series editor: Victor H. Mair)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60497-836-0 (alk. paper) 
  I. Lee, Mabel, translator. II. Title.
PL2869.O128A2 2013
895.1’352—dc23
2012043741
Table of Contents
Introduction by Mabel Lee................................................. vii
Chapter 1: The Position of the Writer...................................... 1
Chapter 2: The Art of Fiction............................................... 21
Chapter 3: The Potential of Theatre....................................... 41
Chapter 4: The Aesthetics of the Artist................................... 65
Chapter 5: Another Kind of Aesthetics.................................... 89
Chapter 6: Dramaturgical Method and the Neutral Actor............. 159
Chapter 7: Concerning Silhouette/Shadow............................... 179
Chapter 8: Environment and Literature.................................. 189
Chapter 9: Ideology and Literature....................................... 207
Chapter 10: After the Flood............................................... 221
Chapter 11: Freedom and Literature...................................... 227
References.................................................................... 237
Index.......................................................................... 241

Introduction
by Mabel Lee
Aesthetic Dimensions of
Gao Xingjian’s Fiction, Theatre,
Art, and Filmmaking
Born in 1940 during the Japanese invasion of republican China, Gao
Xingjian received his formal education under the People’s Republic of
China that was established on 1 October 1949. When the totalitarian
decade of the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 with the death of
Mao Zedong, Gao Xingjian was amongst a cohort of young unpub-
lished writers to suddenly rise to prominence. In his first book, Xiandai
xiaoshuo jiqiao chutan (A Preliminary Exploration into the Art of Modern
Fiction; Guangzhou: Huacheng, 1981) he drew on examples of the great
writings of China and Europe to support his claim that human qualities
should be restored to characters in literature. Whereas older Chinese
intellectuals were still reeling from the trauma of severe physical and
psychological abuse perpetrated against them for more than a decade,
Gao Xingjian had the audacity to criticise the hero or villain stereotypes
demanded of socialist-realist propaganda literature that was designed
viii Gao Xingjian Aesthetics and Creation
to educate the masses. The heroes were to provide exemplars for the
masses to imitate, and the villains were to teach the masses how to iden-
tify “criminal” behaviour in people, so that such people could be immedi-
ately reported to the authorities. The book earned him celebrity status in
intellectual circles, a status that was consolidated when his plays Juedui
xinhao (1982; tr. Absolute Signal, 1996) and Chezhan (1983; tr. The Bus
Stop, 1996; also tr. Bus Stop, 1998) were staged before wildly ecstatic audi-
ences at the People’s Art Theatre in Beijing.
The sensational staging of Absolute Signal was reported internation-
ally by foreign journalists who were in Beijing to observe the unfolding
of events as China emerged after many years of self-imposed isolation
from the rest of the world. However, though the Cultural Revolution
had ended, the custodians of China’s socialist-realist literary and art
traditions continued to wield power at the highest levels of the nation’s
cultural and propaganda infrastructure. In “Geri huanghua” (1991; tr.
“Wilted Chrysanthemums,” 2006) Gao recalled that in early 1983 he was
summoned to appear at writers’ rallies where he was denounced as the
“insignificant author” of a booklet that was causing young writers to
deviate from the nation’s socialist-realist traditions. A number of veteran
writers spoke out in his defence, and the meetings failed to achieve the
expected outcome. Thus emboldened, Gao went on to stage his second
play, Bus Stop, which was banned after the tenth performance. With
the passage of a few months, the arbiters of cultural policy had gained
the necessary backing at the top political echelons, and Gao Xingjian
heard from reliable sources that he was to be sent to some labour camp
in Qinghai Province for reeducation. He did not wait to be sent but
immediately fled Beijing, remaining away for several months until the
campaign had run its course and it was safe for him to return. His short-
story manuscripts, which had been shelved in the interim, were released
for publication. However, during the staging of his play Yeren (1985; tr.
Wild Man; 1990) at the People’s Art Theatre, actors were individually
cautioned against performing in any future Gao Xingjian productions. In
1986 his play Bi’an (1986; tr. The Other Shore, 1999) was stopped during
Introduction by Mabel Lee ix
rehearsals, and the publication of a collection of his short stories was
blocked. In Beijing the authorities continued to pursue a vendetta against
him, but at the same time his plays began to find audiences in Yugoslavia
(1984), England (1987), Hong Kong (1987), and Sweden (1987).
At the end of 1987 Gao relocated to Paris, where he began to work
feverishly to recoup the lost decades of his creative life. He found new
publishers in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and to date he has published a total
of seventeen plays, a large number of which have also been published
in other languages, including English, French, Swedish, Korean, and
Japanese, and have been staged in various countries on five continents.
Since 1992 he has personally directed several of his own plays, the most
ambitious being his grand opera Bayuexue (2000; tr. Snow in August,
2003), which involved Peking Opera performers, a symphony orchestra,
percussionists, and a choir; it was staged in Taipei in 2003 and in
Marseille in 2005. Also of note is that he directed the production of
his play Quatre quatuors pour un week-end (1998; tr. Weekend Quartet,
1999) at Comédie Français in 2003. Gao has seen the publication of his
autobiographical novels, Lingshan (1990; tr. Soul Mountain, 2000) and
Yige ren de shengjing (1999; tr. One Man’s Bible, 2002), that of his short-
story collection, Gei wo laoye mai yugan (1989; tr. Buying a Fishing Rod
for My Grandfather, 2004), and their publication in French, English, and
Swedish, as well as in numerous European and Asian languages, Arabic,
and a number of Indian languages. Gao’s artworks have also flourished,
and he has held fifty major solo exhibitions throughout Europe and in
various cities in Asia and the United States, the most recent being La
Fin du Monde (Ludwig Museum, Koblenz, 2007), Between Figurative and
Abstract (Snite Museum of Art, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, 2007),
Depois do dilúvio (Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Lisbon, 2008), and Gao
Xingjian (iPreciation Gallery, Singapore, 2010). His exhibitions have been
accompanied by the publication of catalogues. At present he is devoting
much of his time to innovative filmmaking, an ambition he harboured
since the early 1980s, when he was still in Beijing. His films Ceying huo
yingzi (Silhouette/Shadow, 2006) and Honghuang zhi hou (After the Flood,