Age, Biography and Wiki

Gao Xingjian was born on 4 January, 1940 in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China, is a Chinese novelist, critic, playwright and Nobel laureate. Discover Gao Xingjian's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is he in this year and how he spends money? Also learn how he earned most of networth at the age of 84 years old?

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Occupation Novelist playwright critic translator screenwriter director painter
Age 84 years old
Zodiac Sign Capricorn
Born 4 January, 1940
Birthday 4 January
Birthplace Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China
Nationality China

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 4 January. He is a member of famous Novelist with the age 84 years old group.

Gao Xingjian Height, Weight & Measurements

At 84 years old, Gao Xingjian height not available right now. We will update Gao Xingjian's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
Weight Not Available
Body Measurements Not Available
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Who Is Gao Xingjian's Wife?

His wife is Wang Xuejun (王学筠); divorced

Family
Parents Not Available
Wife Wang Xuejun (王学筠); divorced
Sibling Not Available
Children Not Available

Gao Xingjian Net Worth

His net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Gao Xingjian worth at the age of 84 years old? Gao Xingjian’s income source is mostly from being a successful Novelist. He is from China. We have estimated Gao Xingjian's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income Novelist

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Timeline

1940

Gao Xingjian (高行健 in Chinese; born January 4, 1940) is a Chinese émigré and later French naturalized novelist, playwright, critic, painter, photographer, film director, and translator who in 2000 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity."

He is also a noted translator (particularly of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco), screenwriter, stage director, and a celebrated painter.

Gao's drama is considered to be fundamentally absurdist in nature and avant-garde in his native China.

Born in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, during wartime China in 1940 (Gao's original paternal ancestral home town is in Taizhou, Jiangsu with his maternal roots from Zhejiang), his family returned to Nanjing with him following the aftermath of World War II.

1950

In 1950, his family moved to Nanjing.

1952

In 1952, Gao entered the Nanjing Number 10 Middle School (later renamed Jinling High School) which was the Middle School attached to Nanjing University.

1957

In 1957 Gao graduated, and, following his mother's advice, chose Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) instead of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, although he was thought to be talented in art.

1962

In 1962 Gao graduated from the Department of French, BFSU, and then he worked for the Chinese International Bookstore (中國國際書店).

1970

During the 1970s, because of the Down to the Countryside Movement, he was persecuted as a public intellectual, forced to destroy his early writings, and was sent to the countryside to do hard labor in Anhui Province for six years.

He taught as a Chinese teacher in Gangkou Middle School, Ningguo county, Anhui Province for a short time.

1975

In 1975, he was allowed to go back to Beijing and became the group leader of French translation for the magazine China Reconstructs (《中國建設》).

1977

In 1977 Gao worked for the Committee of Foreign Relationship, Chinese Association of Writers.

1979

In May 1979, he visited Paris with a group of Chinese writers including Ba Jin.

1980

In 1980, Gao became a screenwriter and playwright for the Beijing People's Art Theatre.

By the late 1980s, Gao had shifted to Bagnolet, a city adjacent to Paris, France.

1981

His book Preliminary Explorations Into the Art of Modern Fiction was published in September 1981 and reprinted in 1982, by which point several established writers had applauded it.

1982

Absolute Signal (1982) was a breakthrough in Chinese experimental theatre.

Gao is known as a pioneer of absurdist drama in China, where Signal Alarm (《絕對信號》, 1982) and Bus Stop (《車站》, 1983) were produced during his term as resident playwright at the Beijing People's Art Theatre from 1981 to 1987.

Influenced by European theatrical models, it gained him a reputation as an avant-garde writer.

The production of the former work (the title of which has also been translated as Absolute Signal) was considered a breakthrough and trend-setter in Chinese experimental theatre.

1983

The Bus Stop (1983) and The Other Shore (1986) had their productions halted by the Chinese government, with the acclaimed Wild Man (1985) the last work of his to be publicly performed in China.

1985

His plays Wild Man (1985) and The Other Shore (《彼岸》, 1986) openly criticised the government's state policies.

The rehearsal of the latter was ordered to stop after one month.

1986

In 1986 Gao was misdiagnosed with lung cancer, and he began a 10-month trek along the Yangtze, which resulted in his novel Soul Mountain (《靈山》).

1987

He left the country in 1987 and his plays from The Other Shore onward increasingly centered on universal (rather than Chinese) concerns, but his 1989 play Exile angered both the government for its depiction of China and the overseas democracy movement for its depiction of intellectuals.

Gao's influences include classical Chinese opera, folk culture, and 20th century European drama such as Antonin Artaud, and he said in 1987 that as a writer he could be placed at the meeting point between Western and Eastern cultures.

He is a very private person, however, and later claimed, "No matter whether it is in politics or literature, I do not believe in or belong to any party or school, and this includes nationalism and patriotism."

His prose works tend to be less celebrated in China but are highly regarded elsewhere in Europe and the West, with Soul Mountain singled out in the Nobel Prize announcement.

1989

His 1989 political drama Fugitives (also translated as Exile), about three people who escape to a disused warehouse after the tanks roll into Tiananmen Square on 4 June 1989, resulted in all his works being banned from performance in China and he was officially deemed persona non grata.

Selected works:

1990

The part-memoir, part-novel, first published in Taipei in 1990 and in English in 2000 by HarperCollins Australia, mixes literary genres and utilizes shifting narrative voices.

It has been specially cited by the Swedish Nobel committee as "one of those singular literary creations that seem impossible to compare with anything but themselves."

The book details his travels from Sichuan province to the coast, and life among Chinese minorities such as the Qiang, Miao, and Yi peoples on the fringes of Han Chinese civilization.

1992

In 1992 he was awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.

Gao's father was a clerk in the Bank of China, and his mother was a member of YMCA.

His mother was once a playactress of Anti-Japanese Theatre during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Under his mother's influence, Gao enjoyed painting, writing and theatre very much when he was a little boy.

During his middle school years, he read much translated literature from the West, and he studied sketching, ink and wash painting, oil painting and clay sculpture under the guidance of painter Yun Zongying.

1997

In 1997, he was granted French citizenship.

He has been a French national since 1997.