Gao Xingjian, Date of Birth, Place of Birth

Gao Xingjian

Chinese novelist and playwright

Date of Birth: 04-Jan-1940

Place of Birth: Ganzhou, Jiangxi, China

Profession: writer, playwright, translator, painter, film director, literary critic, novelist

Nationality: France, China

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

Gao Xingjian (born January 4, 1940) is a Chinese émigré novelist, playwright, and critic who in 2000 was awarded the Nobel Prize for 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.
In 1998, Gao was granted French citizenship. Gao's drama is considered to be fundamentally absurdist in nature and avant-garde in his native China.
His prose works tend to be less celebrated in China but are highly regarded elsewhere in Europe and the West.