Gao Xingjian and Transcultural Chinese Theater

Quah Sy Ren, Gao Xingjian and Transcultural Chinese Theater (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2004).

A reclusive painter living in exile in Paris, Gao Xingjian found himself instantly famous when he became the first Chinese language writer to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature (2000). The author of the novel Soul Mountain, Gao is best known in his native country not as a visual artist or novelist, but as a playwright and theater director. Sy Ren Quah’s rich account appraises his contributions to contemporary Chinese and World Theater over the past two decades.

Reviews:

a. Claire Conceison, Theatre Journal 57.3 (2005), pp. 534-5: “In this reviewer’s opinion, it is the best overall study of Gao, inclusive of his personal background, his status as a transnational exile, and his dramaturgy and dramatic theory.”

b. Rossella Ferrari , Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 68.2 (2005), pp. 333-5: “It offers stimulating insights about the playwright’s dramatic and theoretical production, as well as on China’s recent artistic and cultural developments, thus constituting a valuable contribution not only to the field of Chinese studies but also to Theatre studies in general.”

c. Gilbert Fong, China Journal 54 (2005), pp. 177-9: “Lucid yet erudite, it is the best treatment of [Gao’s] dramaturgy to date.”

d. Alexander C. Y. Huang, Asian Theatre Journal 23.1 (2006), pp. 213-214: “… an important contribution to the fields of transcultural theater and Chinese drama.”

e. Colin Mackerras, Asian Studies Review 30.1 (2006), pp. 94-6: “… Sy Ren Quah has done a truly excellent job in this book. He has contributed to the theory of theater and literature more generally with his penetrating analyses of the integration of East and West… Sy Ren Quah’s book is so far much the best and most authoritative study about Gao.”