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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of the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 with the death of Mao Zedong, Gao Xingjian was amongst a cohort of young unpublished writers to suddenly rise to prominence.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 to educate the