Gao Xingjian: Aesthetics and Creation By Gao Xingjian

Each dynasty, political authority, or party will write history to suit its own self-interests, thereby confirming its power in the service of politics. The history written by political authorities follows the changes in political authority and is constantly revised. But there are forms of history that cannot be revised, and these are the creations of writers. This history is more truthful than the official history written by the authorities. Although fabricated, as long as the narrative deals with the true circumstances of human existence, the knowledge provided endures. The excellent literary works from ancient times to the present have not vanished with the passage of time but instead shine as crystals of human culture.

Literature differs from history in that it writes about the history of the individual and the history of the human soul, documenting an understanding of the world and of humankind itself: this understanding of the human world may be called consciousness. The self and human nature cannot be recreated by the individual, but the writer can document experiences, and this is the beginning of literature. In this domain, it should be said the writer enjoys limitless freedom.

However, this freedom is limited solely to what he or she writes, and if the writer surrenders this freedom to an authority in order to secure benefits—straps it to the war chariot of politics or sells it to the market by pandering to popular tastes and large sales—this freedom instantly vanishes.

The sort of writing that transcends profit is inherently unencumbered, and the imagination can race freely like the heavenly horse through the sky. Its value lies in whether it grasps the truth of human life because it is truth that is the most fundamental criterion of literature.

In modern and contemporary times political correctness has long since replaced ethical judgments. So-called political correctness is merely a sort of temporary equilibrium between the interests of authorities and powers in an actual social relationship at a given point in time. If the equilibrium tied to the comparative strength of the authority is destroyed,