Timeline

1940

Born in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, China

1952 - 1957

Learned sketching, watercolor and oil painting at Nanjing 10th Secondary School

1957 - 1962

Wished to study art at the Central Academy in Beijing but his family persuaded him to study French at the Beijing Institute of Foreign Language

1962 - 1970

Worked as a translator while continuing to paint and to write novels in Beijing

1979

First publications of essays, short stories in literary reviews

1981

Published First Essay on the Techniques of the Modern Novel

1982

His play, Alarm Signal, was the start of experimental theatre in China

1983

Forbidden to publish and perform in China

1985

His play The Wild Man gives rise to a new debate. Invited by the DAAD (Germany) and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he spends eight months in EuropeHis first exhibition at the Berliner Kunsterhaus Bethanien was successful.

His first exhibition at the Berliner Kunsterhaus Bethanien was successful.

1986

The rehearsals of The Other Shore are suspended in Beijing before the play is even staged

1987

Invited by the Morat Institute for Kunst and Kunstwissenshaft and the French Ministry of Culture, he leaves China to settle in Paris

He pursues the writing of The Soul Mountain that he had started in China in 1982

1989

After the Tian An Men events, Gao finishes The Soul Mountain and writes the play Escape that gives rise to a total ban on the entirety of his works in China

He settles in France as political refugee

1990

His novel The Soul Mountain is published in Taiwan

1992

Awarded the title Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France

1994 - 2000

His plays are translated, published and performed internationally

1994

Awarded the French Community of Belgium Prize for his play

1997

Awarded Le Prix du Nouvel An Chinois for his novel la Montagne de l'âme

Granted French citizenship

1998

His novel One Man’s Bible is published in Taipei

2000

Awarded Nobel Prize for Literature for Soul Mountain and the Chevalier de la Légiond'Honneur

2001

Honorary doctorate degrees bestowed by Sun Yat-sen University in Taiwan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Aix-Marseille, Provence, France

2002

Awarded the Golden Plate Award by the American Academy of Achievement

Member on the editorial board of La Comédie Française

2003

Year of Gao in Marseille, France, featuring his painting, theatre, opera and cinema

Member of the Académie universelle des Cultures

2005

Honorary doctorate degree bestowed by the University of Taiwan

2006

Awarded Library Lions by the New York public library

Currently lives and works in Paris, France