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Henry Y.H. Zhao. Towards a Modern Zen Theatre: Gao Xingjian and Chinese Theatre Experimentalism London. School of Oriental & African Studies. 2000. x + 230 pages ISBN 0-7286-0317-9
MOST SCHOLARS of modern Chinese literature were pleasantly surprised when the news broke in October 2000 that Gao Xingjian had become the first Chinese writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. After all, Gao's award was an overdue recognition of a national literature that had long since cast off most of the Mao era's intellectual stultification. The surprise many scholars felt derived from the fact that Gao's early-to-mid-i98os fame within China had faded ever since he became an expatriate in 1987. Although Gao Xingjian continued to develop as a respected bilingual writer in France, he remained something of a dark-horse candidate for the Nobel Prize.
There was nothing surprising about the PRC...