WRITER

Gao Xingjian

1940 - Today

Photo of Gao Xingjian

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Gao Xingjian (Chinese: 高行健; born January 4, 1940) is a Chinese émigré and later French naturalized novelist, playwright, critic, painter, photographer, film director, and translator who in 2000 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for an oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity." He is also a noted translator (particularly of Samuel Beckett and Eugène Ionesco), screenwriter, stage director, and a celebrated painter. Gao's drama is considered to be fundamentally absurdist in nature and avant-garde in his native China. Absolute Signal (1982) was a breakthrough in Chinese experimental theatre. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Gao Xingjian has received more than 429,755 page views. His biography is available in 92 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 90 in 2019). Gao Xingjian is the 312th most popular writer (up from 335th in 2019), the 59th most popular biography from China (up from 69th in 2019) and the 4th most popular Chinese Writer.

Gao Xingjian is most famous for his Nobel Prize winning novel, "Soul Mountain."

Memorability Metrics

  • 430k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 70.05

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 92

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 10.22

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.13

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Gao Xingjian ranks 312 out of 7,302. Before him are Gabriele D'Annunzio, Appian, Antonin Artaud, Françoise Sagan, Ernst Jünger, and C. S. Lewis. After him are Roger Martin du Gard, Gertrude Stein, Guillaume de Machaut, Henri Charrière, Ludovico Ariosto, and Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1940, Gao Xingjian ranks 18. Before him are Nursultan Nazarbayev, J. M. G. Le Clézio, Qaboos bin Said al Said, Bartholomew I of Constantinople, Frank Zappa, and Wangari Maathai. After him are Muhammad Yunus, J. M. Coetzee, Carlos Slim, Joseph Brodsky, Michel Temer, and Saparmurat Niyazov.

Others Born in 1940

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In China

Among people born in China, Gao Xingjian ranks 59 out of 1,610. Before him are Jet Li (1963), Emperor Gaozu of Tang (566), Li Ching-Yuen (1677), Sima Yi (179), Li Si (-280), and Xiang Yu (-232). After him are Han Fei (-280), Xuande Emperor (1399), Guangxu Emperor (1871), Shang Yang (-390), Zhang Fei (167), and Jiang Qing (1914).

Others born in China

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Among WRITERS In China

Among writers born in China, Gao Xingjian ranks 4. Before him are Li Bai (701), Du Fu (712), and Lu Xun (1881). After him are Qu Yuan (-343), Luo Guanzhong (1330), Wu Cheng'en (1500), Kumārajīva (343), Bai Juyi (772), Mo Yan (1955), Faxian (340), and Su Shi (1037).

Chinese born Writers

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