Bulletin Spring‧Summer 2001

stage, and these hav e been performed repeatedly in mainland China, Ho ng Kong, Taiwan, Britain, the Un i t ed States, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Sweden, Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania, Japan, Australia, and African countries such a s the Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin, to mu ch critical acclaim. H e has been l i v i ng in France since 1990, where he occupies himself i n w r i t i ng and painting. On first reading the work s of Gao Xingjian , man y people w i l l be lost i n his innovative linguistic structure and mode of expression. As a matter of fact wha t one encounters is a language flow that is unique to the Chinese language. The Chinese language is very different f r om European languages. I t does no t have tense, it doe s not seek clarity , and there is no defined grammatical framework. I n the absence of a restrictive linguistic logic, the w r i t er is free to express himself. An y t h i n g that is expressed w i t h in a defined linguistic convention, that w h i ch is subject to an establishe d language structure, is supposed t o be 'processed', and an expression that is closer t o reality is wh a t is referred to as language flow. Language flow is a free mode of expressio n derived f r om the Chinese language structure. The writer w h o practises this mo de of expression creates a cold literature, b y w h i c h he seeks to deconstruct himself and v i ew the w o r l d i n a self-restrained, clear-minded, and extremely rational manner. He delineates the deepest and most concealed aspects of life, and ruthlessly uncovers the goodness and weaknesses of humanity for the reader or the audience. Whethe r i n drama, fiction, literary criticism or painting , Gao seeks to express himself i n this Zen- imbued, entirely individualistic way, this being a most thorough and pur e literary stance. Ling Shan (Soul Mountain), Mr. Gao's most representative wo r k , runs to some 700 pages and is totally differen t f r om the conventional novel. There are neither plo t nor episodes, and the characters do no t carry discernible characteristics. The author shows a skilful use of personal pronoun s to express variances i n the angle of perception: the book opens w i t h the self, the I; the second person, the you, is used for self-projection; th e third person, the he, is used for reflections. Behin d this complicated narrative mode lie r i c h contents w h i c h unreservedly explore, interpret and develop the uno r t hodox aspects of Chinese culture . Critics have said tha t 'the author's delineation of psychologica l activities invokes oriental contemplation and various types of mythical thoughts, and is effective i n both approaches. 'Mr. Gao's pure language an d mutative style also feature i n his other novel s such as Yigeren de shengjing (One Man's Bible), and stage works including Bi'an (The Other Shore), Mingcheng (Nether City), Shengsijie (Life and Death), Duihua yu fanjie (Dialogue and Rebuttal), and Shanhaijing zhuan (Story of the Classic of Mountains and Seas). Mr. Gao has his o w n special v i ews on the language of literature. He is p r o f o u n d ly learned i n traditional Chinese literature, having studied the ancient classics, including work s on philosophy, history or literature, from a very y oun g age. Wi th a solid classical background he deliberately chooses not to us e conventional allusions and parallelisms to ensure that his language is free f r o m cliches. He believes tha t wh i le it is not difficult to w r i te i n the traditional literar y style, i t is a challenge to write i n mo d e rn Chinese, i n wh i ch the feelings of the l i v i ng man have to be expressed in previousl y unattempted ways . A writer, tru e to form, mu st be able to carve out n ew paths for himself i n the realm o f creativity, as w h a t have been trodden before is too f u l l of his predecessors' footprints, and phraseology of a bygone age is no longer v i v i d and t o the point. It thus follows that the writer should not b u r y himself i n b r own paper manuscripts, but should seek genuine feelings experienced d u r i n g the course of hi s da i ly life. H i s true mettle is s h o wn w h e n he demonstrates a sensibility that transcends sensitivity, an achievement w h i ch requires the utmost effort. 41