Cold Literature: Selected Works

Bilingual Series in Modern Chinese Literature

by Xingjian Gao, Gilbert C.F. Fong (Translator), Mabel Lee (Translator)

Gao Xingjian is the first Chinese Nobel Laureate in Literature. The Swedish Academy summarized his achievements as "An oeuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chines novel and drama." The collection, which aims to present the diversity of Gao's literary talents, contains the highlights of his essays, stories, plays and poems.

500 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Old Man JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very eclectic and philosophical book that includes essays and parts of other novels and works he's written. The book begins with his Nobel speech where he discusses his philosophy of writing and Chinese writing in particular and how much of it was lost during the Cultural Revolution. He has an essay on "isms" in which he says that followers give up their own freedom of thought and that intellectual freedom can only be attained without "isms". In another essay he discusses literature and compares how science uses logic and facts whereas literature can create something out of nothing. The last half of the book has excerpts from his novels, plays and poems. An entertaining read that is very heavily philosophical about the art of writing and it's necessity.

[欠生 · Rating 5 out of 5]

去年年初读过的书。震撼，里面有几段让似曾相似感扑面而来