SOURCE: Ruark, Jennifer K. “Hot Type.” Chronicle of Higher Education 47, no. 15 (8 December 2000): A18.

In the following essay, Ruark assesses the publishing history of Gao's works in English translation.

Hard to Get

American readers looking for books by Gao Xingjian, this year's Nobel laureate in literature, may have wondered if they were banned in the United States as well as in China. Until this week, only one volume of his works was available: a collection of plays titled The Other Shore.

The Swedish Academy singled out Mr. Gao's novel Soul Mountain for praise when it announced the prize in October, but publicists at HarperCollins in New York were bewildered when they started getting phone calls asking for copies. It turned out the book, translated by Mabel Lee, was published by the press's Australian branch. The New York office rushed an American edition into print that at press time was...