SOURCE: Burckhardt, Olivier. “The Voice of One in the Wilderness.” Quadrant 44, no. 4 (April 2000): 54-7.

In the following essay, Burckhardt discusses Gao's plays in terms of the theme of self-exploration and the search for individual identity.

Occasionally there is an individual who has the courage not to represent, or identify with, any group whatsoever. Gao Xingjian has been described as the leading dramatist of avant-garde Chinese theatre; an author who has forged new paths in Chinese prose writing; and a painter of international repute. Although such descriptions aim to portray his activities in complimentary terms, they fail to grasp the individual. The paradox of course is with the nature of language whose primary function is to categorise—and once we have categorised we stop considering the individual as individual—but language is a supple medium, often a great deal more supple than our own thinking.

A writer-artist living in...