When news spread in 2000 of Xingjian being awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, China quickly responded negatively. "This shows that the Nobel Prize for Literature has virtually been used for political purposes and thus has lost its authority," the then director of the Chinese Writers' Association declared in the online edition of the People's Daily. He further commented that "China boasts many world-famous literary works and writers, about which the Nobel Committee knows little." China's Foreign Ministry also called the award a political maneuver the nation took no pride in.

While most other commentators around the world praised Xingjian for his brave dissident status, the fact was that most Westerners—and most Chinese—had never heard of Gao Xingjian. True, he had received several awards in France, where Xingjian had been living in exile since 1987, and most of his major works had been translated into English...