Gao Xingjian’s 高行健&nbsp;2000 Nobel Prize win is a commonly cited example of the global&nbsp;literary market’s “technologies of recognition,” where the West acts as an “agent of&nbsp;recognition,” which recognizes the other according to its own standards, while the&nbsp;non-West is an “object of recognition,” that desires to be recognized. Rather than presuming the passivity of Gao’s reproduction of Western cultural dominance, I am more&nbsp;interested in exploring how he actively reconstructs Chinese culture with Orientalist&nbsp;elements. For example, Of Mountains and Seas (Shanhaijing zhuan 山海經傳 1989) and&nbsp;Snow in August (Bayuexue 八月雪 1997) are two plays which Gao completed in France&nbsp;and which appropriates ancient Chinese cultures. With reference to Gao’s “cold” (leng&nbsp;冷) theatrical techniques of suppositionality (jiadingxing 假定性) and tripartite acting&nbsp;(biaoyan de sanchongxing 表演的三重性), I argue that these two plays address feminist&nbsp;and religious limitations in ancient Chinese cultures by strategically appropriating Orientalist&nbsp;stereotypes in their portrayals of the Chinese mythology of Chang E escaping&nbsp;to the moon (Chang E benyue 嫦娥奔月) and Zen Buddhism respectively. Overall, this&nbsp;paper contributes a more nuanced understanding of Gao’s negotiations with Orientalism:Gao’s “escape” from Orientalism is less about the avoidance of Orientalism than atheatrical staging of Orientalism.

Gao Xingjian’s Escape from Orientalism PDF

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