Cultural Translation between the World and the Chinese: The Problematics in Positioning Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian

This article explores four problematics in positioning Gao Xingjian between ”world literature” and ”Chinese literature”: Gao Xingjian and cultural translation; Gao Xingjian and modern Chinese literature; Gao Xingjian and world literature; and Gao Xingjian and China's Nobel Prize complex. The article envisions Gao as a cultural translator who has migrated back and forth across linguistic and ethnic boundaries and has integrated diverse cultural elements in his ”modernist” writings. A discussion of the attack on the ”lack of creativity” in modern Chinese literature further situates Gao in a contact zone between languages and cultures. An investigation of labeling Gao's work as ”world literature with Chinese characteristics” entails revisiting the controversy surrounding the perceived ”translatability” of ”world poetry” and a consideration of the tripartite qualification for ”world literature.” Finally, the controversy among Chinese intellectuals around the world regarding Gao Xingjian's Nobel Prize award not only foregrounds the geo-cultural politics in the era of globalization but also sheds light on Gao Xingjian's dilemma of struggling between his claim to creativity, individuality, and transcendence on the one hand, and the demand of translatability and ”universality” in the contemporary cultural production and circulation of ”world literature” on the other.