Nobel Prize winner Gao Xingjian's manuscripts on display in NTNU
Around 600 manuscripts and artworks donated by Gao Xingjian (高行健), Nobel Prize laureate in Literature in 2000, will be displayed from Wednesday to Dec. 18 at National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), according to the university.
The university, which has worked with Gao since 2012 to promote literature and hosts a resource center about the writer's work, said the exhibition highlights Gao's artistic achievements and friendship with NTNU.
The items on display include a manuscript of Gao's novel 'Buying a Fishing Rod for My Grandfather' and script 'Transition of Sheng-Sheng-Man,' according to the university in Taipei.
There are also notes, commentaries and paintings Gao produced during a journey to rural China in the 1980s -- which inspired his most renowned novel 'Soul Mountain,' published in 1990.
Expressing gratitude in a video message, Gao said he is looking to 'call for a new Renaissance,' the title of his latest book, encouraging independent thinking and creation beyond political or market motivations.
The 82-year-old French national of Chinese descent called the exhibition 'a wonderful review' of his career, adding that he views Taiwan, where 'Soul Mountain' was first published, as his hometown.
Thanks to Taiwan, the book, which was initially written amid tight censorship in China, was a success and later translated into multiple languages, Gao said.