2000 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 2000 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to Gao Xingjian. The prize was announced by the Swedish Academy in Stockholm on 12 October 2000.

The citation

The citation reads: "for an œuvre of universal validity, bitter insights and linguistic ingenuity, which has opened new paths for the Chinese novel and drama".

The laureate

Gao Xingjian was born in 1940 in Ganzhou, China.

Why it matters

Gao, who left China in 1987 and settled in France, is the first writer in Chinese to receive the prize. His best known novel, Soul Mountain, follows a journey through rural China.

The prize

The prize is worth 9 million Swedish kronor. It will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895.