Gao Xingjian

(born Jan. 4, 1940, Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, China) Chinese émigré novelist and playwright. His novel Soul Mountain (1989) resulted from a pilgrimage in the form of a 10-month walking tour along the Yangtze River. Gao's works were banned in China after the publication of his play Fugitives (1989), which reflected the 1989 events in Tiananmen Square. In 1987 he settled in France and later became a French citizen. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2000.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica