Gao Xingjian’s Dialogue with Literary and Visual Traditions

The paper is devoted to the contemporary Chinese prose and drama writer, painter,stage director and author of experimental art films, Gao Xingjian. My aim is topresent his innovative solutions in the field of different arts and media. I try toanalyze his works in a broad context of Eastern and Western culture and to showthe flexibility with which he crosses the narrow borders of arts, makes use of therich heritage of his native traditional culture, Chinese Taoist philosophy with itsprocessual understanding of reality. I also point at his interest in the aesthetics ofemptiness and artistic minimalism.