Dai Sijie
Encyclopedia
Dai Sijie is a French author
and filmmaker of Chinese
ancestry.
in 1954. Because he came from an educated middle-class family, the Maoist government sent him to a reeducation camp in rural Sichuan
from 1971 to 1974, during the Cultural Revolution
. After his return, he was able to complete high school and university, where he studied art history. In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship. There, he acquired a passion for movies and became a director. Before turning to writing, he made three critically acclaimed feature-length films: China, My Sorrow (1989) (original title: Chine, ma douleur), Le mangeur de lune and Tang, le onzième. He also wrote and directed an adaptation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
, released in 2002. He lives in Paris and writes in French.
A new novel, Par une nuit où la lune ne s'est pas levée (Once on a moonless night), appeared in 2007.
L'acrobatie aérienne de Confucius was released in 2008.
(see Down to the Countryside Movement
). They steal a suitcase filled with classic Western novels from another man being reeducated, and decide to enrich the seamstress' life by exposing her to great literature. These novels also serve to sustain the two companions during this difficult time. The story principally deals with the cultural universality of great literature and its redeeming power. The novel has been translated into twenty-five languages, and finally into his mother tongue after the movie adaptation.
His second book, Le Complexe de Di
won the Prix Femina
for 2003. It recounts the travels of a Chinese man whose philosophy has been influenced by French psychoanalyst thought. The title is a play on "le complexe d'Oedipe", or "the Oedipus complex
". The English translation (released in 2005) is titled Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and filmmaker of Chinese
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
ancestry.
Biography
Dai Sijie was born in ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
in 1954. Because he came from an educated middle-class family, the Maoist government sent him to a reeducation camp in rural Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
from 1971 to 1974, during the Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
. After his return, he was able to complete high school and university, where he studied art history. In 1984, he left China for France on a scholarship. There, he acquired a passion for movies and became a director. Before turning to writing, he made three critically acclaimed feature-length films: China, My Sorrow (1989) (original title: Chine, ma douleur), Le mangeur de lune and Tang, le onzième. He also wrote and directed an adaptation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a semi-autobiographical novel written by Dai Sijie, and published in 2000 in French and in English in 2001. It is the author's first published novel. Its original French title is Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise...
, released in 2002. He lives in Paris and writes in French.
A new novel, Par une nuit où la lune ne s'est pas levée (Once on a moonless night), appeared in 2007.
L'acrobatie aérienne de Confucius was released in 2008.
Novels
His first book, the semi-autobiographical Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) (2000), was made into a movie, in 2002, which he himself adapted and directed. It recounts the story of a pair of friends who become good friends with a local seamstress while spending time in a countryside village, where they have been sent for 're-education' during the Cultural RevolutionCultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
(see Down to the Countryside Movement
Down to the Countryside Movement
The Down to the Countryside Movement was a policy instituted in the People's Republic of China in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a result of the anti-bourgeois thinking prevalent during the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong declared certain privileged urban youth would be sent to mountainous...
). They steal a suitcase filled with classic Western novels from another man being reeducated, and decide to enrich the seamstress' life by exposing her to great literature. These novels also serve to sustain the two companions during this difficult time. The story principally deals with the cultural universality of great literature and its redeeming power. The novel has been translated into twenty-five languages, and finally into his mother tongue after the movie adaptation.
His second book, Le Complexe de Di
Le Complexe de Di
Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch is a novel by Dai Sijie published in 2003. The French title of the novel is a play on "le complexe d'Oedipe", or "the Oedipus complex". The novel was translated into English in 2005 by Ina Rilke under the name Mr...
won the Prix Femina
Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...
for 2003. It recounts the travels of a Chinese man whose philosophy has been influenced by French psychoanalyst thought. The title is a play on "le complexe d'Oedipe", or "the Oedipus complex
Oedipus complex
In psychoanalytic theory, the term Oedipus complex denotes the emotions and ideas that the mind keeps in the unconscious, via dynamic repression, that concentrate upon a boy’s desire to sexually possess his mother, and kill his father...
". The English translation (released in 2005) is titled Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch.
Books by Dai Sijie
- Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) (2000)
- Le Complexe de DiLe Complexe de DiMr. Muo's Travelling Couch is a novel by Dai Sijie published in 2003. The French title of the novel is a play on "le complexe d'Oedipe", or "the Oedipus complex". The novel was translated into English in 2005 by Ina Rilke under the name Mr...
(Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch) (2003) (Prix FeminaPrix FeminaThe Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...
) - Par une nuit où la lune ne s'est pas levée, 2007
Filmography as director
- Les filles du botanisteLes Filles du BotanisteLes filles du botaniste is a French and Canadian film, with the background set as in China. It was released in 2006...
(The Chinese botanist's daughters) (2006) - Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoiseBalzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (film)Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress is a 2002 Franco-Chinese romance drama film with dialogue in the Sichuan dialect directed by Dai Sijie and starring Zhou Xun, Chen Kun and Liu Ye...
(Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) (2002) (France) - Tang le onzième (The eleventh child) (1998) (France)
- Le Mangeur de lune (1994)
- Chine, ma douleur (China, my sorrow) (1989) (Prix Jean VigoPrix Jean VigoThe Prix Jean Vigo is an award in the Cinema of France given annually since 1951 to a French film director in homage to Jean Vigo. It was founded by French writer Claude...
)