Dai Sijie (born 2 March 1954) is a Chinese French author and

filmmaker Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

Early life

Dai was born in Putian, Fujian, in 1954. His parents, Professor Dai Baoding and Professor Hu Xiaoyu, were professors of medical sciences at West China University. He grew up extensively reading and thinking. Dai excels in many things, including being a skilled tailor. The Maoist government sent him to a re-education camp in rural Sichuan from 1971 to 1974 during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

. Though as the only child in the family, he would have been excused, he went there with the idea of undergoing the spartan training. Much of this experience was the source of his first book. After his return, he completed his professional certificate as a teacher. He briefly taught in the No. 16 High School of Chengdu upon his enrollment to the Department of History of Sichuan University in February 1978 (so-called 77 grader), where he studied art history.

Career

In 1984, Dai left China for France on a scholarship to study at the Instituted des haunts études cinématographiques. 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 mangier de lune'' (Moon Eater) and ''Tang, le onzième'' (The Eleventh Child). He also wrote and directed an adaptation of his novel, '' Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress'', released in 2002. He lives in Paris and writes in French. Dai's novel, ''Par une nuit où la lune ne s'est pas levée'' (Once on a Moonless Night), was published in 2007. ''L'acrobatie aérienne de Confucius'' (The Aerial Acrobatics of Confucius) was published in 2008.

Novels

Dai's first book, '' 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

(see

Down to the Countryside Movement The Up to the Mountains and Down to the Countryside Movement, often known simply as the Down to the Countryside Movement, was a policy instituted in the China, People's Republic of China between the mid-1950s and 1978. As a result of what he p ...

). They steal a suitcase filled with illegal Western classical novels from another man being re-educated and decide to enrich the seamstress's 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. Dai's second book, '' Le Complexe de Di'' (The Di Complex) won the

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French List of literary awards, literary prize awarded each year by an exclusively female jury. The prize, which was established in 1904, is awarded to French-language works written in prose or Verse (poetry), verse by male ...

in 2003. It recounts the travels of a Chinese man whose philosophy has been influenced by French psychoanalytic thought. The title is a play on "le complexe d'Oedipe", or "the

Oedipus complex In classical psychoanalytic theory, the Oedipus complex is a son's sexual attitude towards his mother and concomitant hostility toward his father, first formed during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. A daughter's attitude of desire ...

". The English translation (released in 2005) is titled ''Mr. Muo's Traveling Couch''.

Works

Books

* '' Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise)'' – 2000 * '' Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch (Le Complexe de Di)'' – 2003 (

) * ''Once on a Moonless Night (Par une nuit où la lune ne s'est pas levée)'' – 2007 * ''The Gospel According to Yong Sheng (L’Évangile selon Yong Sheng'') – 2019

Filmography as director

* '' China, My Sorrow (Chine, ma douleur)'' – 1989 (

Prix Jean Vigo The Prix Jean Vigo () is an award in the Cinema of France , French cinema given annually since 1951 to a French film director, in homage to Jean Vigo. Since 1960, the award has been given to both a director of a feature film and to a director of a ...

) * '' Moon Eater (Le mangeur de lune)'' – 1994 * '' The Eleventh Child (Tang le onzième)'' – 1998 * '' Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise)'' – 2002 * '' The Chinese Botanist's Daughters (Les filles du botaniste)'' – 2006 * '' Night Peacock (Le paon de nuit)'' – 2015

References

Citations

Sources

* "Dai Sijie." Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2011. Biography in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/H1000149472/BIC1?u=ivytech20&xid=4891c7a9. Accessed 16 Apr. 2017.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dai, Sijie 1954 births Living people People from Putian Sent-down youths 20th-century French novelists 21st-century French novelists Prix Femina winners Chinese emigrants to France Film directors from Fujian French film directors Screenwriters from Fujian Male screenwriters French male novelists Chinese film directors Chinese male novelists French-language writers from China Institut des hautes études cinématographiques alumni