After the 1989 June Fourth incident, writer Gao Xingjian publicly announced his withdrawal from the Chinese Communist Party and declared that he would never return to mainland China; he subsequently settled in France and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2000.
After traveling abroad for activities, Gao Xingjian once returned to China, but upon learning that he might be reassigned to a cultural department in a remote area, he chose to stay in France and called France his home.
Gao Xingjian's plays, such as "Absolute Signal" and "The Station," were criticized during the Campaign to Clear Spiritual Pollution and were accused of being vestiges of bourgeois style.
US diplomats once attempted to invite Gao Xingjian abroad through various means, such as French drama festivals, German book fairs, and US art exhibitions, but were repeatedly denied approval because he did not belong to the relevant associations.