[close] Dai Sijie was born in China 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 C'est Pas Levée (Once On a Moonless Night), appeared in 2007.

L'accrobatie Aerienne de Confucius (The Aerial Acrobatics of Confucius) was released in 2008 [close]