Dai Sijie
Chinese-French author, screenwriter and film director · China · On the map · Directors · Born 1954 · age 72
Dai Sijie is a Chinese French author and filmmaker living in France since 1984. He writes in French. His first novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, written in French, was a best seller and has been translated into more than 25 languages.
Dai Sijie is read about 66 times a day, in 19 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 6 November 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 104 days, one point a day.
Something wrong?A life in dates
Night PeacockFilm, Director, Writer2006
The Chinese Botanist's DaughtersFilm, Director, Writer2003Prix FeminaAward2002
Balzac and the Little Chinese SeamstressFilm, Director, Writer2000“What happened to her books?”“They went up in smoke. Confiscated by the Red Guards, who promptly burnt them in public, right in front of her apartment building.”In their wordsp. 54“Four-Eyes’s parents probably wanted their son to be a writer. They must have thought it would be good for him to read books, even if he had to do so in secret.”In their wordsp. 55“I hadn’t suspected that a tiny glimmer of hope for the future could transform someone so utterly.”In their wordsp. 82“I kept my door more securely locked than ever and passed the time with foreign novels.”In their wordsp. 116“I was carried away, swept along by the mighty stream of words pouring from the hundreds of pages.”In their wordsp. 117“She said she had learnt one thing from Balzac: that a woman’s beauty is a treasure beyond price.”In their wordsp. 197; closing wordsRoland de Jouvenel PrizeAward1998
The Eleventh ChildFilm, Director, Writer1994
Le Mangeur de luneFilm, Director, Writer1989
China, My SorrowFilm, Director1954Born2 March 1954People around Dai
Close ties
Liu Ye Dai directed Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2003)
Geneviève Fontanel Dai directed The Moon Eater (1994)
Catherine Hiegel Dai directed The Moon Eater (1994)
Zhou Xun Dai directed Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2003)
Leon Lai Dai directed Le Paon de Nuit (2015)
Mylène Jampanoï Dai directed The Chinese Botanist's Daughters (2007)
Chen Kun Dai directed Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2003)
Rufus Dai directed The Moon Eater (1994)
Li Xiaoran Dai directed The Chinese Botanist's Daughters (2007)
Phương Thanh Dai directed The Chinese Botanist's Daughters (2007)- Chick Ortega Dai directed The Moon Eater (1994)
Filmography 6
15 credits on file
Media & music
Photos 1
In their own words 3
, We had been so unlucky. By the time we had finally learnt to read properly, there had been nothing left for us to read.
Inside, piles of books shown in the light of our torch: a company of great Western writers welcomed us with open arms.
Every nook and cranny of the land came under the all-seeing eye of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which had cast its gigantic, fine-meshed net over the whole of China.
