Xu Xing, a famous Chinese writer, cultural scholar, independent documentary director and modern ink painter. His debut novel Variations Without a Theme in July 1985 by People's Literature, which is regarded as a landmark work of Chinese contemporary literature from tradition to modernity.
After graduating from high school in 1975, Xu Xing went to Zhidan county in northern Shan'xi province to jump the queue of working in countryside. He joined the army in 1977 and served in the 21st Corps of Lanzhou Military Region.
In 1981 Xu Xing returned to Beijing after demobilizing from the army. Within six months, he wrote his novel Variations Without a Theme.
The novella Variations Without a Theme was not published until 1985, which aroused a great response and became one of the representatives of "avant-garde novels" in China. The emergence of avant-garde novelists in those years made novel writing take on a brand new form. It made literary discourse greatly break through the narrative and description functions of traditional literary language and created new emotional expression and metaphorical symbolic functions, giving a shock to traditional realistic literary concepts.
Variations Without a Theme won the best short story award at Peking University Student Art Festival in 1989. Later, he published the novellas The Story of A City and Hungry Mice . Short stories, The City That Has Lost Its Song , How Did I Go Mad , Love Story , Help , Martyr, Don't Cry At the Crossing etc.; The plays, The Story of a King and a Horse and How a Play was Finished... ; the novel All that Left is Yours as well as the collection of novels, Variations Without a Theme .
In 1989, Xu Xing accepted the invitation of Berlin University of the Arts and left China to live in Germany temporarily as a visiting scholar at the university of Heidelberg. In Heidelberg, he helped resume the publication of Today, the most influential overseas Chinese literary magazine. In the same year, he won the Swedish Kult Tucholsky Prize from Pen Sweden.
Later, Xu Xing accepted the invitation of Heinrich Boer foundation and lived in Boer's home for writing. Meanwhile, he participated in Heidelberg overseas Chinese literature conference.
After returning to China from Federal Republic of Germany, Xu Xing was selected as one of 240 outstanding novelists in the world by France nouvel observateur.
In five years between 1991 and 1996 Xu Xing completed the novel All that Left is Yours .
Since 2002, Xu Xing began shooting documentary films. His first documentary Drawing Your Eyes and Eyebrows by the Cliff was completed in 2002. This year he also hosted "Xu Xing Studio" in the Chinese Language Center of the University of Frankfurt, Germany.
From 2005 to 2007, Xu Xing shot the documentary A Chronicle of My Cultural Revolution with France's TV5 TV station. This documentary was based on his personal experiences growing up in the Chinese Cultural Revolution. He tried to integrate personal memory with national collective memory, which may help the two types of memories confirm and support each other so as to provide today's audience with a kind of both individual and public historical statements. This film has been invited by foreign universities for many times to broadcast in the United States, Germany, Italy, France and other places.
In 2008,was awarded the Lion Feuchtwanger Fellowship and Invited by Feuchtwanger Fellowship Villa Aurora, LA foundation, Xu Xing worked as a visiting scholar in USC for one year and screened A Chronicle of My Cultural Revolution in University of San Diego, UCLA, University of Southern California, University of Pittsburgh, Harvard University and Columbia University in turn.
He was one of the judges at the 9th and 10th Rome Asian film festival.
As a member of Chinese Literature, Forum Xu Xing was invited to participate in the Aix-en-Provence Asian Literature Forum. Meanwhile, he became a member of Heidelberg State Library Reading Forum.
A Chronicle of My Cultural Revolution was screened at La Fondation Maison des Sciences DE L 'homme.
In 2010, Xu Xing began to shoot a new documentary 5+5 in Songzhuang, Beijing. The film mainly tells the stories of Lao Jin, the driver of an unlicensed taxi, and artists in Song Zhuang . After the film was completed, it was invited to be shown at the university of Venice, the University of Naples in Italy and Columbia University in the United States.
In 1994 and two decades later in 2004, he participated in the St. Malo (France) Literary Festival, an important literary festival in the world. He delivered a keynote speech on Chinese literature, making contributions to Chinese literature.
From 2010 to 2014, he shot the documentary Crime Summary. Most people like to read the history of people with power, status and influence, but few pay attention to ordinary people. Xu Xing accidentally got a pile of prisoners' forms during the cultural revolution. The "criminals" in the tables " were farmers. Full of doubts, Xu Xing carried his camera and went to shoot and interview those farmers in Zhejiang Province. This documentary film has been widely regarded fill the domestic and foreign academic void in the study of the cultural revolution in China rural areas and farmers.
In 2014, Xu Xing won the 5th Korea Gwangwa Gate highest artistic achievement award.
For about 20 years Xu Xing has been invited to attend the academic visit, cultural studies, film screenings and other activities by Harvard University,University of North Carolina,the University of Pittsburgh, Barnard College, Columbia University, University of Heidelberg, Germany, France Academy of Oriental Language Institute and other universities. In recent years he has been to Yale University, Duke University, the University of Edinburgh, the University of Freiburg, Naples University, University of Milan, University of Venice for academic visits, academic speeches and film screenings.
In 2018, Xu Xing completed the shooting and editing of the documentary The Day of Reckoning.
In 2018, Xu Xing was invited by Boston University to teach Chinese independent film production in spring semester as a visiting professor. In the same year, he was invited by the University of Heidelberg to teach Chinese independent film production in fall semester as a visiting professor.
In 2019, Xu Xing was invited to serve as a visiting professor at Heidelberg University for the winter semester, where he taught a course on the production of Chinese independent documentaries.
In 2024, Xu Xing was invited to Heidelberg University as a visiting scholar.
In 2024, Xu Xing held an exhibition on modern ink painting titled "Control &Flow" in Heidelberg.
徐星，著名的中国作家,文化学者,纪录片导演和现代水墨画家，于1985年7月通过人民文学出版社出版了他的首部小说《无主题变奏》，这部小说被视为中国当代文学从传统向现代转型的标志性作品。
1975年高中毕业后，徐星前往陕西省北部的志丹县插队下乡。1977年，他参军，服役于兰州军区21军。
1981年，徐星退伍返京，并开始写作。在六个月内，他完成了小说《无主题变奏》。
然而，《无主题变奏》直到1985年才出版，引起了巨大反响，成为中国“先锋小说”的代表作之一。那几年先锋小说家的出现，使小说创作呈现出全新的形式，极大地突破了传统文学语言的叙事和描述功能，创造了新的情感表达和隐喻象征功能，冲击了传统现实主义文学观念。
1989年，《无主题变奏》获得了北京大学学生艺术节最佳短篇小说奖。之后，他又发表了中篇小说《城市的故事》和《饥饿的老鼠》，短篇小说《失去了歌声的城市》《我是怎样发疯的》《爱情故事》《帮助》《殉道者》《无为在歧路》等；话剧《国王和马的故事》《一出戏是怎样完成的》；长篇小说《剩下的都属于你》以及小说集《无主题变奏》。
1989年接受联邦德国西柏林艺术大学邀请，离开中国暂居居德国，在海德堡大学做访问学者；并在海德堡参与组织了海外最具影响力的中国杂志《今天》的文学复刊。同年获得瑞典国际笔会分会图霍尔斯基文学奖。
之后，徐星接受了海因里希·伯尔基金会的邀请，住在伯尔的家中进行写作。同时，参加了海德堡海外中国文学在海外会议。
从联邦德国回到中国后，徐星被法国《新观察家》评选为世界240位杰出小说家之一。
在1991年至1996年间，徐星完成了长篇小说《剩下的都属于你》。
自2002年起，徐星开始拍摄纪录片。他的第一部纪录片《崖畔上画下你眉眼》于2002年完成。同年，他还在德国法兰克福大学的汉学中心主持“徐星工作室”。
从2005年到2007年，徐星与法国电视台TV5合作，拍摄了纪录片《我的文革编年史》。这部纪录片基于他个人在文化大革命中的成长经历，尝试将个人记忆与国家集体记忆结合起来，帮助两者相互印证和支持，为今天的观众提供一种既具有个人色彩又带有公共历史意义的陈述。这部影片多次受邀在美国、德国、意大利、法国等地的大学放映。
2008年获得利奥.佛西特万格奖学金并受到洛杉矶奥罗拉别墅基金会 Feuchtwanger Fellowship 的邀请，在南加州大学作为访问学者工作了1年。轮流在圣地亚哥大学、加州大学洛杉矶分校、南加大、匹兹堡大学、哈佛大学、哥伦比亚大学投影《我的文革编年史》。
他曾担任第9届和第10届罗马亚洲电影节的评委。
作为中国文学论坛成员，徐星受邀参加法国（普罗旺斯地区艾克斯亚洲文学论坛）普罗旺斯亚洲文化论坛。同时，他成为了海德堡州立图书馆阅读论坛的成员。
在 La Fondation Maison des Sciences de L'Homme 投影《我的文革编年史》。
2010年，徐星在北京宋庄开始拍摄新的纪录片《5+5》。该片主要讲述了黑车司机老金和宋庄艺术家的故事。影片完成后，受邀在意大利威尼斯大学、那不勒斯大学和美国哥伦比亚大学放映。
1994年和2004年，徐星两次参加了圣马洛文学节，这是一项世界级的重要文学节。他在会上就中国文学发表了主旨演讲，为中国文学做出了贡献。
从2010年到2014年，他拍摄了纪录片《罪行摘要》。大多数人喜欢阅读有权力、地位和影响力的人的历史，而很少关注普通人。徐星偶然获得了一堆文化大革命时期的犯人表格，其中的“罪犯”都是农民。满怀疑问的徐星带着他的摄像机前往浙江，采访这些农民。此片被广泛认为填补了中外学术界对中国农村和农民文化大革命研究的空白。
2014年，徐星获得了第五届韩国光华门最高艺术成就奖。
在过去的20年里，徐星多次受邀参加哈佛大学、北卡莱罗纳大学、匹兹堡大学、巴纳德学院、哥伦比亚大学、德国海德堡大学、法国东方语言学院等高校的学术访问、文化研究、电影放映等活动。近年来，他还受邀前往耶鲁大学、杜克大学、爱丁堡大学、弗莱堡大学、那不勒斯大学、米兰大学、威尼斯大学进行学术访问、演讲和电影放映。
2018年，徐星完成了纪录片《腊月三十日到来》的拍摄和剪辑。
2018年，徐星受波士顿大学邀请，担任春季学期的访问教授，教授中国独立电影制作。同年，他受海德堡大学邀请，担任秋季学期的访问教授，教授中国独立电影制作。
2019年，徐星受邀担任海德堡大学冬季学期的访问教授，教授中国独立纪录片的制作课程。
2024年，徐星受邀再次担任海德堡大学的访问学者。
2024年，徐星在海德堡举办了题为“控制&流动”的现代水墨画展。
