Dai Sijie is a Chinese-French author and filmmaker, born on March 2, 1954, in Chengdu, Sichuan, China. He is renowned for his novels, including Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Balzac et la petite tailleuse chinoise), which was originally written in French and won several awards, such as the Prix Edmée de La Rochefoucauld, Prix Relay du Roman d'Évasion, and the Prix des libraires du Québec in 2000. Another notable work is The Complex of Di (Le complexe de Di), which received the Prix Femina in 2003.

Dai Sijie's parents were doctors who were imprisoned during Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, leading to Dai's reeducation in a small village in Sichuan. In 1974, he enrolled in university to study Art History and later attended a film school, obtaining a scholarship to study abroad. Initially intending to go to Japan, the government sent him to France in 1984.

He became a director, producing notable films such as China, My Sorrow (Chine, ma douleur), which earned the Jean Vigo Award in 1989. Other films include The Moon Eater and Tang, the Eleventh. Dai Sijie also wrote and directed an adaptation of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, released in 2002.