China

1984, laureate of the National Competition of Children's Poetry.

1988, Shan Sa receives the Silver Sail of the Chinese Ministry of Education. The Poems of Yan Ni wins the National Children's Literature Award.

1989, named the Promising Star of Beijing.

2004, the Chinese version of Shan Sa's novel The Girl Who Played Go wins the Chinese Writers Association Fiction Award. 

France

1998, Gate of Celestial Peace, Shan Sa's first novel in French is awarded the Goncourt Prize for the First Novel, the Literary Vocation Prize, and the Académie Française Prize for the Encouragement of Literary Creation.

1999, The Four Lives of the Willow wins the Cazes Prize.

2001, The Girl Who Played Go receives the Student's Goncourt Prize.

2005, Empress receives the Paperback Readers' Award.

The United States of America

2003, the English version of The Girl Who Played Go receives the Kiriyama Prize.

Medals

Knight of Order of Arts and Letters. 
Knight of National Order of Merit.