He then became Wei Lun Distinguished Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
[2] He was also considered as a pioneer of having introduced postmodernism literary theory for the benefit of Sinhalese readers.
[2] He co-authored a book titled, Profiling Sri Lankan Cinema along with Ashley Ratnavibhushana and it was published in 2000.
Wong Kar-wai’s Ashes of Time (2003),[14] Raj Kapoor's Films: Harmony of Discourses (1988),[15] Sinhala Novel and the Public Sphere (2009),[16] Self and Colonial Desire: Travel Writings of V. S. Naipaul (1993)[17][18] and Sholay, A Cultural Reading (1992) are regarded as some of his most notable works in English.
[9] Dissanayake received the Sahithya Rathna Award from the Government of Sri Lanka at the 2012 State Literary Festival.
[20] He was conferred with the prestigious Deshabandu title during the 2019 Sri Lankan national honours.