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Top children’s books award goes to China
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CHINESE writer Cao Wenxuan recently became the first Chinese to win the Hans Christian Andersen Award. The biennial literary awards, often called the “Nobel prize for children’s literature,” recognizes a living author and a living illustrator for children’s literature every two years.
Cao won this year’s prize for writing, and German artist Rotraut Susanne Berner for illustration.
After Mo Yan won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2012, and science fiction writer Liu Cixin won the Hugo Award last year, Cao’s success is expected to help promote the already booming children’s book market in China, and set a higher standard to improve the quality of writing in the market.
The International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) made the announcement at the annual Bologna Children’s Book Fair this week, noting Cao was “the unanimous choice of the jury.”
“Cao writes beautifully about the complex lives of children facing great challenges,” the jury described in the announcement, and added that his books “don’t lie about the human condition; they acknowledge that life can often be tragic and that children can suffer.”
The 62-year-old writer, who also works as a literature professor at Peking University, received the news at the book fair. Born in rural northern Jiangsu Province, Cao often puts his protagonists in the rural areas and difficult situations as well.
“Bronze and Sunflower,” one of his most acclaimed and translated books, is set in the “cultural revolution” period (1966-1976) and tells the story of a shy village boy Bronze and a city girl Sunflower, who live through poverty and suffering together.
“My works are unique. They can only happen in China, but the themes are universal,” Cao told the media.
He added that a talented person is often supported from behind, by a specific person, a whole family, or an organization. For him, that support is his home country, which continuously provides him with unique inspirations and resources for writing, drawn from all the suffering it has gone through.
Many of his stories tell the coming of age of a young kid in a fluid and poetic prose, and have been translated into English, French, German and Korean, among other languages. Recently, he has also started inviting foreign illustrators to work with his stories for foreign editions.
Cao believes that China has the biggest and most vibrant market for children’s books in the world, but criticized that overall, the books often lacked quality.
According to the census in 2010, more than 300 million Chinese are aged 19 and younger, making them potential readers of children’s literature. The market has been one of the fastest growing among all literature genres, and best-selling children’s writers often top lists of wealthy writers.
“There were limited choices of children’s books when I was growing up — some domestic ones and then the classic ones like Anderson or the Brothers Grimm,” said 37-year-old Qian Lin, who has a six-year-old son.
“Now, there are so many choices of children’s books, domestic and imported. And I put in a lot of efforts to find good books for my son. Right now I buy mostly imported children’s books, but I would love to see more stories written in my mother tongue as my son is growing up.”
She added that many domestic publications are still focusing on educational purposes, such as teaching the kids to eat, to pour water, and to go to the toilet. She hopes to see more Chinese stories that can help inspire her son to think.
According to a recent report by Shanghai Press & Publication, sales of children’s books have been growing at an average of 10 percent a year in the past 10 years. Children’s publications take up more than 40 percent of the whole publishing market.
“Writers must retreat from thinking solely about profits to focusing on literature and arts,” Cao said.
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