Chinese writer Cao Wenxuan has been awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Prize, the world's most significant award for children's books and illustrations. The presentation took place in Bologna, Italy, during the 53rd international fair children's book. His works have been translated into English, French, German, Japanese and Korean and have become the property of the whole world. The children's writer believes he won the prize for writing "very typical, purely Chinese stories."
The jury's decision was unanimous. Cao Wenxuan became the first Chinese winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Prize. He received the award for works telling about difficult life children who find themselves in difficult situations, about how true friendship helps overcome adversity. And the author says that he does not invent themes for his works, but draws them from life. The results are “very typical, purely Chinese stories.”
"Real life Chinese society gives me many bright and unique stories, which may be of interest to children from other countries. All my stories take place in China; on the one hand, they are all Chinese history, but on the other hand, they are also universal stories."
The writer was born and raised in Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province. Graduated from Peking University. Now, as a professor, he teaches courses on Chinese and children's literature there. His first story was published in 1983. Since then, Cao Wenxuan has written several dozen novels, short stories and texts for picture books. In his homeland he received many awards. His books have been translated into English, French, German, Japanese and Korean.
Cao Wenxuan, Children's writer, professor at Peking University:
"What I talk about can be called genuine Chinese stories, but they are understandable and interesting to everyone. That's probably why I won this competition. After all, I don’t write for a specific audience; the main thing in the narrative is language, style and creativity itself.”
Cao Wenxuan follows the tradition of realism. Among his works, literary scholars especially note the stories “The Hut,” “Bronze and Sunflower,” “The Brand,” as well as several collections. After global recognition, Chinese book publishers believe that even more books for children will appear on store shelves.
Li Yan, Vice President of Publishing Corporation:
"I think that the Andersen Prize won by the writer Cao Wenxuan will be a great boost to the development of China's publishing sector. It will give impetus to the development of children's literature."
The nomination list for the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Prize included 28 authors and 29 illustrators from 34 countries. The criteria for choosing a particular book are its literary value, the ability to look at things through children's eyes, arouse children's curiosity and develop imagination. The prestigious award is presented every two years. You can only get it once in your life.
Chinese writer Cao Wenxuan was born in 1954. He grew up in rural areas, and in ’74 he entered Peking University. Now he teaches courses on Chinese and children's literature there.
Cao's first story was published in 1983, and in total he owns several dozen stories, short stories and texts for picture books.
One of Cao's most famous and translated books, Bronze and Sunflower, was written in 2005 and has been on the bestseller lists ever since. The book takes place in rural China during the Cultural Revolution. A city girl nicknamed Podslokhnukh moves with her sculptor dad to the village, where she befriends a mute boy Bronze. Soon, Sunflower's dad dies, and Bronze's family, despite extreme poverty, agrees to shelter the girl. In this book, Cao addresses the topic of accepting people who are different from you, discussing how friendship helps you overcome adversity, despite the most difficult living conditions.
Cao tries to engage the reader in conversation about other very important topics. For example, the book series “Dingding and Dangdang” tells about brothers with Down syndrome and the difficulties they have to face in the small village where they live.
In 2015, Cao released the picture book Feather, co-authored with , a Brazilian artist and 2014 Andersen Medal winner. Cao believes picture books will help people in other countries better understand Chinese literature.
In his homeland, Cao Wenxuan received many awards. His books have been translated into English, French, Japanese and Korean. And in 2016, Cao was nominated for the Andersen Medal.
Elizaveta Prudovskaya, 2016
26.05.2016
We learn about Chinese writers only when one of them becomes a laureate of prestigious international awards. This happened with Nobel laureate Mo Yan, and now - unknown to the Russian reader children's writer from China Cao Wenxuan, who received the H.H. Andersen Prize on April 4. He is well known in China; in the list of the most successful (in a financial sense) children's writers of the PRC in 2013, he took 8th place, and in the general list of writers he secured 27th place.His path to success was not easy.
The writer was born in January 1954 in the town of Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, on the coast of the Yellow Sea. His family was very poor, and the years of his childhood and youth fell on the Cultural Revolution. However, literary abilities discovered at a young age allowed him to receive the necessary recommendations and in 1974 enter Peking University to study at the library department. The following year, Cao Wenxuan transferred to major in Chinese Language and Literature. In 1977, after graduating from alma mater, he began teaching activities. He is now a professor at Peking University and also president of the Beijing Writers Association.
In 1979, Cao published two short stories, for which in 1982 he received his first prize for his contribution to the development of children's and youth literature in the PRC.
In April 1988, Cao received the First Prize for his story “Goodbye, Little Star.” national award for his contribution to the development of children's literature in China. Large quantity literary prizes (about 30) that Cao Wenxuan received in different years in his homeland, they talk about his demand as a writer.
In 2004, Cao Wenxuan was nominated for the H.H. Andersen Prize from China for the first time, but did not win.
Some of his stories have been translated into foreign languages, they are read by children in the UK, France, Japan and South Korea.
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Most famous works Cao Wenxuan's novels are “The Hut” (or “The Grass House”; first published in 1988 and was reprinted more than three hundred times, its total circulation exceeded 10 million copies), “Bronze and Sunflower”, “Paradise Goats Eat Grass”, collection stories “Huts Buried Under Snow.” The monograph “The Phenomenon of Chinese Literature in the 1980s” deserves mention; for this research work in the field of Chinese literature of the twentieth century, Cao Wenxuan received an award from Peking University in 1998.
What makes Cao Wenxuan different as a writer?
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He was greatly influenced by the work of Lu Xun (1881–1936), the founder of modern Chinese literature, who was called the “Chinese Gorky” because of his innovative humanism for his time.
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One of distinctive features Cao Wenxuan - careful "drawing" background", on which the events unfold. Moreover, these can be descriptions of beautiful rural landscapes, and actions - brutal reprisals by the Red Guards during the “Cultural Revolution”.
Cao Wenxuan said in one of his interviews that modern writers lacks descriptiveness.
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Nature is beautiful, and under no circumstances should we deprive the little reader’s imagination of the beauties of the world around him.
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What impoverishes the gaze (in in this case- perception), it impoverishes the soul.
Moreover: Cao Wenxuan believes that modern children's works are too focused on content, on some kind of super idea - which at the same time does not consist of something beautiful and good, but, on the contrary, something ugly and evil.
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Such trends came to Chinese literature from Western culture, while Chinese system values are somewhat different. The tradition of Chinese literature is characterized by such features as sophistication and “mood”. This “imitation of the West” greatly upsets Cao Wenxuan, so in his books he deliberately rejects “new trends.” Of course, it is difficult for him to compete with other writers, but he still not only remains afloat, but the number of his readers increases every year.
At the same time, his work is far from blissful.
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The main characters of his works are children with a difficult fate.
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They often live in poverty, some have physical disabilities, and struggle with loneliness, misunderstanding, indifference and rejection from peers. At the same time, in his works there is love, loyalty, duty, that is, those eternal values, without which human life is so colorless.
The works of Cao Wenxuan are characterized by a melancholic style and a poetic mood. But, to simplify, we can say that he preaches humanism, calls the reader to compassion, and cures indifference.
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Perhaps it is this delicate balance between beautiful landscapes and heroes who are forced to confront cruelty that lies the secret of the incredible appeal of Cao Wenxuan's work. Evaluated today by the International Council for Children's and Youth Literature of UNESCO.
What do you think the Chinese writer Cao Wenxuan writes about? About happiness, sun, play? No. In fact, in his books you will encounter mass starvation, exile, locust plagues, and the problems of the mentally and physically disabled.
“In his books, Cao Wenxuan does not try to embellish history,” the Prize Committee explained their choice. “His books talk about how life can be tragic and about children who suffer.”
Cao Wenxuan writes about his childhood on the east coast of the country, in Jiangsu Province. His youth occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, during the period of the “cultural revolution.” In a recent interview, the writer said that childhood memories still remain his most important theme.
“The history of China is an inexhaustible source of stories. Why should you turn a blind eye to them? Why should you sacrifice yours? life experience so that the children don’t get upset and are happy?”
In his childhood there were few books for children. The very concept of children's literature in China appeared relatively recently - only at the beginning of the 20th century did translations of stories by foreign children's authors appear in the country, and with them appeared works in Chinese, “Scarecrow” by Ye Shentao and “Letters for Young Readers” by Bing Xin.
All the books were brought to young Cao by his father, the director primary school. In addition, Cao Wenxuan read Soviet children's literature and modern Chinese prose as a child. His greatest influence was Lu Xun, a writer and critic who is considered the founder of modern Chinese literature. As a teenager, Cao witnessed the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976, which closed schools throughout the country for several years.
Cao Wenxuan became a member of the Great Exchange youth movement (dachuanlian), whose activists traveled around the country and told people about the achievements of the revolution. At the same time, detachments of the Red Guards were rampant in the country, who unleashed terror against the intelligentsia, officials and anyone who, in their opinion, distorted the teachings of Chairman Mao. The writer, like many, retreated from public activities under these conditions.
— I was 12-13 years old then. You can't do much at that age. However, it’s good that we were not so cruel... All our activities boiled down to red armbands and articles for dazibao.
The writer returned to his native Jiangsu province and resumed his studies. He was lucky - the best teachers Chinese language and literature from the neighboring provinces of Suzhou and Wuxi were exiled to his remote area, including to the school where he studied.
Recalling those times, Cao Wenxuan says that “during the years of the Cultural Revolution, I received better education in your life."
Later, when the Red Guard movement began to fade, Cao Wenxuan entered Peking University, where he still works as a professor of Chinese language and literature. His first story for children was published by the university publishing house. It was the end of the 1970s. Since then, Cao Wenxuan has not stopped writing - according to his own calculations, more than 100 works have been published during this time: novels, scientific texts, short stories, essay collections, and picture books.
The chaos of the Cultural Revolution runs in the background through many of his works. For example, his 2005 book, Bronze and Sunflower, tells the story of the friendship between a girl named Sunflower, who came with her father from the city to the village where he was sent to hard labor, and Bronze, the name of the mute boy whose parents are very poor.
“The children went to school as if nothing had happened, read books aloud as before, but the beautiful and rich intonations of the books gradually became barely audible, until, finally, the children forgot how to read completely. People were afraid. Anxiety was driving them crazy. In the worst days of hunger, they were ready to gnaw stones.
Cao Wenxuan himself believes that the Cultural Revolution is “just a decoration, not main topic his books." However, many critics argue that stories about life in those years are needed today more than ever. Children in Chinese schools today read censored texts, but for their parents and grandparents, Mao's dramatic times were incredibly difficult.
— The history of that time is greatly distorted. I think that children need to be told about it. They should know their past,” said Wu Qing, one of the members of the Andersen Prize Committee. -Cao writes about this historical period from the standpoint of humanism, without any political slogans. He writes only from his own experience.
Today, the children's literature segment in China is large and extremely profitable business. This was facilitated by the rapid growth of the middle class. Wealthy parents are ready to invest in their children's education. Cao Wenxuan's novel House of Grass, for example, has sold more than 10 million copies. According to China Daily, the four wealthiest Chinese writers published works for children and youth last year.
Despite the fact that Cao Wenxuan has received a number of prestigious awards in China, his work has attracted many controversial reviews. Among other things, it is often criticized for being outdated gender stereotypes: boys in his stories are often stronger and more courageous, while girls are weak and ready to cry for any reason. But Cao Wenxuan dismisses such criticism: “The same thing happens in Western children’s literature.”
“The world is constantly changing,” he says. – Fashion changes every single day, but people wear clothes every day. And I am very interested in this continuity and duration. It doesn’t matter what the scenery is, the main thing is that sooner or later universal values and humanity win.
Translation by Ekaterina Oleynikova
January 9, 1954(1954-01-09) (age 62)
Yancheng, Jiangsu, China
novelist
Chinese
H. C. Andersen Prize
Cao Wenxuan(Chinese: 曹文轩, pinyin: Cáo Wénxuān; born January 9, 1954, Yancheng, Jiangsu) - Chinese children's writer, professor at Peking University. Winner of the H. C. Andersen Prize (2016).
- 1 Biography
- 2 Creativity
- 2.1 "The Shack"
- 2.2 "Bronze and Sunflower"
- 3 Awards
- 4 Notes
Biography
Born on January 9, 1954 into a poor peasant family in a village on the outskirts of Yancheng in Jiangsu Province. The future writer's childhood was marked by the Great Chinese Famine and the Cultural Revolution, memories of which later influenced his worldview and creativity.
At the age of seventeen he published his first works for children. Thanks to the fact that he literary achievements were assessed at the local level, at the age of twenty he received a recommendation for admission to Peking University, where, after graduation, he remained to work at the Faculty of Chinese Language and Literature.
In 2016, he became the first Chinese writer to receive an international literary prize for children's writers named after H. C. Andersen.
Creation
Wrote over 100 literary works, three of which were used as the basis for film scripts. Cao Wenxuan's works have been translated into various languages, including English, Korean, German, French, Swedish and Japanese.
Cao Wenxuan develops the traditions of realism in his work. The action of his works takes place against the backdrop of mass famine and repression of the times Cultural Revolution, locust invasions and other difficult life situations. Children - the heroes of his works - go through tragic trials and endure suffering. According to the author, his own childhood memories are reflected in his work.
"Hut"
First published in 1997, the novel “The Shack” has been reprinted more than three hundred times, its total circulation exceeding 10 million copies.
The book tells the story of a six-year-old boy, Sansan, an elementary school student who finds himself witnessing or participating in various unusual and heart-touching events.
In 2000, director Xu Geng made a film of the same name based on the book.
"Bronze and Sunflower"
The novel "Bronze and the Sunflower" was first published in 2004 and has since been reprinted more than two hundred times.
In the book, the action takes place in a village during the era of the Cultural Revolution, when a girl named Sunflower who came from the city, whose sculptor father was exiled here for hard labor, dies, and the extremely poor peasant family of the boy Bronze decides to shelter the orphan.
Awards
- H. C. Andersen Prize (2016).
Notes
- http://data.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb14516729w
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 韩秉宸. 曹文轩：儿童文学需要一些悲情 (Chinese). 环球人物. 人民日报 (April 16, 2016). Retrieved May 20, 2016.
- 1 2 3 Li Yan, Deng Jie. Winner of the award named after. Andersen Cao Wenxuan will write a book about the children of migrant workers. People's Daily (April 13, 2016). Retrieved May 20, 2016.
- 1 2 You Chengcheng Cao Wenxuan: Author – China (English) // Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature: journal. - Annick Press Ltd, 2016. - March (fasc. 54 (no. 2). - P. 19 - ISSN 0006-7377 - DOI:10.1353.
- 1 2 3 Amy Qin, trans. Ekaterina Oleynikova. Cao Wenxuan. Children's literature without sugar. Hardcover (4 May 2016). Retrieved May 20, 2016.
- 1 2 Chang Ying. Cao Wenxuan became the first Chinese writer to win a global award for children's books. China Central Television (April 6, 2016). Retrieved May 20, 2016.
- 中国作家曹文轩首获“安徒生奖”用诗意笔调描述生命瞬间 (Chinese). 北京大学新闻中心主办 (April 6, 2016). Retrieved May 20, 2016.
- Caofangzi (English) on the Internet Movie Database
- Elizaveta Prudovskaya. Cao Wenxuan. Children's reading room of the Library foreign literature(2016). Retrieved May 20, 2016.
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