Cao Wenxuan:Children’s Lit for All
Text by Ru Yi
April 4, 2016: Cao Wenxuan (left), German illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner (center), winner of the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration, and Patricia Aldana, chair of the award jury, pose for photos after the announcement of the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Prize in Bologna, Italy. Xinhua
On April 4, winners of the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Awards were announced at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the largest and most prestigious fair for children’s books in the world. The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are biennial honors given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to one living author and one living illustrator “whose complete works have made a lasting contribution to children’s literature.” This year, Chinese author Cao Wenxuan was honored for his writing and became the first Chinese writer to win the award known as the “Nobel Prize for Children’s Literature.” The announcement from IBBY declared Cao “a unanimous choice of the jury,” because he “writes beautifully about the complex lives of children facing great challenges.” The jury noted that Cao’s books “don’t lie about the human condition; they acknowledge that life can often be tragic and that children can suffer,” but “at the same time, they can love and be redeemed by their human qualities and the kindness they sometimes find when they are most in need.”
Cao was born in 1954, a time when China was in extreme poverty. This experience left a significant influence on Cao’s literature, which often reflects the lives of rural children during the latter half of the 20th Century. Cao’s stories feature natural and fresh language, as well as simple yet touching plots. While he often describes themes of the true, the good and the beautiful, Cao never skirts topics of hardship and suffering, setting him apart from many of his contemporary Chinese peers. Most of those writers emphasize unrestrained imaginations and usually portray young rebels. With extreme proximity to reality and expressions of positive themes such as hope, struggle, and perseverance, Cao’s works not only won the hearts of young Chinese readers, but also recognition of their parents.
Cao was first nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Awards back in 2004. This year, when he finally won, the excitement and nervousness of his friends and relatives stood in stark contrast to his own calmness. After global celebration of his work, Cao doesn’t need validation from an award. He is vice president of Beijing Writers Association as well as professor and doctorial tutor at Peking University, and Cao’s works have already been translated into more than 50 languages. In China, Cao has already been honored with numerous awards after publishing several bestsellers, and an excerpt from Cao’s novel Straw Houses has become standard textbook reading for Chinese middle school students.
Born in 1954 in Jiangsu Province, Cao Wenxuan began publishing works in 1979. He quickly became a star in children’s literary circles. His best known works include Goats Do Not Eat Heaven Grass, Straw Houses, The Bird, and Bronze and Sunflower. He has received more than 40 prestigious awards at home and abroad, and many of his works have been translated into English, French, German, Japanese, and Korean.
Cao Wenxuan signs books for elementary school students in Wuxi City, Jiangsu Province. Because of his prolific work, the Hans Christian Andersen Award, regarded as the “Nobel Prize” of children’s literature, went to a Chinese national for the first time. by Zhang Hao/China Daily
Your works such as Straw Houses and Bronze and Sunflower are brimming with Chinese flavor, and have been introduced to a number of countries. In terms of copyright export, you top every other children’s writer in China. Why are you so successful abroad?
Cao: China suffered a lot in history. But this context makes Chinese writers lucky, to some extent, because we were deeply nourished by the country’s troubled history, and hardship ultimately transforms into spiritual and literary wealth for writers. Post-war social formations in the Western countries have been similar, which makes the location become arbitrary: The same story can happen in London or Paris without any changes. However, China is different: Many stories can only happen in this land.A still from musical Straw Houses, adapted from the novel by Cao Wenxuan. CFP
At the same time, the themes of my stories are universal. For example, I wrote about father’s love, which is understood and resonated with readers from every culture. But I positioned my description of father’s love against a Chinese background. As writers, we have an obligation to explore the depth of human nature where joy, sorrow, anger, hope, and hardship shared by all mankind are hiding.
The IBBY jury remarked that you wrote about sadness and suffering in childhood. Would you say that is accurate?
Cao: I consider the hardships of my childhood to be great fortunes. For writers, all childhood experiences, good or bad, will ultimately be transformed into wealth. Happiness is not necessarily the best thing for a person. Those who only know happiness and never face difficulties or hardships cannot lead quality lives. Most masterpieces in literary history involve tragedy, and children’s literature is no exception. Take Hans Christian Andersen’s work: Some stories such as The Little Mermaid and The Little Match Girl leave readers with painful and sad feelings. And on sorrow, I’m not saying we should deliberately make kids feel depressed or hopeless. We should show them that life is never easy, and that the process of growing up itself is naturally painful.
You once said that you are not a typical kids’ writer. What are you trying to do when you write?
Cao: When I am writing, I think more about the work’s artistic and literary values than a target group of readers. First and foremost, the work itself must be a work of art. A third of my readers are actually adults and two thirds are kids. I just love those proportions. I simply employed a kid’s perspective and storytelling methods to write books that can be enjoyed by a lot of people, rather than writing explicitly for kids. I think adult readers find a sense of aesthetics in my books, while young readers can enjoy the stories on their own merits, and be inspired and moved. The power of my works lies in their ability to move readers.
What are your criteria for a good book?
Cao: This question actually matters little to adults. Adult readers have developed sound judgement and can choose to read whatever they like. But kids are different. They need to be guided because of their deficiencies in cognitive abilities and esthetic judgement. What kinds of books are suitable for kids? I can offer one simple solution: Let each mother make that decision. Mothers should read a book first. If she thinks this book is OK, then she should hand it off to her kids. If she thinks a book improper, then she can keep it out of her kids’ reach.
What problems are plaguing China’s children’s literary circles?
Cao: China has a large population of kids and youngsters, which creates huge demand for children’s books. As a result, some amateurish people have entered the trade and even reaped rich material rewards. That’s a huge problem at present. I hope, against this background, writers who have the sense of responsibility will not be lured by the promise of riches and forget the satisfaction of producing quality work.
Alongside severely condemning bad works, I think China’s critics need to generously praise good works. At present, China’s critics are stingy with their praise. This situation needs to change. Critics in some Western countries lavish praise on works they like, while Chinese critics fear saying too much. Our critics must be brave enough to praise good Chinese works the way they praise good Western works. Otherwise, they contribute to the imbalance.
The story refers to various media reports on Cao Wenxuan.