Seminar explores international promotion of works by emerging Chinese children’s book authors

More than 120 guests from home and aboard gathered at a seminar titled “Inner Child’s World, The World’s Child” on Monday in Wuyi county of Jinhua city, East China’s Zhejiang province, discussing the future development of Chinese children’s literature and opportunities for international exchange and cooperation.

The “2024 Chinese Fairy Tales Going Global” campaign was also launched during the event with many cooperation agreements in various fields signed.

Wuyi is known as the birthplace of Chinese fairy tales as it is home to many renowned Children’s book writers such as Tang Tang.

Together with Heihe, an award-winning children’s book author hailing from Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, Tang shared at the seminar that she has been trying to create a fairy tale world full of warmth and energy. Heihe said that he attempted to reconstruct the wilderness culture of North China through fiction, showing children the possibilities of peaceful coexistence between man and nature.

Several experts expressed hope that the seminar could help spread the works of Chinese new-generation writers more widely overseas.

Through a perspective of painting creation, Roger Miro, a Brazilian painter and winner of the 2014 Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration, spoke of the poetic relationship between images and texts in fairy tales. As the highest form of fantasy, fairy tales present images and texts imbued with poetry and philosophy.

Li Lifang, a children’s book critic and dean of the college of arts and letters at Lanzhou University, highlighted how Chinese children’s literature has garnered global attention in the last decade for its distinctive aesthetics.

Vonne Cunha Canonica, Brazilian author and former executive secretary of the Brazilian ministry of culture, compared children’s book creation, publication and promotion between China and Brazil. The writer hoped for more exchanges and cooperation between the two countries.

Critic Chen Xiang saw Tang Tang’s works as coming closest to the heart of fairy tales, with a Chinese soul that can resonate universally.

French cartoonist Olivier Richard and Sri Lankan scholar Sugath Rathnayake expressed love for the traditional elements in Tang Tang and Heihe’s works, believing that natural beauty and heritage can touch readers of different cultural backgrounds.