Cao Wenxuan (; born January 1954) is a Chinese novelist, best known for his works of

children's literature Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. Modern children's literature is classified in two different ways: genre or the intended age of the reader. Children's ...

. Cao is the vice president of Beijing Writers Association. He is also a professor and doctoral tutor at

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charter ...

. His novels have been translated into English, Dutch, French, German, Italian,

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

, and Serbian.

Biography

Cao was born in 1954 in

Yancheng Yancheng () is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Jiangsu province of China, province, People's Republic of China. As the city with the largest jurisdictional area in Jiangsu, Yancheng borders Lianyungang to the north, Huai'an to the west, ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

. He entered into the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of

in 1974 and started to publish novels in 1983.

Hans Christian Andersen Award

In April 2016 Cao was announced as the winner of the

Hans Christian Andersen Award The Hans Christian Andersen Awards are two literary awards given by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), recognising one living author and one living illustrator for their "lasting contribution to children's literature". Th ...

for children's writing being the first Chinese author to ever receive the award. The International Board on Books for Young People's jury, announcing the award, said Cao "writes beautifully about the complex lives of children facing great challenges. He is a deeply committed writer, whose own difficult childhood has been deeply influential on his writing in which there are no easy answers." He received the award in Auckland, New Zealand, on 20 August 2016. His acceptance speech was titled "Literature: Another Form of Housebuilding" (). Cao's ''Dingding and Dangdang'' (2012) (Illustrated by Zhenjun Liu) series follows the life of two brothers with Downs Syndrome living in a small rural Chinese village. This series was selected as one of IBBY’s Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities 2015.

Works

Novels

* 1985 ''The Old Walls'' () * 1991 ''Goats Do Not Eat Heaven Grass'' () * 1997 ''The Grass House'' () * 1999 ''The Bird'' () * 2000 ''The Red Tile Roof'' () * 2005 ''Red Tile, Black Tile'' () * 2005 ''The Thin Rice'' () * 2005 '' Bronze and Sunflower'' () * 2005 ''The Gourd Ladle'' () * 2008 ''Dawang Tome: The Amber Tiles'' () * 2008 ''Dawang Tome: The Red Lantern'' () * 2012 ''Dingding and Dangdang'' () (Illustrated by Zhenjun Liu) * 2014 ''A Cool Bird Wawa'' * 2015 ''Firebrand'' () * 2016 ''Dragonfly Eyes'' () * 2019 ''Caoxiewan Road'' ()

Novellas

* 1983 ''A Cattle without Horns'' () * 1988 ''A Small House Buried in The Snow'' () * 1988 ''The Evening Has Come Down Upon The Ancestral Temple'' ()

Short stories

* 1986 ''Mist Covered The Old Castle'' () * 1986 ''The Dumb Cattle'' () * 1989 ''The Blue Countryside'' () * 1992 ''The Green Fence'' () * 1994 ''A City under The Water'' () * 1994 ''The Red Calabash'' () * 1996 ''The Rose Valley'' () * 1997 ''Sanjiaodi'' () * 2005 ''The Windmill'' () * 2008 ''Gouyayu'' () * 2008 ''A Very Special Pigeon'' ()

Picture books for children

* ''Summer in a Cotton Padded Jacket'' () * ''Feather'' (), illustrated by Roger Mello English translation by Chloe Garcia Roberts * ''Chrysanthemum Doll'' () * ''Last Leopard'' () * ''A Big Fish Swims East'' () * ''Crazy Rooster'' () * ''Bird Boat'' () * ''Flying Bird Nest'' () * ''Summer'' (translated by Yan Ding, illustrated by

Yu Rong Yu Rong (郁蓉) is a Chinese illustrator of children's picture books, especially known for her use of papercutting artwork. Biography Born in China, Yu Rong first trained as a primary school teacher, then studied for a BA in Chinese Painting ...

) * ''Smoke'' (translated by Duncan Poupard, illustrated by

)

Essays

* ''Crows'' ()

Awards and commendations

* Cao Wenxuan won the

2016. * ''Goats Do Not Eat Heaven Grass'' () – 3rd Song Qingling Literature Prize, National Five Top Project Award * ''The Grass House'' () – Bingxin Literature Prize, 4th National Book Award, National Five Top Project Award, 5th Song Qingling Literature Prize, 19th Golden Rooster Award for Best Writing (1999),

Huabiao Award China Huabiao Film Awards (), also simply known as Huabiao Awards, is an annual awards ceremony for Chinese cinema. Named after the decorative Chinese winged columns (''huabiaos''), The Huabiao Awards were first instituted in 1957 as the Ministr ...

(1998), 14th Tehran International Film Festival - the Golden Butterfly Prize * ''Bronze and Sunflower'' () – Bingxin Literature Prize, National Book Award, National Five Top Project Award. The English translation was a 2017

Kirkus ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

Finalist, a New York Times Notable Children's Book of 2017, and has been nominated for

YALSA The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), established in 1957, is a division of the American Library Association. YALSA is a national association of librarians, library workers and advocates whose mission is to expand the capacity of l ...

's Best Fiction for Young Adults award, Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature - Best Books of 2017.

Helen Wang Helen Kay Wang (; ; born 1965) is an English sinologist and translator. She works as curator of East Asian Money at the British Museum in London. She has also published a number of literary translations from Chinese, including an award-winning tr ...

's English translation of ''Bronze and Sunflower'' earned her the 2017

Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation The Marsh Award for Children's Literature in Translation was a literary prize awarded in the United Kingdom from 1996 until 2017 to the translator of an outstanding work of fiction for young readers translated into English. The award was given e ...

.) * ''Dingding and Dangdang'' () (Illustrated by Zhenjun Liu) �
Selected as one of the 2015 IBBY Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities

Adaptations

One of his works has been adapted for film: * ''The Grass House'' () (directed by Xu Geng) Two more of his works are being adapted for film: ''Bronze and Sunflower'' and ''Firebrand''.

References

External links

*

* [https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-industry-news/article/76523-bologna-2018-a-talk-with-cao-wenxuan.html "Bologna 2108: A Talk with Cao Wenxuan", by Teri Tan, Publishers Weekly, 5 April 2018] {{DEFAULTSORT:Cao, Wenxuan 1954 births Writers from Yancheng Peking University alumni Peking University faculty Living people [ ategory:Chinese male short story writers 20th-century Chinese novelists Chinese male novelists Chinese children's writers Chen Bochui Children's Literature Award winners 20th-century Chinese short story writers 20th-century Chinese male writers People's Republic of China short story writers Short story writers from Jiangsu