ZHANG YUNTAO:A PROMISING FUTURE FOR CHILDREN’S BOOKS OF CHINA

来源:International Publishing Journal

作者:Zhang Zhen

2018-04-13

The Rise of China’s Original Picture Books.

  China’s Original pictorials achieved great development in the last few years, with many Chinese illustrators and picture books awarded in international contests. In 2013 and 2015, Yu Rong and Hei Mi were respectively awarded Golden Apple Prize at Biennial of Il- lustrations Bratislava. At the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in 2016 and 2017, awards were given to Zhu Chengliang, Jiu Er, Yu Hong and other illustrators. Chinese picture books have gained more global recognition and developed a unique style. Such development is a result of government attention and facilitation, publishers’ keen interest in original picture books and a grow- ing team of professional editors of original picture books, which is a strong guarantee. Besides, the involvement of many well-known writers increases the influence of original pictorials. Another reason is that young illustrators, who are capable to learn and highly creative, are becoming the backbone in creation. They enriched original pictorials from many perspectives.

Zhang Yuntao

  Edito in Chief of Daylight Publishing House

  The Experiences of Achieving local Development.

  Daylight Publishing House pays great attention to the local development of works at the international stage. At the beginning of “Chinese seeds and international flowers”, which is the international cooperation program of Cao Wenxuan’s picture books, a lot of Chinese stories were provided for il- lustrators all around world. According to their understanding, Cao Wenxuan’s books were published by the way of lo- calisation.

  At present, this program opens more cooperation with illustrators from Italy, Sweden, Denmark and other countries, and exports copyright more than ten times. At the same time, the program also encourages the communication be- tween Chinese writers and international illustrators, publishers and readers.

  Daylight Publishing House also invited sinologists with international experienc- es to read and recommend books. For example, Happy Mid-Autumn Festival is a picture book about Chinese tradi- tional culture, it will be the textbook in Chinese-English translation competition which organized by University of Leeds and evaluated by senior Chinese-English translator Helen Wang. There are thousands of Chinese language learn- ers who will attend this competition. Moreover, the winner’s translation work has a chance to publish in Eng- land. Such way can make unpublished works get more attention, promote local marketing and effective international communication as well.

  The Biases of Chinese Parents will be Changed

  The new generation of Chinese par- ents has stereotypes and biases toward children’s books of China, like most books are aimed at educating kids with a hard and suffering childhood, and the design and print are not refined or inter- esting. As a result, imported children’s books are their first choice.

  As a matter of fact, such biases are linked to the development of children’s books in China and the promotion of children’s reading. It took 5-10 years for the publication and reading of imported children’s books to be recog- nized. At present, young readers have a growing demand for high-quality books, which cover many areas and angles. As more writers and publish- ers are dedicated to originality, they will present more high-quality books for children, and there will be more original children’s works. Thanks to the orientation of the market, guidance of selection agencies and effort of those who promote reading, high quality original books for children will be very popular in the future.


责任编辑:霍娟