Cao Wenxuan | |
---|---|
Native name | 曹文轩 |
Born | January 1954 (age 70) Yancheng, Jiangsu, China |
Occupation | Novelist |
Language | Chinese |
Alma mater | Peking University |
Period | 1983–present |
Genre | Children's literature |
Notable works | The Grass House Bronze and Sunflower |
Notable awards | 19th Golden Rooster Award for Best Writing 1999 The Grass House Huabiao Award 1998 The Grass House 14th Tehran International Film Festival - the Golden Butterfly Prize |
Cao Wenxuan (simplified Chinese: 曹文轩; traditional Chinese: 曹文軒; pinyin: Cáo Wénxuān; born January 1954) is a Chinese novelist, best known for his works of children's literature.[1][2][3][4][5] Cao is the vice president of the Beijing Writers Association.[3][4][5] He is also a professor and doctoral tutor at Peking University.[3][4][5] His novels have been translated into English, Dutch, French,[6] German,[7] Italian,[8] Japanese, Korean,[9] and Serbian.[10]
Cao was born in 1954 in Yancheng, Jiangsu.[3][11] He entered into the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Peking University in 1974 and started to publish novels in 1983.[3][11][12]
In April 2016 Cao was announced as the winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's writing being the first Chinese author to ever receive the award.[13] 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."[14] He received the award in Auckland, New Zealand, on 20 August 2016.[15] His acceptance speech was titled "Literature: Another Form of Housebuilding" (文学:另一种造屋).[16]
Cao's Dingding and Dangdang (2012) (Illustrated by Zhenjun Liu) series follows the life of two brothers with Down 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.[17][18][19]
One of his works has been adapted for film:
Two more of his works are being adapted for film: Bronze and Sunflower and Firebrand.[37]