Foreigners interested in Realistic Contemporary Children's Fiction

A forum discussing the realistic novels written by top children's book prize winner Cao Wenxuan was held in Beijing on Tuesday, September 11, 2018. [Photo provided to China Plus]

Experts on children's literature say Chinese authors should focus on more realistic works of fiction as writers in the country garner increasing international attention.

Zhang Mingzhou is the President of the International Board on Books for Young People. He is one of the experts at a recent forum on this subject.

"Readers from other nations are very interested in the realistic children's novel that could reflect modern Chinese citizens' inner state of life, including children's psychology, their growth, as well as their worry and concern. Often times, there are foreigners who repeatedly inquire me about what Chinese children are reading nowadays."

In Zhang's eyes, the Chinese society has undergone tremendous changes over the past decades, but in his opinion this is inadequately mirrored in Chinese children's literature.

The books written by top children's book prize winner Cao Wenxuan [Photo provided to China Plus]

Zhang was interviewed along the sidelines of the forum discussing the realistic novels written by top children's book prize winner Cao Wenxuan.

"Cao's winning of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for children's writing in 2016 began grabbing international attention onto the children's literature in China. I am aware that so far, a small community of Chinese writers of children's literature began attracting the world attention. However this is far from enough. This is partly due to an inadequacy in in-depth international exchanges in children's literature. I wish the International Board on Books for Young People could help expand exchanges between China and international writers of children's books."

The China Children's Press and Publication Group has recently published audio books based on the whole series of Cao Wenxuan's works. In addition, Cao's new novel will soon be published.