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. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

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

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

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

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

, and Serbian.

Biography

Cao was born in 1954 in

Yancheng Yancheng (), formerly known as Yandu, is a prefecture-level city in the eastern coastal Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China. As the city with the largest jurisdictional area in Jiangsu, Yancheng borders Lianyungang to the north, Huai' ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

. 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 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.

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

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 (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 Finalist, a New York Times Notable Children's Book of 2017, and has been nominated for YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults award, Center for the Study of Multicultural Children's Literature - Best Books of 2017. Helen Wang'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 award, literary prize awarded in the United Kingdom from 1996 until 2017 to the translator of an outstanding work of Children's literature, fiction for young readers translated ...

.) * ''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 Academic staff of Peking University Living people 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 Short story writers from Jiangsu Hans Christian Andersen Award for Writing winners