Hans Christian Andersen was born on 2 April 1805 in the slum of Odense on the Island of Fien, Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker. Hans Christian Andersen lost his father in childhood and his mother remarried. He grew up tormented by poverty, apprenticed in several shops, and had no formal education. After 1819 began to study writing. The works he wrote were not suitable for performance and were not adopted. Later he was funded to go to school and wrote some works. His first major work, The Walk from the Holmen Canal to the East Corner of Amaue Island in 1828 and 1829, was published in 1829 and was initially recognized by society. In 1833 he wrote Egnet and the Mermaid (poetic drama) and The Improv Poet (novel, 1835), and after the publication of the two works, his name began to become internationally famous.
His first "Collection of Stories for Children" included "The Lighter", "Little Klaus and Big Klaus", "The Princess on the Pea", "Little Itida's Flower" and so on.
Most of Andersen's works are autobiographical in nature. He persevered throughout his life, dedicating his genius and life to the "future generation", writing a total of 168 fairy tales and stories. His works have been translated into more than 80 languages.
Hans Christian Andersen died in Copenhagen on August 4, 1875.

Hans Christian Andersen House
Illustration of Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes
Illustration of Hans Christian Andersen's Egnett and the Mermaid
Cover of a translation of Hans Christian Andersen's work
Cover of Hans Christian Andersen, published in Denmark
Statue of a fish beauty on the Langening Waterfront in Copenhagen, Denmark
Andersen was plagued by poverty from an early age, and apprenticed in several shops without formal education. As a teenager, he became interested in the stage and fantasized about being a singer, actor or playwright. In 1819 he played a minor supporting role at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen. He was fired due to a throat loss and began to learn to write. In 1822 he was sponsored by the theater director Jonas Colin to attend a grammar school in Sleersø. That year he wrote The Young Man's Attempt, published under the pseudonym William Christian Walter. This pseudonym includes the names of Shakespeare, Hans Christian Andersen himself, and Scott. In 1827 he published his first poem, The Dying Child, and in 1829 he entered the University of Copenhagen. His first major work, The Walk from the Holmen Canal to the East Corner of Amaue in 1828 and 1829, was published. In 1833 he went to Italy and wrote a poetic play Egnet and the Mermaid and a novel set in Italy, The Improvised Poet (1835).
Hans Christian Andersen's first Collection of Stories for Children, including The Lighter, Little Klaus and Big Klaus, The Princess on the Pea, and The Flower of Little Ita, was published in the spring of 1835. In 1837, two stories were added to this collection and compiled into the first volume of the fairy tale collection. Volume 2 was completed in 1842. In 1847, he wrote another book, "Album without Painting".
From 1840 to 1857, Hans Christian Andersen visited Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Asia Minor and Africa, and wrote many travelogues during the journey, such as "A Poet's Market" (1842), "Swedish Scenery" (1851), "Spanish Chronicle" (1863), "Visit to Portugal" (1866) and so on. He met many well-known writers and artists in Germany, France and other parliaments. He met Dickens in England in 1847.
Andersen wrote three autobiographies: The Short Biography (1926) in 1832, the Canonical Biography published in Germany in 1847, and a later Biography (1855). His novels and fairy tales are also mostly autobiographical in nature, such as The Improvist, O'Ot (1836), Just a Fiddler (1837), Two Baronesses (1848), Alive or Not Alive (1857), Lucky Belle (1870), etc. In his works such as "Dream Under the Willow Tree" (1853), "Ib and the Little Krieszbe" (1855), "She is a Waste" (1853), he also wrote about the life of the shoemaker, the washerwoman and other laborers, reflecting his own unfortunate life and suffering, but also showing the social contradictions of Denmark, with a profound reality and people's nature.
On August 4, 1875, Hans Christian Andersen died at The House of Mercher in Copenhagen. The master of fairy tales worked tirelessly throughout his life, dedicating his genius and life to the "future generation" and writing 168 fairy tales and stories until three years before his death. His works have been translated into more than 80 languages.
Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales embody the democratic tradition and realist tendencies in Danish literature. His best fairy tales are still recited today by many adults and children around the world. For example, "The Little Girl Who Sold Matches", "The Ugly Duckling", "The Gatekeeper's Son", "The Emperor's New Clothes", "The Nightingale", "The Princess on the Pea", "The Gardener and the Master" and so on.
Andersen's fairy tales are related to folk literature, inheriting and carrying forward the simple and fresh style of folk literature. Most of his early works were based on folk tales, and many folk songs and legends were quoted in his later works. In terms of genre and writing technique, Andersen's works are diverse, ranging from fairy tales to short stories; fables and poems; suitable for both children's reading and adult appreciation. The artistic images he created, such as the emperor without clothes, the staunch tin soldier, the thumbelina, the ugly duckling, the red shoe, etc., have become allusions in European languages. In terms of linguistic style, Hans Christian Andersen was a highly creative writer, making extensive use of the structured forms of everyday spoken and folktale of the lower Danish people in his work. The language is vivid, natural, fluent and beautiful, full of rich local atmosphere.
Andersen's work was introduced to China early on, and the January 1919 issue of New Youth published a translation of Zhou Zuoren's Little Girl Selling Matches. In 1942, the Beijing Xinchao Society published "Traveling Companions" co-translated by Lin Lan and Zhang Jinfen. Since then, the Commercial Press, Zhonghua Bookstore and Enlightened Bookstore have successively published translations of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, reviews of Hans Christian Andersen's biography and his works. Translators include Zheng Zhenduo, Mao Dun, Zhao Jingshen, Gu Junzheng and so on. However, pre-liberation translations were all translated from English, Japanese, or other languages. After liberation, Ye Junjian conducted a systematic study of Hans Christian Andersen's original works, directly translating all and Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales into Chinese from Danish. In 1955, 1958 and 1978, the People's Literature Publishing House published Ye Junjian's translation of Andersen's Selected Fairy Tales.