The Paper's reporter Xu Xiao
"Write big literature for little children, with the world and the future." On November 12th, the award ceremony of the Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award, which has been held for 7 consecutive years, arrived as scheduled, and major awards were presented at the Shanghai Baoshan International Folk Art Expo Center. Zhang Qiusheng, a famous Chinese children's writer, won the Special Contribution Award, The Chinese-American illustrator Yang Zhicheng won the Writer of the Year Award, and 10 works won the Annual Text and Picture Book Award.
Guests take a group photo with the winners
The epidemic year was held as scheduled, and children's literature was transmitted to tenacity and warmth
2020 is a special year, in the context of the new crown epidemic sweeping the world, the Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Awards were held as scheduled. Although the launch time was later than in previous sessions, it still received a positive response from major Chinese and foreign children's book publishing institutions, receiving a total of 104 kinds of books (written works) that met the requirements, and received 146 kinds of picture book works from 15 countries and regions such as the United States, Britain, France, Spain, Canada, Poland, Belgium, Portugal, India, Israel, and the Philippines.
In the final evaluation stage, 6 domestic judges and 3 international judges also jointly judged and selected this year's winning works through online review meetings. I hope that in the period when the epidemic is still spreading, we will convey the tenacious faith and warm strength through excellent children's literature works.
Xu Jiong, director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Press and Publications, said that due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, major exhibitions and awards around the world have pressed the pause button in 2020, but China is the country that has done the best epidemic prevention and control in the world, and on this basis, economic operation and social life are taking the lead in normalizing. The organizers of the Chen Bochui Awards overcame various difficulties, worked hard to achieve the scheduled holding of this year's awards, and strived to maintain the international and high-quality standards of the awards.
The jury members of the 2020 Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award are judging
The text works focus on realism, and the picture books interpret common emotions
This year's award committee is composed of famous Chinese and foreign children's literature writers, literary critics, illustrators and publishers. During the awarding process, on the basis of considering the overall quality of the participating works, the jury pays more attention to the children's perspective and artistic expression of the works, encourages innovative works with prominent themes, distinct styles, unique imaginations, and novel ideas, and pays tribute to the creators and publishers who have contributed to the prosperity and development of children's literature.
A major feature of this year's participating text books is that realist works account for a considerable proportion, some depicting how teenagers cope with the hardships of life during the lockdown in Wuhan, and some writing about the life choices of rural teenagers in the construction of the new socialist countryside in the face of the changes of the times, these works are mainly based on the realistic themes of excavating children's hearts and exploring the true meaning of life, with ingenious conception, strange layout, rich genre, and the words and lines are full of poetic interpretations of juvenile feelings. The writers use their superior imagination to show the rich inner world of Chinese children, and with the pure and beautiful brushstrokes that are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and the romantic and poetic innocence language, they make the ordinary and simple growth stories interesting and interesting, and add the infinite possibilities of happy reading to the works.
The picture book works collected from all over the world have a unique perspective and a combination of gods and forms. Although the style is distinctive, it conveys the common emotions of different cultural backgrounds, which perfectly explains the uniqueness of excellent picture book works across languages and countries. This year, the creators of both painting and writing have attracted the attention of the judges, who have depicted a childlike fantasy world with their full imagination and ingenious artistic conception, and have shown a high level of visual storytelling ability. After the hard work and careful selection of Chinese and foreign judges, 10 award-winning works finally stood out:
China Children's publishing house "The Town That Doesn't Exist" (Huang Yingcao), 21st Century Publishing House "Building a Porcelain Kiln for You" (Peng Xuejun), Anhui Children's Publishing House "I and Xiaosu" (Huang Chunhua), Jiangsu Phoenix Children's Publishing House "Running Dai Er Niu" (Huang Beijia), 21st Century Publishing House "Smile in the Thorny Bush: Small Cong" (Yang Xiaoyan), 5 kinds of books won this year's book (text) award.
This year's Annual Book (Text) Awards have five works
Portuguese Logic Duck Publishing House "Right Side of the First Floor" (text author: Richardo Henriques; drawing author: Nigulaus Fernandez), Guizhou People's Publishing House "Mr. Blake and His Dog" (text author/painter: Jiu'er), Tiantian Publishing House "A whale fell from the sky" (text author/painter: Xi Yuke), Guizhou People's Publishing House "The Sound of Snowy Days" (text author: Mei Zihan; drawing author: [Russian] Igor Oleinikov) and the British Shuangming Publishing House "The Truth of the Old Man" (Text author/illustrator: Elena Ellis), 5 books won the Book of the Year (Picture Book) Award.
Five works of this year's Book of the Year (Picture Book) Award
Huang Chunhua won the Book of the Year (Text) Award for "Me and Xiaosu". This work chooses the perspective of a young girl, facing the special realistic theme of the world's catastrophe of the new crown epidemic, and puts in the author's deep emotions, narrative moderation, and moving details. What is particularly valuable about this book is that it transcends the catastrophe itself, although it does not avoid the pain brought to the world by the catastrophe, but at the same time presents the strong love and responsibility of people when they are caught in the catastrophe, and there is a tear-jerking artistic charm.
"On January 23, Wuhan was 'locked down', and like 9 million people in Wuhan, I experienced that period of time. Then there was the support of the people of the whole country. The bits and pieces that happen here, I have personally experienced. A writer who records the times with his writing, I think, is a matter of course. Huang Chunhua told the surging news reporter that he was very sure of writing this subject and felt that he must write, but at first he wanted to wait for the epidemic to end and then settle down before writing," Later, under the encouragement of the editor of the publishing house, he felt that writing the most empathetic emotions in real time was also a route. In Huang Chunhua's view, the most important thing in writing children's literature is to care for the world from the perspective of children, in addition to which there is no difference from other forms of literature, and it is based on literature.
"Me and Xiaosu"
In the work "Running Dai Erniu", which also won the Annual Book (Text) Award, Huang Beijia vividly and interestingly tells the suspenseful story of Dai Erniu, a boy from Hongba Village in Jiangnan, China, who picked up his mobile phone and searched for the lost owner, with idealistic tones and humorous brushstrokes, and extended to the new rural changes of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era, shaping the chinese children in the new era of kindness, simplicity and beauty. This is the third time that Huang Beijia has won the Chen Bochui Award, which makes her greatly moved, "I think that only in an international metropolis like Shanghai can there be such an atmosphere, generosity and tolerance, and can give an award to an author so many times." ”
"Running Dai Er Niu"
Mei Zihan, who is the same age as the Republic, and the illustrator Igor Oreynikov, completed "The Sound of a Snowy Day", won the Book of the Year (Picture Book) Award. This is a picture book jointly cooperated by outstanding Chinese children's literature writers and international illustrators who are deeply respected. In their pens, the snow falls silently but has a sound, and the sound is in the world. The jury called it "a work about loving nature, feeling nature, and feeling great beauty." It is a happy attempt to combine sound poetry and wordless painting perfectly. ”
Mei Zihan was at the scene and especially recalled the moving story of his interaction with Chen Bochui. "I have always missed Mr. Chen Bochui very much, I joined the Shanghai Writers Association and the China Writers Association, he is my introducer. I will always miss his frugal life, and the smile he will always have, and he has stayed on the scene with an eternal smile, left in Chinese children's literature. ”
"The Sound of a Snowy Day"
Inside page of "The Sound of a Snowy Day"
Rooted in life, Yang Zhicheng and Zhang Qiusheng won the Writer of the Year Award and the Special Contribution Award, respectively
In order to recognize children's literature workers who have made outstanding contributions to the cause of children's literature and the exchange of Chinese and foreign children's literature, the Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award has set up a special contribution award and an annual writer award. This year's Special Contribution Award was awarded to Zhang Qiusheng, a famous Chinese children's writer, and the Writer of the Year Award was awarded to Yang Zhicheng, a Chinese-American illustrator.
Over the past 60 years, Yang Zhicheng has always explored the Eastern and Western worlds from the perspective of human beings like a child seeking knowledge, depicting the love of art and traditional Chinese culture with nearly 100 works, and building a bridge for the world to understand Chinese culture. In his works, we see a beautiful heart with Chinese characteristics, sharing a deep love for the world with children on the road of seeking truth.
Zhang Hong, a magical children's book club, was entrusted with receiving the award and read out the acceptance speech. Mr. Yang sent her an email about a week ago, and at the end of the email, Mr. Zhang said, he wrote: "I no longer have any family in my native city." This made Zhang Hong a little sentimental after reading it, "I feel that this international award from my hometown is of extraordinary significance to Mr. Yang." ”
Zhang Hong said that if it were not for the epidemic, Mr. Yang would publish his 100th picture book in 2020. When Yang Zhicheng arrived in Shanghai last year, he handed Zhang Hong a record of his art talk, called "Making Books Like Planting Trees." "Now, this great tree is leafy and fruitful, but its deep roots have never left the soil of the East. Today's award is probably the land's tribute to this tall tree. ”
Zhang Hong and Yang Zhicheng
The 81-year-old Zhang Qiusheng is an evergreen tree in Chinese children's literature. As the editor, editor-in-chief and editor-in-chief of children's literature newspapers and periodicals, he has cultivated and transported a large number of talents and dedicated his life's energy to the field of original writing of contemporary Chinese children's literature. At the same time, he has used his more than half a century of diligent writing to achieve outstanding results in the field of children's poetry and fairy tale writing, influencing generations of children; many of his works have been selected for primary school Chinese textbooks and won many awards. In particular, his artistic personality of the "Little Palm Fairy Tale", which integrates whimsy, wonderful ideas, warmth, poetry, natural childlike interest and profound philosophy, has added a colorful, warm and timeless stroke to Chinese children's literature since the "new period" with its rich and vivid themes, novel and flexible plots, short and original style, and childlike natural language, and has become an important harvest of contemporary original fairy tales.
Zhang Qiusheng talked about his "secret" to writing children's literature, which is nothing more than reading two books, a book with words, and a book of life without words. "To write children's literature is to use the intersection of children's eyes and adult eyes to observe life, to love life, to discover the beauty of life, and then to present it in words."
Zhang Qiusheng
It is reported that as one of the literary awards with the longest continuous operation and the most award-winning writers in China, the predecessor of the "Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award" was the "Children's Literature Gardener Award" established by Mr. Chen Bochui, a famous Chinese children's literature giant. In 2014, the Municipal Press and Publication Bureau, the Baoshan District People's Government and the Professional Committee of the Chen Bochui Children's Literature Fund cooperated to jointly promote it to China's first international children's literature award, and the award ceremony was permanently settled in Baoshan.
2020 Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award Winners List
1. Special Contribution Award
Zhang Qiusheng (China): Famous fairy tale writer, children's poetry writer and publisher
2. Writer of the Year Award
Yang Zhicheng (USA): Painter and children's picture book author
2. Annual Work Award
(1) Annual Book (Picture Book) Award
The Right Side of the First Floor (Portugal), written by Richardo Henriques; Illustrated by Nigulaus Fernandez, Logical Duck Press, 2020
Mr. Black and His Dog (China), text author/illustrator: Jiu'er, Guizhou People's Publishing House, 2019
A Whale Fell from the Sky (China), text author/illustrator: Xi Yuke, published by Tiantian Publishing House in 2019
The Sound of a Snowy Day (China), written by Mei Zihan, illustrated by Igor Oreynikov, Guizhou People's Publishing House, 2019
The Truth About the Old Man (UK), written by Elena Ellis, TwinNings Press, 2020
(2) Annual Book (Text) Award
"The Town That Doesn't Exist", by Huang Yingcao, published by China Children's Publishing House in 2019
"Building a Porcelain Kiln for You", by Peng Xuejun, published by 21st Century Publishing House in 2019
"Me and Xiaosu", by Huang Chunhua, published by Anhui Children's Publishing House in 2020
"Running Dai Er Niu", by Huang Beijia, published by Jiangsu Phoenix Children's Publishing House in 2019
Smile in the Thorny Bush: Small Bush, by Yang Xiaoyan, 21st Century Press, 2020
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai