Cao Wenxuan


Cao Wenxuan is a Chinese novelist, best known for his works of children's literature. Cao is the vice president of Beijing Writers Association. He is also a professor and doctoral tutor at Peking University. His novels have been translated into English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Serbian.

Biography

Cao was born in 1954 in Yancheng, Jiangsu. He entered into the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of Peking University 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 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” 《文学:另一种造屋》.
Cao's Dingding Dangdang series follows the life of two brothers with Downs 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
Novellas
Short stories
Picture books for children
Essays
One of his works has been adapted for film:
Two more of his works are being adapted for film: Bronze and Sunflower and Firebrand.