Cao Wenxuan wins 'Nobel Prize' for children's books

The Bronze and Sunflower is among the children's books by Cao Wenxuan, who becomes the first Chinese to claim the Hans Christian Andersen Award on Tuesday. [Photo provided to China Daily]

"What I tell are genuine Chinese stories, which can be read as stories for all human beings. I suppose that's why I'm winning," Cao tells the Chinese media.

"I don't write for a certain audience. When I write, I consider only the language, style and artistic nature of my words," he adds.

Over the years, many Chinese writers and illustrators have been nominated, but none of them has got this far.

In 2013, the China Children's Press & Publication Group, one of Cao's main publishers, held a conference with writers and international publishers to discuss the chances of a Chinese winning the Andersen award.

Jin Bo, a renowned children's book writer born in 1935, says at the conference that he was nominated as early as in 1992, but missed out due to "limited translations of my works then", he says.

But Jin predicted that a Chinese author would soon win, and he mentioned Cao, saying that Cao's The Straw House had sold 8 million copies then, and that many of Cao's titles had been translated into many languages.

Putting the achievement into perspective, Zhang Mingzhou from the publishing group tells the Chinese media: "Cao's win is a historic breakthrough for a country with such a large youth readership."

The group alone sold a total of 140 million copies of children's books in 2015, worth 550 million yuan ($85 million).

And in 2014, the country released 40,000 new titles for children.

In another breakthrough, Wu Qing, the daughter of literary master Bing Xin and former professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, was on the jury this year, as the first Chinese critic to make it to the judging panel.