Children's book writers as gramophones: To the childhood in our memories

Children's book authors write with innocence as pen and whimsy as ink. In the enchanting realm of children's books, every good book is a shining
star, and children's authors are the unseen dream-weavers transmitting energy. With marvelous plots, vivid characters, and captivating stories, they
create heart-warming fairy tales, fables, children's novels, popular-science picture books, encyclopedias, historical stories, children's poetry, illustrated
albums and so on. Their inspiration stems from childhood memories and is grounded in rich traditional Chinese culture, infused with humanistic
care and social reflection. Their works have been nourishing young hearts and guiding generation after generation through growth.

Cai Gao

Born in 1946 in Changsha, Hunan province, Cai Gao is a painter and picturebook illustrator, and served as a juror at the 34th Bologna Children's Book Fair Illustration Exhibition. Readers affectionately call her the "treasure grandma". She is a milestone figure in the history of Chinese picture books and her works are hailed as "the most beautiful Chinese style picture books".

Her first job in youth was as a primary school teacher and she has taught art, Chinese, and English. In the 1970s, she began illustrating and writing picture books for children based on Chinese folk stories. Later, as editor at Hunan Juvenile & Children's Publishing House, she edited Picture Book, the first professional treatise on picture books introduced in the Chinese mainland.

Her representative works include The Double-Sixth Festival, The Land of the Peach Blossom, and Beautiful Chinese Stories. Her works have won the Golden Apple Award at the 14th Bratislava International Children's Book Fair (BIB), making her the first Chinese author to receive this honor. She has also won the Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award "Special Contribution Award" and the Bologna Children's Book Fair "Master of Excellence—China" honorary title.

In 2024, she published the essay collection The World is Full of Innocence and works such as The Old Man and the Flower Fairies and The Altair and the Vega. In April 2025, her new children's picture book What Would it be Like Without? was published. In July of the same year, the book received the 12th National Outstanding Children's Literature Award.

Jin Bo

Born in 1935 in Beijing, Jin Bo was originally named Wang Jinbo. He has worked as a professor at Beijing Normal University, a member of the Chinese Writers Association Children's Literature Committee, a director of the Beijing Writers Association, and director of the Children's Literature Creation Committee.

In 1957, Jin was admitted to the Chinese Department at Beijing Normal University and began publishing that same year with the lyric Little Hedge. He went on to write numerous lyrics and poems set to music.

Over his decades-long career, he has published over 40 collections including poetry, fairy tales, essays, infant literature, literary criticism, and compilations of poems and songs. His works have repeatedly won honors including the National Book Award, the Best Works Award, etc.

In July 2024, Jin Bo Collected Works was published, divided into four volumes themed "Heaven" "Earth" "People" and "Harmony". It is a set of literary works filled with love and warmth dedicated to children. He remarked, "Childhood in one's older years is not the same as in youth. Childhood needs nurturing and new experiences."

Wang Yongying

Born in 1977 in Bobai county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Wang Yongying is currently a member of the 9th National Committee of the Chinese Writers Association and vice-chair of the Guangxi Writers Association. She was formerly an editor at a children's magazine before resigning to become a freelance author. She has published more than 100 works.

Her writings are rich with ethnic Chinese flavor. For instance, The Flower, Stone, Tree and Bird draws on Guangxi's famous story “Hundred Bird Feather Robe”, Our Family is woven around minority vocal art, and Grandmother in the Wolf Cave incorporates elements of ethnic literature.

She says, "I keep returning to my childhood, sifting through past stories and writing them down. Every word in the book is alive, and these stories that grow within the book will never age. Whenever a child opens the book, in any era, they will see a story full of vitality. Sometimes when listening to other people's stories, I find a mysterious passage into someone else's hometown or childhood and place those stories in my books."

In 2025, her new work The Bowl Fixer, which focuses on Guangxi's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Cracked-Porcelain Mending and features the topic of family, received the Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award. Her novel Grandmother in the Wolf Cave won the 12th National Outstanding Children's Literature Award and the Silver Prize of the First Bingbo Young Adult & Children's Literature Award.

Tang Tang

Born in 1977, Tang Tang is currently a teacher at the Humanities College, Zhejiang Normal University. She is also a member of the Chinese Writers Association, vice-chair of the Zhejiang Writers Association, and a distinguished professor at Zhejiang Normal University. Her works have won numerous awards, including the Bing Xin Children's Literature Award, the Chen Bochui Children's Literature Award, the Jinjin Children's Literature Award, the Top Ten Youth Golden Writers Children's Literature Award, the Bing Xin Children's Book Award, and the National Outstanding Children's Literature Award.

She has authored fairy-tale short stories such as Hide in Your Heart, fairy-tale novellas including The Teeth of Xi Di, and fairy-tale novels like Valley of the Fireflies. Her representative works Aqua Pixie Kakasha and The Green Pearl have been translated into English, French, Japanese, and published overseas.

Reflecting on her creative process, she says, "Many of my fairy tales are inspired by my childhood experiences, such as a handful of creek water, a pebble, a blade of grass, a flower, a clump of mud, an insect, a playmate, or a string of birdsong. These were once ordinary things in life but have now become seeds for my fairy tale creation."

In December 2024, her work Little Fish and the Big River was published by Zhejiang Juvenile and Children's Publishing House. In 2025, it won the Gold Prize of the First Bingbo Young Adult & Children's Literature Award.

Li Tianfei

Li Tianfei, a graduate of Peking University's Chinese classics and literature major, has made significant contributions to the field of Chinese literature and culture. He won the Bing Xin Children's Book Award in 2019, served as a test-setter on CCTV's program Chinese Poetry Competition, and worked as an editor in the literature editing office of Zhonghua Book Company. His series Li Tianfei Talks about Journey to the West amassed over 100 million reads and was praised by netizens as "the most reliable, down-to-earth commentary on Journey to the West." After uploading hundreds of interpretation articles about Chinese classics, he began compiling these articles into books.

Li is dedicated to the research and popularization of classic masterpieces and traditional culture, producing a wide range of works, from ancient-text editing and popular science to children's guides to classics. He strikes a delicate balance between scholarly value and readability, leading general audiences and young readers to classic works using accessible language and helping them understand the cultural essence and historical context of these works from a modern perspective.

In 2024, he published several new books, including Journey to the West - You Can't Put It Down at First Sight, The Fascinating Classic of Mountains and Rivers, Interpreting Creation of the Gods for Children, and Graded Ancient Chinese Works You Can Learn at Once (Second Series). In August of this year, he released Eggy Party Romance of the Three Kingdoms, co-published by People's Literature Publishing House and the popular mobile game Eggy Party. This work represents an innovative integration of a game IP and classical literature.