China's contribution to children's literature enhance its dialogue with world: experts

Chinese writer Cao Wenxuan was named winner of the 2016 Hans Christian Anderson Prize. [File photo]

China's contribution to children's literature can enhance the country's dialogue with the world, experts said on Wednesday at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy.

Earlier this week, Peking University professor Cao Wenxuan, 62, was named at the fair as winner of the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Prize, a biennial award - a gold medallion presented by the Queen of Denmark - given to a living author for a "lasting contribution to children's literature".

"The Chinese children's literature is a very developing and international field, there are a lot of books coming in from overseas and being published in China," said Harriet Petty, international relationships department manager at Beijing-based China Children's Book Expo, an annual exposition which held its first edition in China in May last year.

"And actually one of the focuses of our expo is trying to get more Chinese books out into the rest of the world as well," said Petty, who is from England.

"There are a lot of really beautiful works, amazing illustrators in China and very talented writers, both young and established ones.I think the rest of the world would be interested in," she said.

Petty defined Chinese professionals in this field as very open to work with foreigners, in a very welcoming environment.

Jacopo Della Ragione, creative director at the China Children's Book Expo, noted that China has not the same long tradition in publishing children's books as Italy has. For this reason, China's publishers are facing some difficulties, the Italian said.