Question

Who is the most famous fairy tale writer? Many of you may say Danish writer Hans Christian Andersen. There is a big award that takes his name: the Hans Christian Andersen Award(國際安徒生獎). It is the highest award for children’s stories. A writer can only get it once in a lifetime.

On April 4, Cao Wenxuan won the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award. He is the first Chinese writer to ever win this important award for children’s literature.

Cao Wenxuan was born in 1954 in a small village in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province. Some of his stories are set there. He is now a professor at Peking University. He started to publish children’s fiction in 1979. Many of his novels have been translated into English, French, Japanese and Korean.

If you read Cao’s stories, you will find beautiful and poetic descriptions of scenery. For example, in The Grass House (1997), Cao writes, “The grass grows toughly. When the sun shines, the grass shines like copper wire (銅線). When the wind blows from the sea, the grass makes surprisingly metal-like sounds. ”

Cao also uses love as a theme in his stories, and he describes it with great beauty. You can find this theme in Bronze and Sunflower (《青銅葵花》) (2005). The ending of the story is sad, but it helps make the story more realistic. “Sadness is a beautiful emotion. It helps kids understand the real world when it is expressed properly,” Cao once said.

When Cao creates a story, he does not write specifically for someone. Adults can find beauty in his stories, and the plots he invents tend to impress children. “I tell real Chinese stories, but my stories relate to (關(guān)聯(lián)) humans. This might be a key reason why I won this award,” he said.

1.What is the Hans Christian Andersen Award?

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2.When was Cao Wenxuan born?

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3.How many languages have his books been translated into?

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4.In Cao’s opinion, why could he win the award?

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5.What can you find if you read Cao’s stories?

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Answer 1