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80-year-old Chinese illustrator receives 'Nobel Prize for children's literature'_我的网站

一 | 冀时新闻报道系列报道《自豪！我是雄安人》今天走进建设一线，看中铁建工集团项目经理杜泽文和团队对标新区高标准高质量严要求，发扬铁军作风，全力铸就精品工程。中铁建工启动区财富大厦项目经理杜泽文：下午组织咱对小市政和景观进行一个关键工序的验收。正在项目现场召开调度会的就是杜泽文。由他牵头建设的启动区财富大厦项目主体结构已经封顶，目前已全面进入室内装修、室外小市政及景观工程收尾阶段。

Chinese picture book artist Cai Gao Photo: VCGOn Saturday Beijing time, the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award ceremony was held in Canada. Eighty-year-old Chinese picture book artist Cai Gao attended the event in person to receive the medal and certificate, becoming the first Chinese illustrator to win this honor in the award's 60-year history.
The prize is awarded every two years by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to a living author (since 1956) and illustrator (since 1966). The award is often referred to as the "Nobel Prize for children's literature," honoring lifelong achievements that have made a lasting and important contribution to children's literature.
During the award ceremony, IBBY President Basarat Kazim praised Cai for the elegant, unrushed style in her works, which encourages children to look closely and discover beauty in quiet corners, according to the Guangming Daily.
Kazim said Cai's works have an unhurried elegance that encourages children to look closely and discover beauty in quiet, everyday moment.
"This year's winner, Cai Gao, is extremely special. She is as beautiful a person as the drawings she does," Kazim said.
Following author Cao Wenxuan's win of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards as a writer of children's literature in 2016, Cai's achievement means that Chinese creators have now won both the author and illustrator categories, a "double victory."
In her acceptance speech, Cai said, "The future of the world lies in children. There is no greater happiness than creating for them." She also noted that children's books are bridges, connecting cultures and hearts around the world.
Reflecting on her childhood and her years teaching in rural villages, Cai recalled that after six years working as a rural primary school teacher in the 1980s, she joined a publishing house, where she spent two decades as a children's book editor. "This job taught me the most important lesson: to see life through the eyes of a child, and to use art as a way of expressing my feelings about life," she noted.
"I feel the profound weight of this gift from life. I'm filled with mixed emotions. I'm moved and grateful for everything I've been through. Every experience has shaped me into the person I am today," she added.
Alongside her editing career, Cai kept creating original picture books. Her well-known book Yueliang Baba is based on folk songs her grandmother would sing in her native Changsha dialect. Works like Huocheng 1938 (lit: Fire City 1938) were inspired by memories of wartime in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province. The rural scenery and farming scenes in The Land of the Peach Blossom, a book which is also listed as textbooks for primary school students in Japan, all reflect her lifelong connection to the Hunan countryside and many years quietly editing books at her desk, according to the China News Service.
Though her illustrations reflect the atmosphere of the times, Cai told the Global Times that her stories' true intentions go beyond the visual; she hopes her work can teach children that "fearlessness and love are ways to overcome hardship."
Books such as Bao'er, Hua Mulan, The Land of the Peach Blossom, and The Hundred Birds' Feather Robe have established Cai as an illustrator who skillfully interprets traditional Chinese culture. She constantly revisits the classics, striving to connect ancient stories to contemporary social and cultural themes.
Before winning the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2026, Cai became, in 1993, the first Chinese illustrator to win the Golden Apple Award, one of the world's top international honors for children's illustration. Cai has always emphasized that these awards do not belong to her alone.
"When I learned that I had won the award, my first thought was of all the creators of my generation. This award is not just mine, it belongs to all of us," she said.
Cai's victory fills a six-decade gap for Chinese illustrators in the award's history, Zhang Peng, an associate professor at Nanjing Normal University and also president of the university's publishing house, told the Global Times. It also shows that original picture books, rooted in Chinese tradition and told with Eastern aesthetics, are fully capable of earning global recognition, Zhang added.
Zhang noted that for a long time, the Chinese children's book market was dominated by foreign imports, and local authors often struggled with the anxiety of imitating Western works. At 80, Cai has set a striking example for the industry with her use of ink-and-wash folk art, proving that the more grounded in national culture a work is, the wider its global reach. This has inspired greater confidence among local creators and encourages more people to focus on traditional Chinese culture, while paving the way for Chinese children's books to go global.
"Cai's achievement is no accident. It marks the moment when Chinese children's books truly found their own voice on the world stage," Zhang said.
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二 | 财富大厦所在的雄安金融岛片区，将打造为金融机构疏解的集中承载地和金融科技创新中心，成为雄安CBD的核心区。中铁建工启动区财富大厦项目经理杜泽文：我们承建的财富大厦项目是金融岛片区的首开项目，是整个区域开发的开路先锋，在项目建成之后重点是承接北京金融机构疏解落地。作为建设者，这一辈子能亲身参与这样一座未来之城的建设，我内心无比自豪。两年前，满怀着能够参与雄安这座未来之城建设的自豪感，杜泽文来到了雄安。从此，他把高标准、高质量推进项目建设的理念，落实到日常工作的每一个环节。项目团队创新应用"智慧建造"体系：采用桩基超声波成孔检测仪、复合桩定位器等技术保障基础精度，引入智能收面机器人、抹光机器人替代传统人工施工。中铁建工启动区财富大厦项目经理杜泽文：切实提升了工程质量和建设的效率。说实话，把这么多的新技术集中在一个项目上，在雄安以外很难有这样的实践机会。

三 | 正午时分，食堂短暂的就餐时间也成了杜泽文协调工作的窗口。现场沟通协调，立即拍板落实，早已成为项目部的工作日常。约定验收的时间一到，杜泽文戴好安全帽、穿上反光马甲直奔施工现场。

四 | 地砖缝隙、墙面平整度，小到毫米级细节，大到整体观感，他一项项认真核验。在他看来，工程满足验收不是目标，要主动对标更高标准。中铁建工启动区财富大厦项目经理杜泽文：在雄安你可能做到80分很勉强，大家因为都普遍都是优秀，90多分，是这种标准这种尺度，而且基本上都是百年工程的标准去打造。今年暑假，在北京读书的孩子来到雄安，杜泽文依然每天早出晚归，虽然很少有时间陪孩子，但孩子却没有怨言，因为他知道爸爸是在建设雄安新区。

五 | 杜泽文儿子杜宸逸：作为一个雄安建设者家庭的最小的一辈，我感到非常之骄傲。我肯定要成为他，他现在就是我的榜样。中铁建工启动区财富大厦项目经理杜泽文：经过两年的攻坚，项目即将完工交付。现在的心情就像看到自己家的孩子，马上要迎接大考，既期待又紧张，看着自己倾注心血的建筑拔地而起，打心底感到骄傲。

六 | 九年来，正是无数像杜泽文一样的建设者接续奋斗、默默付出，才让雄安新区5374栋楼宇拔地而起，疏解产业相继落地，人民生活持续改善，一座生机勃勃的未来之城从蓝图走进现实。国网雄安新区供电公司共产党员服务队队长张锐：在新建片区，我们的中、低压配电网的供电可靠性已经接近了6个“9”，这个标准即将赶超世界一流城市的水平。作为一名电力人，能够伴随新区一同成长，并且为它的发展贡献一份力量，我们心中满满都是幸福和成就感。二十二冶雄安新区起步区青藤小镇（北区）项目经理刘超群：大到整体空间规划，小到一栋楼房、一个公园，都把高标准、高质量、绿色低碳落到实处。我发自内心为雄安新区的欣欣向荣而骄傲，更为自己能够投身雄安新区建设而自豪。