A Wu Meizhen

　　Q Dou Yuanna

Wu Meizhen

Chinese writer

　　Q Your series books, such as the Little Princess and the Short Dad , have been wellreceived in China children’s book market. Do you think works of this category would be suitable for international children book market?

　　A I understand completely that there are huge culture differences between China and foreign countries, so for the time being, Chinese works can’t be suitable for international children‘s book market. I remember one time, when I was on a visit in Munich, I introduced my representative work It is Tiring to Be a Good Student to high school children from Germany who were studying Chinese. I stressed specifically that it is a story about students under a typical Chinese circumstance of studying for examination. Unexpectedly, however, that struck a responsive chord among the German children. They all agreed that being a good child is certainly tiring, and that they felt so too.

　　Q How do writers produce works considering the issue of localization?

　　A As a writer, I do think that the motivation of creating should come from the heart. If external factors are what are taken into account all the time, excellent literature works that could move people’s heart would never be created. We can surely do research about what foreign readers like in works with Chinese elements, but we do not necessarily need to tailormake works that cater to foreign readers’ taste so as to help works to go abroad. I do believe that genuinely excellent works are not purposefully tailormade, but are sought for. For example, at the annual Bologna Children’s Book Fair, it is international publishers who are actively seeking for outstanding works. Our dream is that one day, foreign publishers would come to Chinese writers for their works of their own accord. Therefore, for we writers, the most important thing is to establish a correct perspective of children and conscientiously explore the regulation of creating art.

　　Q Do you have any suggestions for the aspect regarding “going global” for China’s children books?

　　A The Chinese language is a very special kind, so I think that it would be a bit difficult to strike a responsive chord with foreign readers, if the stories are with words only. However, arts and music are different these two are worldwide. Therefore, picture books, among all Chinese children books, should be the easiest category to be received in international market. I hope that it would be our own painters who do the pictures, rather than foreign painters who draw a story by Chinese writers, because the first author of picture books should not be the story teller, but the illustrator.