A Qin Wenjun

　　Q Fan Wen

    Q In your opinion, what are the new changes and characteristics of the China’s current children’s book market?

　　A I began to publish books in 1982.At that time, there were few specialized children’s publishing houses in China, with only a small variety of books published every year, yet there were also greater demands for children’s books. By contrast, there is a much greater range of children’s books available for people to choose from nowadays, such as books on preschool children’s instruction, popular science reading, cartoons and comics. Children today have a more diverse reading selection.

　　Another change in China’s current children’s literature market is that the new generation of parents is paying more and more attention to the education of children and spending more time and money on children’s reading. China now has about 370 million children and, following national implementation of the “two-child policy,” this number will continue growing. This provides an adequate market force for the publication of children’s books.

　　Nowadays, China’s children’s book market is on a par with that of developed countries in Europe and America in terms of publishing, operation, and marketing. Many excellent children’s books have been well received and have achieved remarkable sales as a result of exhaustive promotion and marketing. Meanwhile, all walks of Chinese society have been stepping up efforts to promote children’s reading.

Qin Wenjun

Chinese writer

　　Q What are the advantages of “exporting” Chinese original children’s books?

　　A In Chinese original children’s literature, realist young adult fiction has developed the best. Children’s fantasy works, including fairy tales, however, are lacking in the aspects of “overall structure” and “imagination.” In contrast, the most widely spread and well-known children’s literary works abroad are almost all fairy tales or fantasy based. Take Harry Potter series for example. In fact, fantasy and reality have always represented the two wings of literature, and, in combination, they produce the most important means of expression within children’s literature across the world. Unfortunately, China is still quite weak at producing fantasy literature despite the fact that our children demand such works. Therefore, I think an important direction for the future of children’s literature of China is in the fantasy genre.

　　At present, the stated strength of China’s creativity and ability to produce extremely original children’s literature is constantly being confirmed and outdone. Original children’s literary works have not only undergone breakthroughs in their sheer volume, but they’ve also had artistic advances across the level during this possess, which have been universally recognized. A great number of original children’s literary works have been translated into many languages and found their way into bookstores across the world.

　　But what we need to note is that Chinese original children’s literature is still comparatively less influential in the world when compared with the popularity of mainstream children’s literature in foreign countries, that is, the classic works that are fantasy-based or fairy tales. The road toward truly “exporting” Chinese children’s literature is long and arduous. In this process, I think it is particularly important for Chinese children’s literature writers to stick to their literary ideals and continue to outdo themselves.