Cao Wenxuan: Bringer of aestheticism to children
- By staff reporter Jiao Feng
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail China Today, June 1, 2016
Writer of children’s fiction Cao Wenxuan became last April the first Chinese author ever to be awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award, regarded as the Nobel Prize of children’s literature, at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.
Jury members were unanimous in their choice. In her evaluation of Cao’s works, jury president Patricia Aldana praised Cao’s capacity to pinpoint in poetic style the truly sorrowful instants in children’s lives. Cao is noted in China’s literary circles for his insistence on the purity of literature and emphasis on aestheticism in fiction. The award in some way confirms the artistic quality, influence and appeal of Chinese literature.
 |
|
Cao Wenxuan gives a lecture in a primary school in Ningbo of Zhejiang Province on May 10, 2016. |
Distinct Creation Concept
Since becoming a writer in the 1970s, Cao Wenxuan has always expressed in his works his distinct literary perceptions. In 1983 he published the novella A Cow without Horns. His short story The Old Castle was published in 1985 to great acclaim, and won the Juvenile Literature – a leading Chinese journal on children’s literature – award for the best work of the year. His novel Goats Do Not Eat Heavenly Grass, published in 1991, established Cao’s prominent status in the field of children’s literature. His creativeness took flight in the late 1990s, when he published a trilogy on the theme of children’s growth – The Straw House, The Red Tile, and The Bird. The Gourd Ladle, and Bronze and Sunflower were published in the 2000s.
Cao has over the years consistently laid emphasis on the aesthetics of literature. Whenever telling a story, depicting a person’s character, portraying a social and historical background, or describing a life, he strives to present positive values with which children can identify. They may then comprehensively establish affirmative spiritual values.
Cao believes that as children are the future of a nation, writers of children’s literature are consequently one of the factors that shape what lies ahead. He sees this as “a sacred mission for writers of children’s fiction.” Such a sense of mission explains his pursuit of the creation of books for children that are pure and aesthetically appealing, and his desire to inspire them with a positive attitude.
Cao’s stories portraying how children grow often relate to real-life experiences in his hometown during boyhood. In his eyes, the qualities of childlike innocence and naivete long endure in human nature. This is why he endeavors to convey in his works the universal emotions and spiritual values inherent in it. The stories in his trilogy written in the 1990s can still move readers today. As the world inevitably changes, certain literary works must present the new social reality to children as they grow. However, literature, including children’s fiction, is also expected to capture the inherent depths of human nature that will never change.
In his works, Cao clearly expresses the values through which to judge what is good, evil, beautiful, and despicable. Rather than ambiguous portrayals, he insists on imparting righteous values to young readers in a straightforward way. In his opinion, children do not have the adult capacity to differentiate what is good from evil in the world, and so need guidance. Although such guidance is often apparent in children’s stories, Cao’s works make it clear, for instance, by showing how a kind heart can often lighten an arduous life, and that growing pains intertwine with the wonder of growing up. Firm in his belief that even the most humble life can be narrated in a refined and dignified style, Cao usually sublimates the realities of a hard childhood into his stories.
Having advocated aestheticism over the decades, Cao reached new heights in this regard in his works The Thin Rice and Bronze and Sunflower. The former portrays with subtle poignancy the beautiful southern landscape of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The strands of pain apparent between the lines testify to his refined and understated writing style. A still deeper sorrow underlies Bronze and Sunflower in spite of its uncompromising descriptions.
Literary critic Professor Xie Mian has noted Cao’s consistency regardless of changing literary trends, in that he unswervingly upholds his faith in literature and earnestly practices what he preaches. “With effort and persistence, the writer that espouses the philosophy of aestheticism is constantly under the self-imposed challenge to attain higher levels,” Xie said. “Today, one such writer has at last harvested due plaudits for his decades of diligent work. Moreover, the Hans Christian Andersen Award could be seen as a prize for Chinese literature as a whole.”
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)