2016年CRI Chinese Children's Illustrators Become A Fresh Boost for Chinese Culture

 

Yu Hongcheng is a young illustrator born in 1989. She began considering a design for her illustrated¹ book at the end of 2013 following a trip to Dali, southwest China's Yunnan province.

As she encountered local farmers who were working hard in crops, she made up her mind to draw a book for them as the illustrator herself explains: 

"I hope to use my own style to record traditional means of farming in China. Through my illustrations, readers can see their farming techniques and devices are extremely old fashioned in contrast to the advanced electronic tools, which are applied² in the modern Chinese agricultural system. A huge water-driven rice pounder remains³ in use there and maybe after several years, it might fade out of history. So I decided⁴ to record it via my illustrations which I think is really a good and interesting way to keep a record of Chinese agriculture. In my opinion it is a lot better than the plain written documents." 

Yu's book "Where Does Rice Come From?" has won her the Bologna Children's Book Fair Award for illustration. 

Now this book's copyright becomes available in Cambodia, giving young local readers a chance to understand the agricultural traditions of their neighboring country. 

Zhan Hengfeng is the deputy general manager of China Children's Press and Publication Group, which published Yu Hongcheng's book and exported its copyright.

"There is still a big challenge for us to sell Chinese children's books overseas. Actually we try to promote our books worldwide, and Cambodia is the first country that imported Yu's book simply because what her book depicts⁵ is a landscape similar to Cambodia's natural environment. Today, we advocate telling Chinese stories by our own artistic⁶ means, but we also have to ensure young foreign readers could understand those stories by reading illustrations."

"Hoeing the grass under the noonday sun,

His sweat drips on the ground beneath.

Who knows that on the dining plate,

Every single grain means hardship."

This is an ancient Chinese poem, Sympathy for Peasants, written by Li Shen, a poet in Tang dynasty over 1,000 years ago. This poem was illustrated to demonstrate to young readers both at home and abroad the importance of not wasting even a single grain of rice, and how this is considered a betrayal of the hard work and sweat that the peasants have put into growing it. 

Illustrated books help young minds grasp these excellent lessons despite the language barrier some of the young readers may have. Zhao Hengfeng thinks this is where the charm of a book filled with illustrations derives⁷ from.

"This book also imparts knowledge, telling children in details how our food in the plate is made. Her illustrations represent a traditional Chinese style of painting, but they are drawn⁸ in a manner that is easy to understand. This helps foreign readers interpret the meaning of the book. In my opinion, a criterion to evaluate if it's a truly good picture-book is that readers may understand 60 to 70% of the contents by merely looking at those illustrations." 

Earlier at the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy, Martin Salisbury, a professor at Cambridge School of Art, and also an illustrator and author, noted⁹ that Chinese picture books have its pictures well integrated together to tell the story.

The professor also added the development of Chinese illustrators and their works will open up new collaboration¹⁰ opportunities on the education side for China and other nations to learn from one another.

For Studio Plus, I'm Wang Lei.

1 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

2 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 depicts   

描绘，描画( depict的第三人称单数 )； 描述

参考例句：

• The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。

6 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

7 derives   

v.得到( derive的第三人称单数 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• English derives in the main from the common Germanic stock. 英语主要源于日耳曼语系。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derives his income from freelance work. 他以自由职业获取收入。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

9 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

10 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。