Gao Hongbo (China)
Member of the National Committee of CPPCC; Vice President, Chinese Writers’ Association; Director, Children's Literature Committee
Gao Hongbo is a poet and writer born in 1951 in the province of Inner Mongolia. He graduated in Chinese literature from Beijing University in 1988 and later became deputy editor-in-chief of the Journal of Literature and Art as well as editor-in-chief of the Poetry Periodical. He held several important positions within the China Writer Association, including deputy director of the General Office, member of the permanent committee, Secretary General and Vice President.
Gao Hongbo is also famous for his children’s literature. He is the author of several poetry collections, including Judge Elephant, Goose Goose Goose, The Crocodile Who Ate Stones, The Secret of the Crying Spring, and I Love You, Fox. His other children’s writings comprise The Persian Cat and The Words Pouring from My Pen and a children’s literature anthology A Goose Brought Me These Stories: World Children’s Literature Observed through the Bamboos. His publications have received several national awards.
Liu Jianping (China)
Publisher; Writer of Children’s Literature; Member of Children's Literature Committee
Liu Jianping is the former president and chief editor of Jiangsu Literature and Art Publishing House, president and chief editor of Jiangsu People's Publishing House, and deputy general manager of Phoenix media. He has also served as a member of the National Children's Literature Committee and director of Jiangsu Children's Literature Committee for a number of years.
In 1974, Liu began to publish his own works, and thus far has published more than ten collections of short stories and novels for children. Among these, the novella I Want My Carving Knife won the First National Award for Outstanding Children's Literature, and the novel You Are Seven Years Old This Year was awarded the Second National Award for Outstanding Children's Literature, as well as the Song Qingling Children's Literature Award. Liu is also a member of the China Writers’ Association and director of the Jiangsu Writers’ Association.
Mariela Nagle (Argentina, Germany)
Consultant, Curator, Researcher
Mariela Nagle is a consultant, curator and researcher, specialised in picture books and children literature around the world. She runs the international children’s bookstore “Mundo Azul” in Berlin, Germany. She gives seminars and lectures in schools, universities and social and cultural institutions in Europe, Latin America and Asia. She has been engaged in different social and cultural programmes since 2007. Mariela Nagle was a jury member for the BolognaRagazzi Award (2018) and the National German Children Literature Award (2018). She currently works for Frankfurt Kids (Frankfurt Book Fair), for projects at the State Museums of Berlin as a researcher and curator, and for the state libraries network—where she collaborates on the German government’s programme about institutional diversity—among other projects.
Elena Pasoli (Italy)
Exhibition Director, Bologna Children’s Book Fair
Elena Pasoli was born in Bologna, Italy. She studied Classic Literature at the University of Bologna and in 1982 started her career as PR and press officer. She joined BolognaFiere in 1987, first as Special Events manager, then as project manager of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. She left the companyin 2006 to join the University of Bologna Foundation where she directed the Communication Area. Back to BolognaFiere in 2011, in 2014 she was appointed Exhibition Directorof the Bologna Children's Book Fair.
Elena Pasoli was appointed Executive Committee member of the International Board on Books for Young People in September 2020.
Qin Wenjun (China)
Vice President, Shanghai Writers Association; Writer
Qin Wenjun is president of the Shanghai Sino-Japanese Children's Literature and Art Exchange Association, and director of the Shanghai Children's Reading Promotion Association. Qin has published more than 70 works—approximately 7 million words—and reached a sales total of 10 million copies. She has been awarded the Mondero Prize for International Literature in Italy, nominated for the Hans Christian Andersen Award by IBBY, and received the Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Author of the Year Award in 2017. Her works have received more than 70 honours, including the Spiritual Civilization "Five-One Project" Award of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee. Qin was also named in “the Republic's Fifty Years of Outstanding Novels", winning the first prize in Outstanding National Children’s Literature. She is also receiver of the National Children's Literature Award of the China Writers' Association, and the Song Qingling Children's Literature Outstanding Novel Award. Qin’s literary works have been translated into English, Swedish, Korean, Bulgarian, Arabic, Kazakh, Malaysian, Nepalese, Sinhala, among others.
Xu Yan (China)
Professor of Literature, Faculty of Education, Ocean University of China; Children’s Literature Critic
Holding a PhD in literature from Peking University, Xu Yan is a member of the China Writers’ Association, director of the China Lu Xun Research Association, executive director of the China Children's Literature Research Association, vice chairman of the Qingdao Literary Critics Association, and director of the Literary Criticism Committee of the Qingdao Writers’ Association.
Xu has served as jury member for the Lu Xun Literature Award, the National Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, the Institute of Higher Education Outstanding Achievement Award, and was Liaison Judge for the National Social Science Foundation. She is mainly engaged in the study of modern and contemporary Chinese writers, focus mainly on modern Chinese writer Lu Xun and children's and youth literature. Xu’s representative works include The Reconstruction of Lu Xun's Image Since the New Era; the Consistency and Change of Literary Research: A Collection of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Literature; Lu Xun’s Point of View Towards Children's Literature, and Cao Wenxuan's Literary World. Xu Yan has published more than 100 academic articles in many core academic journals such as Literary Review and Modern Chinese Literature Research Series, among others.
Yu Rong (United Kingdom)
Picture Book Artist, Illustrator
Yu Rong is an acclaimed British-Chinese children’s picture book illustrator. She obtained a BA degree in Chinese Painting and Contemporary Art Design from Nanjing Normal University’s Art College and an MA degree in Communication and Design from London’s Royal College of Art, where she studied under Quentin Blake. Her first picture books with Walker Books have been published in Britain, America, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, France, Sweden, New Zealand, etc. In recent years, she has been working with several Chinese publishers and has illustrated for leading Chinese authors, including the Hans Christian Andersen award winner Cao Wenxuan and Andersen award nominee Qin Wenjun. She has received several prestigious illustration awards, including a Golden Apple at the 24th BIB (Biennial International Bratislava) and the American Library Association Award. In 2015, Smoke, written by Cao Wenxuan, earned her the Chen Bochui International Children’s Literature Best International Picture Book Award and a Purple Island award in the Nami Concours in Korea. Yu Rong’s art work combines traditional hand paper cuts with drawing, which allows the pencil drawing to bring plain two dimensional paper cuts into a vivid rich three dimensional art work.
Zhang Li (China)
Professor and PhD supervisor, Faculty of the Arts, Beijing Normal University
Published works by Zhang Li include Before the Appearance of History: the Occurrence of Modern Chinese Women's Writing; Sister Image: Female Literature and Women's Culture in the 21st Century, among others. Zhang has also written a range of literary criticism, including Where the Charm Lies and The Force of the Wild. She has published various collections of essays and presided over three social science projects at provincial and ministerial levels.
Zhang has also won many awards, namely the Tang Chen Youth Literature Research Award (2014), the 14th Contemporary Literature Research Association Outstanding Achievement Award (2014), the Third All-China Women's Federation Award, the China Women's Research Association Outstanding Achievement Award for Research on Women and Gender (2015), the Fourth Outstanding Achievement Award in Women's Literature Research (2015), and the Chinese Best Prose Award (2015). Zhang was invited to be special researcher at the Chinese Modern Literature Museum, as well as a judge for the Mao Dun Literature Award and the National Award for Excellence in Children's Literature.
Zhao Xiaoyin (China)
Deputy Director, Children's Art Committee, Shanghai Artists’ Association; Standing Member, Shanghai Publishing Association's Binding Design Art Committee.
Zhao Xiaoyin has served as a judge for the CCBF Golden Pinwheel International Young Illustrators Competition in 2015 and 2016. He is primarily engaged in book design and picture book creation. His works have won the "Little Pine Tree" Children's Picture Book Illustration Award of the International Children's Literacy Federation, the Best Work Award of the National Book Binding Art Exhibition, the Silver Award of the National Book Binding Art Exhibition, the 3rd Picture Book Era Award, amongst several others. Zhao has also been selected for the children’s literature laureate, the National Art Exhibition, and the Shanghai Small Oil Painting Biennale, and was named in the list of top 10 most influential Chinese independent picture book authors.
