Jury President
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 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. He currently serves as Member of the National Committee of CPPCC, Vice President of the China Writers’ Association, and Director of the Children's Literature Committee
Gao Hongbo is also famous for his children’s literature. His most important works include the essay Quiet Words, the poetry collection I Think, and several anthologies, which have won a number of national awards, including the China Publishing Government Award, the Top-Five Project Award, the National Award for Excellence in Children’s Literature, and the China Book Prize. As a children’s writer, he is the author of the Piggy Joe series, which has sold over a million copies and was translated in French, Korean and Vietnamese.
Jury Members
Leonard S. Marcus (USA)
Children's Book Historian and Critic
Leonard S. Marcus is one of the world’s foremost writers about children’s books and the people who create them. He is the author of more than 25 award-winning books, including Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom; Golden Legacy: The Story of Golden Books; Show Me a Story: Why Picture Books Matter; Maurice Sendak: A Celebration of the Artist and His Life; and Helen Oxenbury: A Life in Illustration.
Leonard is a frequent contributor to The New York Times Book Review and Horn Book and was Parenting magazine's book critic for 21 years. He is a founding trustee of the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and has curated numerous exhibitions including the New York Public Library’s landmark The ABC Of It: Why Children’s Books Matter.
Leonard has judged the New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year Award (four times), the National Book Award, the Ragazzi and SM Illustrator Prizes of the Bologna Book Fair, the Fondacion SM's Catalogo Iberoamerica Ilustra, Scholastic Asian Book Award (jury chair), and Chen Bochui Award.
Yu Rong (UK)
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.
Li Donghua (China)
Chidlren's Literature Writer, Vice President of Lu Xun Academy of Literature
Li Donghu was born in Gaomi, Shandong Province, in 1971. He graduated from the Chinese Studies Department of Peking University. He is the Vice President of Lu Xun Academy of Literature. He has published over 30 novels, including The Glory of Youth, Firework and Grain Full He won the China Publishing Government Award, the 13th and the 15th "Top-Five Project Award" of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China, the National Outstanding Children's Literature Award, the Wenjin Book Award, the Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award and the Bingxin Children's Literature Award, among other distinctions. In 2017, he was elected as one of the "Four Groups of Talents" by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China.
Lu Mei (China)
Chief Editor, Literature Press; Literary Reviewer, Shanghai Cultural Development Foundation
Lu Mei is director of China Writers' Association (Shanghai section), and a children's book writer. She mainly writes literature and essays for young readers. She is the author of Free as a Butterfly, Endless Summer, Letters From Heaven, Dreamer Lao Sheng'en, Hello Childhood, Goodbye Granny, Time Rolls In, etc. She has been nominated for the China Publishing Government Award, the Chen Bochui Children's Literature Award, the Bingxin Prose Award, the Bingxin Children's Book Award, the Bingxin Children's Literature New Book Grand Award, the "China Laureate Children's Book" and the first Dongwu Literature Award. Her novel Story of Gezi was selected in the 2014 White Ravens list. When the Leaves Fly was adapted into a movie of the same name.
Li Lifang (China)
Children's Literature Critic, Doctor of Literature; Dean, College of Arts, Lanzhou University
Li Lifang obtained a PhD in literature in 2006 from Nankai University. Until 2014, she was part of the postdoctoral program in Children's Literature at the Beijing Normal University College of Literature. She is a member of the Children's Literature Committee of the Chinese Writers' Association and a member of the International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL). She is a member of the National Guiding Committee for Graduate Education in Chinese International Education. A member of the 13th Council of China Modern Literature Research Association, she is also Vice Chairman of Gansu Literature and Arts Critics Association.
She has published six academic books and more than 70 academic papers on children's literature in academic journals and national newspapewrs, including People's Daily, Guangming Daily, Literature and Art Daily, etc. She has presided over two projects supported by the National Social Science Foundation. She was awarded the honorary title of "the 16th Gansu Provincial College Young Teacher Achievement Award", "the 11th Gansu Province Social Science Excellent Achievement Award" and "Gansu Children's Literature Eight Talents". She has to participate in international academic conferences on children's literature and published papers in Germany, Australia, Netherlands, the USA, Sweden and other countries. She is an important new force in the current theoretical criticism of children's literature in China.
Sun Jianjiang (China)
Children's Literature Critic, Scholar, Writer, Publisher; President, Chinese fable Character Research Association
Sun Jianjiang is the author of more than ten academic works, such as Introductions to Chinese Children's Literature in the 20th Century and Spacial Theory of the Art of Fairy Tales. He has contributed to over 40 collections of works, including The Hunting of Gourmet and Wind Chimes in the Tree, etc. He has supervised the publication of over a hundred books, including One Hundred Children's Literature in A Century. His works have won more than 30 national awards, such as the National Award for Excellence in Children's Literature, the China Book Prize and the National Book Award Nomination Award. He has been a jury member of the National Excellent Children's Literature Award and the Chen Bochui International Children's Literature Award.
Xiong Liang (China)
Writer, Painter and Picture Book Artist
As a pioneer of original picture books in China, Xiong Liang’s works draw on the best of China’s long artistic tradition. His singular scenes and characters brim with visual poetry, emotion, and expressiveness.His works cover many fields, including picture book creation, illustrated novels for adults, plays, novels, and modern ink painting. They unite a variety of influences, both deep and broad, to produce a style all Xiong's own.
His most popular works include Xiong Liang's Chinese Picture Books; The Little Stone Lion; The Beijing Opera Cats series; Wandering with the Wind; 24 Solar Terms, and Xiao Mu Ke: The Wandering Pixy. After being nominated a first time in the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2014, he became four years later the first Chinese illustrator shortlisted for this prestigious distinction.
In 2020, he was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Prize, the world's largest prize for children's and juvenile literature. Xiong Liang will represent China once again in the 2022 International Hans Christian Andersen Award for illustration.
Zhang Hong (China)
Children's Book Author; Founder, Magic Reading
Zhang Hong is a journalist, a senior editor and a children's book author. She is the founder of the non-profit digital platform for reading promotion Magic Reading, which earned her title of "Reading Promotion Trailblazer" in 2018.
She is the author of over 10 children's books, including Doudou and Magic Auntie; Map of the English Fairy Tales; Happy Crayon; Golden Beard and Red Jumper; Huo Qubing's Horse; and E Girl from Class E. Moreover, Zhang translated into Chinese over 30 children's novels and picture books, including the series Alfie the Werewolf, Charlotte's Web, Bizzy Mizz Lizzie, Dogosaurus Rex, À quoi rêvent les crayons le soir au fond des cartables and much more. She is the translator into Chinese of renowned international authors such as David Shannon, Tomi Ungerer, Michael Morpurgo and Quentin Blake.
Zhang is a three-time winner in the Chen Bochui Children's Literature Awards where she also won the Special Contribution Award in 2011. She was also awarded the Song Qingling Children's Literature Award and the Bing Xin Children's Book Award. Zhang was also named among Shanghai’s “Top 10 Cultural Personalities” and "Emerging Children's Literature Writer".
