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80-year-old Chinese illustrator receives 'Nobel Prize for children's literature'_我的网站

A |     「いくつ始めたか」は誇れるのに、「いくつやめたか」には答えられない――そんな心当たりはありませんか。    

    Chinese picture book artist Cai Gao Photo: VCGOn Saturday Beijing time, the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award ceremony was held in Canada. Eighty-year-old Chinese picture book artist Cai Gao attended the event in person to receive the medal and certificate, becoming the first Chinese illustrator to win this honor in the award's 60-year history.
The prize is awarded every two years by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to a living author (since 1956) and illustrator (since 1966). The award is often referred to as the "Nobel Prize for children's literature," honoring lifelong achievements that have made a lasting and important contribution to children's literature. 
During the award ceremony, IBBY President Basarat Kazim praised Cai for the elegant, unrushed style in her works, which encourages children to look closely and discover beauty in quiet corners, according to the Guangming Daily. 
Kazim said Cai's works have an unhurried elegance that encourages children to look closely and discover beauty in quiet, everyday moment.
"This year's winner, Cai Gao, is extremely special. She is as beautiful a person as the drawings she does," Kazim said.
Following author Cao Wenxuan's win of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards as a writer of children's literature in 2016, Cai's achievement means that Chinese creators have now won both the author and illustrator categories, a "double victory."
In her acceptance speech, Cai said, "The future of the world lies in children. There is no greater happiness than creating for them." She also noted that children's books are bridges, connecting cultures and hearts around the world.
Reflecting on her childhood and her years teaching in rural villages, Cai recalled that after six years working as a rural primary school teacher in the 1980s, she joined a publishing house, where she spent two decades as a children's book editor. "This job taught me the most important lesson: to see life through the eyes of a child, and to use art as a way of expressing my feelings about life," she noted.
"I feel the profound weight of this gift from life. I'm filled with mixed emotions. I'm moved and grateful for everything I've been through. Every experience has shaped me into the person I am today," she added.
Alongside her editing career, Cai kept creating original picture books. Her well-known book Yueliang Baba is based on folk songs her grandmother would sing in her native Changsha dialect. Works like Huocheng 1938 (lit: Fire City 1938) were inspired by memories of wartime in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province. The rural scenery and farming scenes in The Land of the Peach Blossom, a book which is also listed as textbooks for primary school students in Japan, all reflect her lifelong connection to the Hunan countryside and many years quietly editing books at her desk, according to the China News Service. 
Though her illustrations reflect the atmosphere of the times, Cai told the Global Times that her stories' true intentions go beyond the visual; she hopes her work can teach children that "fearlessness and love are ways to overcome hardship."
Books such as Bao'er, Hua Mulan, The Land of the Peach Blossom, and The Hundred Birds' Feather Robe have established Cai as an illustrator who skillfully interprets traditional Chinese culture. She constantly revisits the classics, striving to connect ancient stories to contemporary social and cultural themes.
Before winning the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2026, Cai became, in 1993, the first Chinese illustrator to win the Golden Apple Award, one of the world's top international honors for children's illustration. Cai has always emphasized that these awards do not belong to her alone. 
"When I learned that I had won the award, my first thought was of all the creators of my generation. This award is not just mine, it belongs to all of us," she said.
Cai's victory fills a six-decade gap for Chinese illustrators in the award's history, Zhang Peng, an associate professor at Nanjing Normal University and also president of the university's publishing house, told the Global Times. It also shows that original picture books, rooted in Chinese tradition and told with Eastern aesthetics, are fully capable of earning global recognition, Zhang added.
Zhang noted that for a long time, the Chinese children's book market was dominated by foreign imports, and local authors often struggled with the anxiety of imitating Western works. At 80, Cai has set a striking example for the industry with her use of ink-and-wash folk art, proving that the more grounded in national culture a work is, the wider its global reach. This has inspired greater confidence among local creators and encourages more people to focus on traditional Chinese culture, while paving the way for Chinese children's books to go global.
"Cai's achievement is no accident. It marks the moment when Chinese children's books truly found their own voice on the world stage," Zhang said.
。切られないアイデアが資源と注意を奪い、成長を鈍らせる。いま必要なのは勇気ある剪定です。楽天グループ代表取締役会長兼社長・三木谷浩史氏をはじめ、Google元会長やZoomの創設者も絶賛する世界的ベストセラー『1兆ドル思考　世界一流の成功をもたらす9原則』をもとに解説します。●　新企画を「ゾンビ」にしてはいけない。　「目標打ち切り率は？」という件名のメールを受け取ったら、あなたは警戒するかもしれない。

B | 　しかし、これはある大手米国企業の経営幹部を対象とするワークショップの後に、参加者に投げかけた当たり障りのない補足質問だ。　この会社は多くの実験や試験に多額の投資をしてきたが、そのどれからも大した利益を得ていなかった。

C | 　ワークショップでは、ここ数年で立ち上げたプロジェクトや新規ベンチャー事業の数を上級幹部が誇らしげに発表した。

D | 　ところが、「では、いくつ打ち切りにしましたか？」とアレックスが質問すると、幹部は困惑するばかりだった。気まずい沈黙が真実を物語っていた。　ゼロだ。

E | 新たな製品やサービスがゾンビのように存在し続け、企業報告書に繰り返し記載されて、貴重なリソースと上級幹部の注意を奪っていた。　VCのように、プロジェクトの打ち切りを判断する時期や方法について、厳格なポートフォリオアプローチを策定する必要がある。　「打ち切り率」という概念に衝撃を受けるかもしれないが、だからといってためらってはならない。　庭の草花を剪定しよう。千の花をすべて咲かせたままにしてはいけない。

F | 　はさみを手元に置いておくのだ。たくさんの賭けをあまりに長く続けていると、そのいずれにも十分注力できなくなる恐れがある。

G | 　企業社会では、革新的なアイデアに対して、発案者をただ忙しくさせるだけで、インパクトを与えるには十分でない程度の予算しか割り当てられないことがあまりにも多すぎる。　パーカーにジーンズ姿の人たちが透明なガラスの壁に思いついたことを自由に書いているイノベーションラボには、このようなアイデアのバラ園がある。　（本書の著者を含む）訪問者は、その企業のイノベーションに対するコミットメントや起業家的な考え方、いま流行りの専門用語が飛び交う様子を見せるために、こうしたラボによく案内される。

H | 　確かに、ラボは活気に満ちているように見える。　だが、どんなアイデアも、それを広く展開するのに十分な注目と資金を得られない限り、成長の推進力ではなく、単なるイノベーションの成果物にしかならない。　賢明なベンチャーキャピタリストは、庭を雑草だらけにはしておかない。　それぞれの賭けは、プロダクトとして試験を経て市場に投入され、その後拡大展開もしくは打ち切りという経過をたどるべきだ。　ベンチャーキャピタリストは日常的に多くのスタートアップを破綻するに任せ、早期に損切りをし、その分ユニコーン候補に倍賭けする。

I | 　企業のイノベーションラボではこうしたことはめったに起こらない。　組織には生み出したすべてのアイデアを管理している余裕はない。コンサルティング会社キャップジェミニの最近のレポートによれば、こうしたラボの90％がうまくいっていないが、それも当然だろう。　（本記事は『1兆ドル思考　世界一流の成功をもたらす9原則』から一部を抜粋・編集しています）。

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Published on:00:04:58