At the age of 80, he won the Andersen Award and became the first Chinese winner in the 60 years since the Illustration Award was established.
Cai Gao: I feel it is a supreme honor to be able to draw something and make them feel its charm. Take root in the fertile folk soil and sow the seeds of beauty in children's hearts with a paintbrush.
August 8, 2026, Ottawa, Canada. At the 40th International Children's Books Alliance World Congress International Andersen Award Ceremony, Chinese picture book writer Cai Gao won the "International Andersen Award" Illustrator Award. Cai Gao became the first Chinese painter to win the award in the 60 years since the award added an illustration award.
Cai Gao: There is no happier career than creating works for children.
Cai Gao, who is 80 years old this year, is an important pioneer in the field of Chinese picture book creation. As early as the 1970s, she began creating illustrations and comic strips for children's publications; in the early 1980s, she became a book editor. This process includes her persistence and pursuit in the turning point of life.
Reporter: You said that what you want to express in your life is what you want to paint in your paintings. But what exactly do you want to express?
Cai Gao: There are a lot of things I want to say, and they are all about people becoming people. It should be said that since I was a child, I have developed the ability to understand myself and see myself outside of myself. For example, when I was not yet studying, my grandma once cooked delicious food. Fenfen, the niece of my neighbor’s daughter, was a very bitter girl and was barefoot. My grandma stopped her and gave her the delicious food before we could eat it. I was not happy at that time. Afterwards, my aunt looked at me as if she had seen through me and said I was stingy. I always remember that look, and then I started to think about how ugly, bad and uncomfortable it is to be stingy. None of my family is like that, how could I be like that? What happened to me? This is how I started to reflect on myself. Later, slowly, it became like them. I didn't know what it was at the time, but now that I think about it, they were very upright. This is traditional Chinese education.
Cai Gao's picture books are rooted in Chinese folk culture. She draws inspiration from the colors and shapes of folk art, and uses strong colors, exaggerated shapes and textured brushstrokes to give the soil, vegetation and sand a touchable texture. Her painting did not start in a formal art class, and she did not receive systematic art training.
Cai Gao: When you are moved in your heart, you must want to express it. Language is expression, writing is expression, and painting is also expression. I have loved painting since I was a child. I feel that after painting, I feel relaxed and relaxed.
Reporter: Who taught you?
Cai Gao: You don’t need to learn from anyone. Children all like to doodle. Graffiti is to express opinions. When he doodles, you think he is wasting paper and doodles. He is not doodle. He just cannot draw accurately. He is telling a story. When I was a child, I felt the same way. When I wanted to express myself, I would draw.
Reporter: How to make progress? No one teaches you how to improve?
Cai Gao: It is too easy to make progress. Why is it not easy to make progress? It is self-taught without a teacher. We all have this ability. Except for mathematics, we must teach it. But in terms of art, I think there is something spontaneous about it.
Reporter: How do you explore and accumulate?
Cai Gao: There are too many. I must study the laws of color. When I observe and study it in life, I feel that the color in my heart should be a vital color, a color with a sense of life. It is alive, moving, and expressive.
The vital colors Cai Gao talks about come from her life experience. Cai Gao was born in Changsha, Hunan in 1946. The vibrant old street life and the warm and harmonious big family gave Cai Gao a bright background in his life.
Cai Gao: When I was five years old, my mother sent me to school. I don't know how to study. I just play in class. Traditional Chinese characters are difficult to learn. My father taught me how to write Chinese characters step by step, which had an impact on me later. From then on, when I learned about other things, I was no longer so superficial, but had the ability to see the bottom and the essence.
In the 1960s, after Cai Gao graduated from Hunan First Normal School, he was assigned to work in the Zhuzhou County Cultural Center. A year later, he was transferred to the remote Taihu Primary School to teach.
Reporter: Why did you go to Taihu Lake?
Cai Gao: I was about 19 or 20 years old at the time, because I didn’t like what the leader wanted me to do. He said you came from the First Normal University, and he asked me to report on some situations of people around me once a week. I was very angry and felt very depressed. I definitely wouldn’t do these things. At that time, I simply thought that our family members were all upright, so I said I couldn’t do it. After that, he even introduced someone to me, which I was not happy with either.
Reporter: So what price do you have to pay?
Cai Gao: Redistribute when you pay the price.
Reporter: Is it worth it?
Cai Gao: I'm worth it. It's better for me to stay away from him.
In the countryside, Cai Gao stayed there for seven years. At first, she felt exiled. But the rural scenery and the work of the villagers comforted her and became the source of her future artistic creation.
Cai Gao: Nature beautifies all of this and naturally dissolves it. The mountains and rivers are beautiful, with gurgling water, and the people around there are pure people. In this life, there are not only sunshine and beautiful things, but also some uncomfortable things. But it is precisely this that makes me understand: without ugliness, there is no beauty. In fact, people have been making choices since birth. When you open your eyes, you have to decide whether to get up or not, to do it or not to do it. Many people misunderstand and think that aesthetics is just about whether a painting is beautiful or whether something is good-looking. In fact, it is not the case. Aesthetics is essentially an attitude towards life and a choice.
After coming to the countryside to teach, Cai Gao taught himself while teaching. Later, she began to create comic strips and tried to submit articles to publishing houses. Gradually, the editors of the publishing house became deeply impressed by this "amateur author" who drew pictures for children.
Cai Gao: I started submitting articles when I was in the countryside. At that time, there was only one children's publication in the province, called "Red Scarf". In 1972, I began to submit articles there, depicting student life and drawing small comic strips, and this is how my creative journey began. Because I often won awards, the publisher later wanted to transfer me. I'm very happy. At that time, there was still a manuscript fee of 7 yuan, which was very high for me. In 1972, my salary was only 29.5 yuan. The 7 yuan royalties made me particularly happy. In fact, what makes me happier is seeing my works turned into printed matter, which is so satisfying. Originally there was only one, but now it has become N, so many people can take a look. Even my principal at Hunan No. 1 Normal University saw it and said to me, Cai Gao, you made your name too big.
In 1982, Cai Gao was transferred to Hunan Children's Publishing House and became a book editor. At that time, domestic readers were not yet familiar with picture books. Compared with written works, picture books are too niche and the remuneration is low. There are not many painters willing to invest long-term. In order to let others see himself, Cai Gao decided to draw it himself first.
Cai Gao: Hunan Children's Publishing House has a good tradition of encouraging creation. It said that if you don't take your works, how can you let others know you? It requires all editors to be able to create, and they allow you one month of creative leave every year. I took one month of creative leave to complete "Baoer".
"Baoer" is adapted by Cai Gao from a story in Pu Songling's "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" in the Qing Dynasty. It tells the story of a child who hunts a fox demon and saves his mother with his own wisdom and courage. In 1993, "Baoer" won the "Golden Apple Award" at the 14th Bratislava International Illustration Biennale. Cai Gao became the first Chinese painter to win this award.
Reporter: Now you have the opportunity to get in touch with other countries in the world. What are their picture books like? Are they far behind?
Cai Gao: The gap is too big, mainly due to different concepts. Literature and art need a corresponding environment to nourish them, but our market’s understanding of picture books is still limited to “literacy.” It is very common for picture books in the world to cost tens of yuan each, but in the eyes of many people, spending 50 yuan on a book with only a few words is a waste. I would rather use the money to buy food for my children than buy picture books. This is related to economic level and cultural level.
In Cai Gao's view, compared with "big paintings" that can enter the art market independently, picture book illustrations are often regarded as "small paintings" and have lower commercial value. But picture books are a unique category, and someone has to do it.
Reporter: What ordinary readers see is a picture book, but for painters, each painting requires a long time and a lot of energy, and it may not be sold for much money when it is turned into a book.
Cai Gao: I am capable of painting big paintings, but someone has to do the picture book thing. If I don’t do it, who will? If we don’t think this way, can picture books make progress? Can it be improved? It will always stay at the starting line. Someone has to do something real, and this is real. If you care too much about money, you won't be able to do this. Chinese picture books must progress, children must become better, and the future will be better. Someone must value picture books and be willing to pay for them. Picture books are sometimes very "noble". They need good economic conditions to support and "raise" them. Otherwise, no one would paint, and there would be no work like "The Story of Peach Blossom Spring".
In the 1990s, Nao Matsui, known as the "Father of Japanese Picture Books", donated funds to establish the "Little Pine Award" for Chinese picture books in China, and four picture books edited by Cai Gao won all the awards of the "Little Pine Award". The two met and formed a friendship that lasted for decades.
Cai Gao: The reason why I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Matsui Nao was because after I won the award, he expressed his desire to meet me, and the leader arranged the meeting. During the conversation, he said that China does not lack good painters, but it lacks good editors. What he means is that there are many painters in China, but few are willing to make concessions and dedication to editorial work. If you don’t have a good editor, you can’t produce a good book. He is an excellent editor himself and is willing to compromise and sacrifice for the sake of his work. He said you had a tradition, but it was interrupted because of Japan's war of aggression. As a conscientious Japanese, he was willing to help us. At that time, I took the initiative to accept this task. I like the Peach Blossom Spring, and I just put my experience in the Peach Blossom Spring. My long experience in rural life was just right to put it in Peach Blossom Spring. I said I would paint it, and he said fine, and it was decided immediately.
The story of Peach Blossom Spring is adapted from Tao Yuanming's Peach Blossom Spring, which embodies one of the most cherished humanistic ideals of the Chinese people. In this well-known story, Cai Gao incorporated his own feelings. During the painting process, Cai Gao checked a large amount of information, and her own understanding was reflected in the consideration of certain details.
Cai Gao: I have been painting for several months and it is really not easy. Just painting the "peach blossom" level is extremely rare. How to draw peach blossoms? When I look at the Peach Blossom Spring in ancient prints, their painting style doesn’t suit me, and I must be different from them. What I painted is "Colorful Falling Flowers", and you can't help but notice it. I am not painting a cold artistic conception of one or two flowers, but grasping the word "colorful". I want to paint an ideal "colorful" painting, rather than a cold one.
After repeated deliberation on the text and expression methods, this work, with text by Matsui Nao and illustrations by Cai Gao, was published in 2002. The illustrations in the book were later used in Japanese primary school Chinese textbooks. For Cai Gao, this book has a more special meaning.
Cai Gao: What I hope to express is that what a person can do is ultimately limited, and language is equally limited. Expressing one's own opinions is one thing, but the works produced by one's vision and cultivation are ultimately just the opinions of one family. I only seek to understand, not to understand myself personally, but to understand the work itself. I'm just a logo. I painted Peach Blossom Spring to tell you: In addition to Tao Yuanming, there is also the Wei and Jin Dynasties, there is also a rich history, so many wonderfully expressed literary works, you might as well go and read them. It's just a logo.
Reporter: You are an artist and a painter, so you have the ability. But for the vast majority of people who may not have an artistic flair, can they live an artistic life?
Cai Gao: Of course, that’s exactly what I want to talk about. All my work is about childhood. I just want to tell you that childhood is the best cradle. After you open your eyes, the first mouthful of milk should be pure breast milk, not substitutes, and your taste will come out. When I write children's books, I do it for childhood, just like my grandmother used to tell stories and recite nursery rhymes, but I tell them through picture books. I painted "Moon Baba", "I Walk When the Moon Walks", and "Story of Peach Blossom Spring", all of which were related to my childhood. I am teaching you to pursue the beauty of pursuit, which in the final analysis is the beauty of questioning. If you have the beauty of questioning, you will chase good things throughout your life.
After retirement, Cai Gao began to devote himself wholeheartedly to the creation of picture books. She has a habit that has persisted for decades. She always has a notebook in her hand, and she will draw and write down whatever she sees. In the records with pictures and texts, everything can be put into paintings and poems. She uses her paintbrush to salvage the fun in her memories and connect her childhood with the present.
Cai Gao: This is my needlework. I want to make this feeling into a book to let readers know that this is how life is formed. Nursery rhymes are also in it. Nursery rhymes with hand gestures, such as "Be shy, scrape lard, boil cabbage with soy sauce" and "Hang yourself with a hook and never change." These things all require hand gestures. It doesn't make any sense when you say this, but the kids really like it.
In recent years, with the spread of various videos, Cai Gao has "out of the circle". More and more people hope to find reference answers from her. Cai Gao gave the calmest answer throughout his life: he became an editor at the age of 36, won his first award at the age of 47, reached his creative peak after retiring at the age of 55, and stood on the world stage at the age of 80. She allows people to see another possibility of life, take your time, take deep roots, and bloom grandly even if the flowering period is later.
Cai Gao: I feel that nothing in life is wasted, there is no leftover material, and no part is redundant or missing - they are all compositing you and myself. You have experienced decadence and pain, and that is the complete you. People should be complete and pursue completeness. Since life has given me difficulties, I will enjoy this difficulty.
Reporter: During your long journey, no reporter would keep an eye on you, but more and more of them have come to you over the years. Is it because you have won more awards, or is it because you have gradually become known and liked by everyone because of your awards?
Cai Gao: I didn’t want to compete for the prize, but the prize chose me. I couldn’t help it, but I’m happy. But winning awards is not what I pursue. I do many things out of self-needs. Picture books are my boats, they take me to a good place and see the scenery on the other side. It is my ship, a means, not an end. If it were the purpose, I would not be able to still love it so much when I am 80 years old, nor would I be able to run toward the sea like a river.
Producers丨Liu Bin Wang Huidong
Reporter丨Dong Qian
Planning丨Chen Peng
Director丨Chen Peng
Videography丨Wang Zhongren Wang Yang Chen Peng
