April 2025: Zhou Jianxin 周見信
Zhou Jianxin has recently established himself as one of Taiwan’s up-and-coming illustrators and authors. His first illustrated title, The Maroon Oriole, won the 2014 Taiwan Golden Butterfly Award for Best Book Design and honorable mention from the International Design Awards. His collaborative works with Kuo Nai-wen have also been very well received: their title Missing Cat Posters also won Honorable Mention in the Hsin-Yi Children’s Literature Award in 2012, and Puppy and I, won first prize for an Illustrated Publication at the 2016 Hsin-Yi Children’s Literature Award, a position that has remained empty for eight years. He was the featured artist of Taiwan Pavilion at the 2017 Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL), for the launch of the Spanish edition of Missing Cat Posters.
Bio from Books From Taiwan
This month we're delighted to be featuring award-winning Taiwanese author and illustrator Zhou Jianxin. Zhou's book Little Squirrel and Old Banyan 小松鼠與老榕樹 was the source text for our 8th Bai Meigui Translation Competition. It's a story set in his hometown of Tainan and addresses themes such as the impermanence of life through a deceptively simple, and beautifully illustrated, children's fable. The book was showcased at the Bologna Children's Bookfair in Italy in 2017, and we're really happy to also be featuring the translation by the winner of our competition - Hongyu Jasmine Zhu, which will be published by Balestier Press.
You can read the Chinese text here, and Jasmine's English translation will follow soon!