Sketching from memories

"Everyone has a child inside," says Cai Gao, the 79-year-old renowned picture book artist who has spent decades nurturing her inner child and her work. "Anything that stops me from being a child, I cut it loose. No mercy," she asserts.

This unwavering inner child has propelled her to the pinnacle of her career. On April 13, Cai became the first Chinese illustrator to receive the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international accolade given every other year to writers and illustrators of children's books. The announcement was made at the annual news conference of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) during the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy.

The night she received the news, Cai's thoughts were not on the prize or herself, but on the people and the land that shaped her.

Born in 1946 in Changsha, the capital city of Central China's Hunan province, Cai grew up during the last days of an era when stories were passed down orally from generation to generation. Her worldview was profoundly influenced by the tales her grandmother shared with her while sitting in the courtyard, sewing by hand.

She fondly recalls her grandmother in an immaculate plain blue cotton gown with a fresh flower — either a jasmine or gardenia — pinned to her collar.

"She loved life, and made our daily existence feel like a celebration," Cai reminisces, adding that her grandmother often took her to see both local and visiting opera troupes. This exposure allowed Cai to sketch the characters and preserve the performances in her memory.

Despite never having the opportunity to attend art school, Cai considers her childhood experiences — playing in the courtyard of pomegranate trees, listening to her grandmother's nursery rhymes, and watching theater plays — as the "best education".

"My childhood cannot be replicated," she says. "I'm lucky to have had all of that."