Recently, the "Everyone Makes Books Together-China-ASEAN Children's Book Joint Co-creation Project Signing Event" sponsored by Guangxi Publishing and Media Group and hosted by Relay Publishing House was held in Nanning, Guangxi. Representatives from four publishing institutions from ASEAN countries and one publishing house from South Asian countries, as well as leaders and publishers who have always cared about children's book publishing and supported the work of the Relay-ASEAN Children's Publishing Alliance, jointly witnessed the implementation of the "China Children's Books Joint Co-creation Project" and the release of phased results of the "China Children's Book Cooperation Plan".

Implementation of the China-ASEAN Children's Book Joint Co-creation Project

The China-ASEAN Children's Book Joint Co-creation Project and the China-ASEAN Children's Book Cooperation Plan are both proposed by the Relay-ASEAN Children's Book Alliance initiative. Since its establishment in 2019, the alliance has developed into a cooperation and exchange platform with 14 alliance members from ASEAN and 3 observers from South Asia. Through the annual organization of children's publishing and reading forums, children's book copyright fairs and other activities, it aims to Promote the common development of children's book publishing in ASEAN, South Asia, China and other countries.

Lei Ming, executive vice president of Relay Publishing House, said that when the alliance was established in 2019, the idea of "China-ASEAN joint creation of children's books" was put forward. He hoped that cooperation would not only stop on the trade of book copyrights, but also actively explore more, better, and updated cooperation model. Until 2024, on the basis of fully understanding the reading needs and preferences of readers in China, ASEAN and South Asian countries, Relay Publishing House has decided to cooperate with Malaysia Red Dragonfly Publishing Company Limited, Thailand Hongshan Publishing Group, and Sri Lanka Neptune Publishing House to integrate the superior resources of various countries, select suitable stories from the award-winning works of the "Relay Cup Golden Wave Children's Literature Award" over the years, and jointly create, plan, publish and promote. There are four books in the first batch. In the future, we look forward to reaching new cooperation with more countries and more partners.

Denis Kuratunga, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Branch of the International Children's Book Alliance and President of Neptune Publishing House in Sri Lanka, used the images in the upcoming co-published book "Star Gruber" to metaphor the goal of the joint creation project: Just as stars need to be polished and maintained to illuminate the night sky, the talents of artists and writers in some countries need to be polished and cultivated. He said that this cooperation is not only to "print" the book, but also to cultivate "innovation" and "creativity", bringing together illustrators, writers, and art editors from all over the world to create a new story that integrates art form, narrative techniques and cultural aspects.

Luo Meiwei, general manager of Malaysia Red Dragonfly Publishing Company Limited, said that Red Dragonfly Publishing House is a small and medium-sized Chinese publishing house established in Malaysia in 1999. By 2024, it has published about 500 works of various types for Chinese readers in Malaysia. Since 2010, it has successively authorized more than 90 original works to China and began to establish friendship and cooperation with its publishing counterparts in China. "It is a great honor to be involved in this project. This will be the first time that our publishing house has experienced the joint planning and simultaneous publishing of children's books. We have selected two works with the theme of parent-child interaction and parent-child relationship, namely Martha's "Fast Country and Slow Country" and Li Haisheng's "Little Hedgehog Want to Be Hugged by Mom". Next, we will recruit illustrators in Malaysia and work with Relay Publishing House to determine the right painter candidates. We hope to tell stories together through graphic and text ensembles."

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Yu Chunhua, deputy editor-in-chief of Thailand Hongshan Publishing Co., Ltd., introduced the situation of the Thailand Book Fair that just ended in October this year. He said that currently, books in Thailand are mainly imported books, mainly from the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Japan and South Korea. For books, Thai original works account for only about 20%. Thailand's best-selling book varieties mainly include literature, comics, love novels, children's books, etc. "Please Get a Cat Bread", which is being planned by Thailand's Hongshan Publishing Group, is jointly organized by China writer Zhao Maowao and Thai illustrator Savanya Annanitipak. It is an imaginative literary story.

Dennis Kuratunga, vice chairman of the Sri Lanka Publishing Association, believes that the "China-ASEAN Children's Book Cooperation Plan" launched in 2021 has opened up a new path for cultural exchanges and telling "China Stories." Children have been exposed to multicultural books and have a broader world view. They will not only understand the customs, language structures and values contained in different cultures, but also taste the uniqueness and richness of their own culture.

The Children's Book Cooperation Program builds an ecosystem where illustrators, authors and editors with different backgrounds work together to showcase artistic techniques and communicate ways to "tell stories", ultimately forming a story collection. The Children's Book Cooperation Program also supplements the "material bank" of children's literature in various countries, providing young readers in member states with diverse, thought-provoking and influential text content.

Picture book writer Da Wu was born in Zhanjiang, Guangdong, and is a typical southerner of China. By reviewing past works created in different periods, he found that even if the stories, styles and pictures were different, there was no obvious bias in copyright export of books. In other words, good stories are not regional. All elements in the story and the picture only serve the story itself. As long as the story is good, children all over the world can understand it. As a generation born in the 1990s and raised in the Internet era, he looked around the world at the beginning of his creation, hoping to create for children from all over the world. Therefore, he is very happy that his picture books can be read by children in different countries and speaking different languages. He is also delighted that his creative style has been changing and developing, which means that his thinking and aesthetics have changed in different periods.

At the end of the event, Huang Jian, senior president of Relay Publishing House, released the phased results of the "China Children's Book Cooperation Plan". He said that after nearly three years of hard work, we have successfully cooperated with 12 publishing institutions from 7 countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Nepal, and completed two batches of the "China Children's Book Cooperation Plan", publishing a total of 71 books.