Picture-perfect career

"We were lacking in the authenticity department, I felt. The huge influx of picture books from outside, which were then translated for children in China, left little room for imagination and hence, originality," she says.

Many contemporary editors preferred working on translated picture books because originals demanded more of their time. But Cai ensured her attention went to authentic ones. She made Finding Dengdeng, one of the earliest floor books in China. It was first published in 1997 and recently republished by Pan Press.

The illustrations follow a steady progression-from a picture of the entire universe on the opening page to our beautiful blue planet, the Earth, to China on the globe to Beijing's map and finally, to Dengdeng's home in Beijing. Once completely unraveled, the book morphs into one very large picture that can be spread on the ground for reading.

"I wanted children to know how they-and everyone else-fit into the larger scheme of things that the universe represents. The idea is to help them find their place in the world," the septuagenarian illustrator explains.

Finding Dengdeng was, in fact, inspired by Cai's own travel experiences. During a trip to Italy, she had seen a little girl sitting on the floor of a stall at Bologna Children's Book Fair, poring over a giant tome.

"It occurred to me that Finding Dengdeng can be as humongous when unfolded page by page. I thought if children had to lie prone on the floor to read the book, it just might be good fun," she says.

When she is not busy editing books, Cai is a good illustrator with many achievements under her belt. Her work The Boy Who Outfoxed a Fox-adapted from a story in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, a classic collection of grotesque yarns about spirits spun by Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) writer Pu Songling-won the Golden Apple Award at the 14th Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava in Slovakia in 1993.