Chen Jiang Hong is a francophone Chinese painter and illustrator living in Paris. In 2019 he won the Prix Albertine Jeunesse in the age category 7-9 years old for his book The Tiger Prince, translated by Alyson Waters and published by The New York Review of Books.
Chen Jiang Hong was born in Tianjin, China, where he studied fine art at the School of Arts before completing his postgraduate education at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing. After graduating, he moved to Paris where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts and began his career as an artist. His work has been exhibited around the world, notably at the library gallery at the Louvre, at the Centre Pompidou, and at Versailles. His work is in the permanent collection of the Snite Museum at the University of Notre Dame. He illustrated 22 books and wrote 12 of them, combining traditional techniques -such as Chinese ink painting on rice or silk paper- with a modern conception of storytelling and mixing Chinese legends, culture, history and universal emotions and questionings.
About the Book: The Tiger Prince, New York Review of Books, 2018
Deep in the Great Forest, a tigress is mourning the death of her tiger babies who have been killed by hunters. Seeking revenge, she attacks the villages, destroying houses and prompting the king to gather his army. But a seer named Lao Lao warns the king that if he angers the tigress further she will destroy the kingdom. Lao Lao counsels the king to give his own son to the tigress and promises that no harm will come to the boy. The next morning, the king brings the prince to the edge of the Great Forest and tells him, “Now you must go on alone.” To end the war between man and animal, the prince must forget his human ways and begin to learn what tigers know. The Tiger Prince was inspired by The Tigress, a late Shang dynasty bronze vessel in the Cernuschi Museum in Paris depicting a scene from the Chinese folktale of a baby raised by a tigress.
The Tiger Prince was translated from the French by Alyson Waters and published by the New York Review of Books in october 2018. The original version (Le prince tigre) was published by L'Ecole des Loisirs in 2005.
"Chen’s expressive brush paintings shift deftly between fearsome and warm, conveying the tigress’s inner conflict using body language and expressions without anthropomorphizing her. Readers will recognize these characteristics and conflicts within themselves and realize that only bridges of compassion will truly build lasting peace. This richly illustrated tale is both emotionally compelling and thought-provoking, and its timely message of understanding and compassion will resonate with readers of all ages."
—Kirkus Reviews
To learn more about his work as an illustrator, click here.
To learn more about his work as a painter, click here.
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