I became the first girl from my village who received a university degree with support from my grandfather and tutors. To return their kindness, I became a tutor myself and devoted my whole life to teaching Chinese. I was retired when I met the Snowflake team and was touched by their dream to promote Chinese culture world-wide. I have been writing the Chinese stories for Snowflake since 2011. My favourite titles are from the Chinese Animal Signs series. I enjoy working with the passionate illustrators who are full of unique ideas.
I enjoy learning about different cultures, but the nicest thing is to discover how similar we all are at heart. Often these common values are obscured behind exotic cultures; the image of Chinese culture can appear especially alien with its complicated way of writing and its dragon art. So it has been a fascinating and rewarding experience to act as English editor for Snowflake’s bi-lingual books of Chinese legends to make Chinese life accessible to English-speaking children.
I arrange mostly the artistic work of the company, liaising with our international team of writers, translators and artists to commission our titles. In particular I design the complete books, deciding on layout, style and quality. In cooperation with my fellow director I also decide company policy and its day to day running. My main outside interests are conservation of historic buildings and exploring second hand bookshops. For these reasons I feel I am so lucky to live in Oxford.
I am a scientist from China, but not a boring one. I love books and enjoy reading. I like to compare ideas between the East and the West and find it a lot of fun to discuss my ideas with my best English friend, Roy. When my best friend from Taiwan, Su Yen, set up Snowflake Books, I had more interesting opportunities to understand further cultural differences by advising on translation. I offered my voice to read the Chinese stories in some of Snowflake titles’ CDs. Many people say I have a nice singing voice.
I am from Taiwan and I have liked the English language since high school. I was an exchange student in America and studied media in New York. I first met Snowflake in New York. I found the opportunity to translate the Chinese stories, poems, idioms and legends very challenging, but interesting because of my love for Children’s books and for the English language. The first book I translated for Snowflake is The New Year Beast. My collaboration with Snowflake has made me appreciate and enjoy more of the beauty from both languages.
I am a country boy. I grew up in the Taiwanese countryside and spent my childhood among many trees. I self-taught myself to draw. I love to use my own hands to make things and I used to work as a builder. I like to make drawings of the countryside and I have very special feelings for forests, animals, rivers and streams. The first book I illustrated for Snowflake is The Chinese Farmers’ Calendar. If you read my books carefully, you will often find a cute animal hiding at a corner waiting for you to discover it.
I live in Taiwan. I love nature and enjoy making paintings outdoors in the wild. I like to play with colours, which brings me joy. The delicate changes and differences of colours in nature can always make me think. I joined Snowflake in 2010 and I illustrated one of Snowflake’s bestsellers: The New Year Beast. My favourite animal is the cat and I have two long-haired Persian cats. I love music too and can sing Schubert’s, Trout!
My mother was an English tutor in Taiwan and I have developed my interest in the English language since I was very young. I like to laugh out loud and I enjoy making people happy and make them laugh too. I love to work with children and have been working on learning gadgets for children. I met Snowflake in Frankfurt and find working with Snowflake challenging and fulfilling. I have published the Chinese Wisdom Series and am now working on the translation of a series of ghost stories.
I've had 20 years retail management and customer service background. My main passions are music, singing and teaching piano to children as well as playing regularly at old people's homes to entertain them with my classical and jazz playing. I have also run my own business selling fair trade products for over 15 years and Snowflake books were introduced to me in the autumn of 2015 when I was at an event selling my beautiful scarves. I came on board as one of the voices of our audio recordings. I've learned so much about the ancient traditions and culture through these fabulously illustrated books, and it's increased my awareness of what they all mean, fascinating stuff.
