YAOTAOS ZEICHEN

Yaotaos Zeichen/Yaotao’s Characters is a atmospheric journey back in time, written for both young and old.

Lyon, France. In her grandparent’s attic, Lucie finds an old suitcase filled with mysterious Chinese characters. Does it belong to her great-grandfather Yaotao who emigrated from China to France? All of a sudden the characters begin to dance and tell her Yaotao’s story:

In the 1930s the young man arrives after a voyage on the ocean in Lyon, where he discovers an unknown culture: the first French words, moments of homesickness and the tender love for pretty Laurence. A few years later the newly minted doctor returns with Laurence and their newborn child to Beijing. There the young family wants to begin a new life, if it wasn’t for the war that disrupts their plans… They experience the tumultuous times of the Second World War.

A illustrated novell by Yi Meng Wu
Publisher: kunstanstifter Verlag (in german language), 2017
format: 104 pages |  offset print with hardcover
ISBN: 978-3-942795-58-6

* Winner Joseph Binder Award Bronze, Design Austria 2018
*Nomination for “Little Hakka International Picture Book Award 2018, China”
*funded by Stiftung Kulturwerk Germany (VG Bild-Kunst) and the Franco-German Youth Office (FGYO) 

---

PRESS SELECTION

„Mehrfach gespiegelte Auswandererschicksale auf der Klaviatur der Illusionen
zwischen Lebenswelten, Kriegen, Meeren und Mentalitäten.“ (Stefan Gnam)
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24.08.2018

„Was für eine dramatische Lebensgeschichte! Was für eine Kunst, sie mit knappen Texten in Bilder umzusetzen!“
10.10.2017 , Neues Deutschland, Dossier for Frankfurt Bookfair 2017

„Es ist eine zutieft anrührende Geschichte, die auf wahren Begebenheiten beruht“.
Berliner Tagesspiegel, 01.03.2018

A beautiful radio feature by Anne Kohlick for Deutschlandfunkkultur

A touching review podcast by children on kids broadcast kakadu (Deutschlandfunkkultur)

Selected by Kultturradio rbb
„Tipps Bücher und CD’s für den Winter 2017/18“

A TV-feature and interview about the book by director Arseny Knaifel on Nihao Deutschland (episode 220: minute 8:40–12:40)

Selected by readers from Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Was SZ-Leser im Herbst lesen”, 30.10.2017

Reviews on german literature blogs:
Gute Literatur meine Empfehlung
littafin – from panels with love

---