邬书林：为人类文明筑基 为少儿未来铸魂（中英文对照版）

儿童健康成长，是文明长河奔涌的不竭源头，是文化薪火传承的稳固基石，是人类命运永续的希望火种。中国古代经典《周易》中说“蒙以养正，圣功也”，西方哲人柏拉图亦强调“早期教育是最最重要的教育”，二者跨越时空的共识，阐明了儿童成长与文明传承的深刻关联——在稚嫩的心灵播下真善美的种子，人类文明的参天大树才能枝繁叶茂。

       优质童书对儿童认知的塑造，本质上是在为文明大厦夯筑根基。回望历史，从中国敦煌藏经洞的儿童启蒙写本，到古埃及纸草书中的寓言故事，人类文明从未停止通过童书传递智慧基因。中国宋代活字印刷术的发明让《三字经》遍行天下，德国商人谷登堡的机械印刷让《伊索寓言》走向世界，这些文明传播的里程碑事件印证着：当童书成为跨时空的文明信使，不同地域的智慧便在儿童心中嫁接生长，播下人类命运共同体的文化种子。

       然而，当今世界，正经历百年未有之大变局。国际格局深度调整，大国博弈、地区冲突不断，传统与非传统安全威胁交织，不同文明间的交流、碰撞与融合以前所未有的态势展开，多元文明共生发展的同时，也面临着价值冲突、文化霸权等问题的挑战。我们的下一代作为未来世界的主人，他们正面对这样一个复杂多变的世界，我们用什么样的童书来滋养孩子的精神世界，这影响着人类未来的命运。

       这也正是我们探讨童书出版未来发展的真正意义之所在。正如法国作家雨果所言：“没有什么比一本书更能改变世界。”出版虽非经济巨舰，却是拨正世界文明罗盘的舵针支点，承载着超越国界的使命——以科学驱散愚昧、以包容消解对立、以真知涤除偏见。

童书出版更是如此，作为知识传播的重要载体，其在塑造下一代的世界观、人生观、价值观方面，发挥着不可替代的作用。通过阅读，孩子们可以穿越时空的界限，与古今中外的伟大思想家、文学家、科学家进行对话，汲取人类文明的精华，拓宽自己的视野，丰富自己的内心世界，创造更加美好的未来。

       从全球范围来看，童书出版事业近年来取得了显著的发展。各国的少儿图书品种日益丰富，涵盖了文学、科普、艺术、历史等多个领域。无论是精美的图画书，还是富有想象力的科幻小说，都在努力满足不同年龄段孩子们的阅读需求。同时，随着数字技术的不断进步，电子童书、有声读物等新型出版形式也如雨后春笋般涌现，为孩子们带来了更加多样化的阅读体验。在国际交流与合作方面，各国的童书出版界也越来越重视相互之间的沟通与协作，通过版权贸易、联合出版、文化交流活动等多种形式，让各国的优秀童书能够走向世界，让更多的孩子能够分享到人类共同的精神财富。

       在世界出版舞台上，中国童书出版植根传统、拥抱时代、面向未来，正绽放出独特光芒。中国党和政府历来高度重视童书出版工作。习近平总书记在致首届全民阅读大会的贺信中，特别寄语“希望孩子们养成阅读习惯，快乐阅读，健康成长”，这一殷切期望为中国童书出版工作指明了方向。中国政府高度重视农村的阅读，在过去的20年间，中央财政投入120亿元，地方配套30亿元，在每个自然村建设小型公共图书馆，也即农家书屋。在过去的20年间，我们一共建成了60万个农家书屋，为包括儿童在内的农村人口阅读提供保障。近年来，在政策扶持与社会各界关注下，童书出版成绩斐然。据相关数据，我国童书出版市场十分活跃，全国超500家出版社投身其中。过去十年，我国人均GDP稳步增长，民众文化消费能力大幅提升，家庭在童书阅读上的投入逐年递增。2023年我国童书出版品种突破4.5万种，市场码洋超310亿元，目前少儿图书约占中国零售图书市场的27%。今天中国童书出版界已与全球50多个国家建立常态化合作机制。

       同时，我们也清醒地认识到，当前世界童书出版领域仍然存在着一些不容忽视的问题。

       首先，地区发展不平衡问题依然突出。在一些发达国家，童书出版产业已经成熟，拥有先进的出版技术、丰富的创作资源和完善的市场体系。而在一些发展中国家，由于经济、文化等方面的原因，出版事业还相对落后，面临着资金短缺、创作人才匮乏、市场渠道不畅等诸多困难。这种不平衡不仅导致了全球童书读物的供应存在着巨大的差距，也使得一些地区的孩子们无法享受到优质的阅读资源。在发达国家和发展中国家之间，童书的出版和阅读存在着巨大的文化鸿沟，这是不争的事实。

       其次，文化差异带来的挑战也不容忽视。不同国家和民族有着各自独特的文化传统、价值观念和审美标准，这在一定程度上影响了童书在国际市场上的传播与接受。如何在尊重文化差异的基础上，打造具有全球吸引力的童书，是我们需要共同面对的问题。

       此外，随着信息时代的到来，各种新媒体、新技术不断出现，人工智能浪潮奔涌而至，对传统童书出版行业造成了巨大的冲击。数字阅读兴起，改变了人们的阅读习惯，传统纸质出版市场份额被压缩；社交媒体、自媒体蓬勃发展，信息传播渠道日益多元，出版机构的权威地位受到冲击；人工智能、大数据等新技术的应用，虽带来机遇，但也引发了诸如内容原创性和版权保护等新问题。传统出版与数字出版如何破界融合、应势而变，正考验着我们行业的智慧与行动力。

在这样一个充满挑战的时代，童书出版如何发挥其出版功能，促进人类命运共同体的构建，同时防止在人工智能时代，不良信息对儿童成长的危害，这是时代给我们提出的重要课题。

为人类文明筑基，为少儿未来铸魂，我们当携手践行三重使命。

       其一，以科学精神锻造认知基石。出版的核心功能是传播知识、传递信息、传承文明，推动人类社会进步。培养明辨是非的下一代，关键在于将科学真理与人文关怀熔铸于童书之中。童书出版须恪守“立德树人”之本，如孔子所倡“志于道，据于德，依于仁，游于艺”。当战火在远方燃烧，我们要为孩子奉上《和平树》这般呼唤和解的佳作；当气候变化威胁生存，《地球通史》这类读物便是生态意识的启蒙。我们应以开放包容的心态，汲取世界各国优秀文化的精华，丰富读物的内涵。同时，我们要共同践行“己所不欲，勿施于人”的理念，引导孩子们在阅读中涵养同理心与善良品质，学会尊重与关爱他人，学会与不同文化背景的人和谐相处。

       其二，借科技之力拓新文明载体。《哈利·波特》的魔法宇宙启示我们：故事的生命力在于跨界生长。数字技术的发展为童书出版带来了新的机遇和挑战。但我们要清醒地认识到，技术永远只是容器与工具，出版人的使命，是以真知为薪柴，点燃儿童心中不灭的求索之火。我们要充分利用互联网、大数据、人工智能等技术，创新出版形式和传播渠道，为孩子们提供更加个性化、多样化的阅读服务。想象这样的场景：非洲草原上的孩子通过VR与《白雪公主》互动，欧洲少女的AI读书伴侣为她定制《唐诗中的山水》课程，与李白杜甫共同吟唱交流。技术唯有承载文明深度，方能成就永恒价值。

       其三，聚全球智慧共创美好未来。文明如百川归海，各美其美。敦煌壁画中的飞天与安徒生笔下的美人鱼，同样闪耀人性光辉。我们要打破各种偏见壁垒，加强国际交流与合作，促进各国童书出版资源的共享与互补。通过举办国际书展、开展版权贸易、组织作家交流活动等方式，搭建起各国童书出版界沟通的桥梁。在合作过程中，充分尊重各国的文化差异和知识产权，实现互利共赢。

       如社会学家费孝通先生所言“各美其美，美人之美，美美与共，天下大同。”这句话深刻地揭示了不同文化之间相互尊重、相互欣赏、相互融合的重要性。在少儿出版领域，我们要让孩子们从小就懂得欣赏自己民族的文化之美，同时也要尊重和欣赏其他国家和民族的文化之美。通过优秀的童书，将各国文化的精华呈现给孩子们，让他们在阅读中感受文化的多元魅力，培养他们的文化包容精神。只有这样，我们才能培养出一代具有全球视野、胸怀天下的未来人才，让世界变得更加美好。

       童书出版事业是一项充满希望和挑战的事业，它关系到人类的未来和命运。中国出版界愿与全球同业并肩而行，携手共进，以开放合作深化国际协作，以互利共赢推动创新发展，共同开拓世界童书出版的美好未来，为构建人类命运共同体筑牢认知根基，共书全球文明传承的崭新篇章！

       （本文系中国出版协会理事长邬书林在2025BIBF世界童书论坛上的致辞，发表时有删改）

Laying the Foundation for Human Civilization and Forging the Soul of Children for the Future

Wu Shulin, President of the Chinese Publishers Association

The healthy growth of children serves is the inexhaustible source of the surging river of civilization, the solid foundation for the inheritance of culture, and the hope for the continuation of the human destiny. The Book of Changes (Yi Jing), one of the earliest Chinese philosophical classics, says that "cultivating integrity in childhood innocence is the work of sages." The Western philosopher Plato also emphasized "early education as the most crucial." This consensus across time and space reveals the profound connection between children's growth and civilization inheritance—only by sowing the seeds of truth, goodness, and beauty in young hearts can the towering tree of human civilization thrive with luxuriant branches and leaves.

The role of high-quality books in shaping children's cognition is essential to consolidate the foundation of civilization. Looking back into history, the elementary readers for children found in China’s Dunhuang Mogao Caves and the fable stories written on papyri in ancient Egypt all demonstrate the transmission of intellectual genes in human civilization through children's books. The invention of movable type printing in China’s Song Dynasty enabled the Three Character Classic to spread far and wide, while mechanical printing invented by Johannes Gutenberg in Germany brought Aesop’s Fables around the world. These milestones in cultural transmission attest to the fact that when children's books become messengers of civilizations across time and space, wisdom from different regions grafts and grows in children’s hearts, sowing the cultural seeds of a community with a shared future for mankind.

The world today is undergoing changes unseen in a century. The international landscape is being profoundly readjusted, with ongoing major-power games and regional conflicts, and interwoven traditional and non-traditional security threats. Exchanges, collisions and fusions among different civilizations are unfolding in an unprecedented manner. While diverse civilizations coexist and develop, they face challenges from issues such as value conflicts and cultural hegemony. This is the complex and volatile world that our next generation, the future inhabitants of our planet, is facing. What kind of books should we publish to nourish children’s spiritual world, which will influence the future destiny of mankind?

This is precisely the true significance of this forum. The French writer Victor Hugo once remarked that nothing was more powerful than a book to change the world. Although publishing is not a large industry in economic terms, it serves as the pivotal fulcrum for adjusting the compass of world civilizations. Its mission transcends national boundaries: to dispel ignorance with science, resolve opposition with inclusivity, and cleanse prejudice with true knowledge.

Children’s book publishing is all the more so. In disseminating knowledge, children’s books play an irreplaceable role in shaping their world views, outlooks on life, and values. Reading enables children to cross the boundaries of time and space, engage in dialogue with great thinkers, writers, and scientists of both the past and the present, both at home and from abroad. By absorbing the essence of human civilization, they will be able to broaden their horizons, enrich their inner world, and create a better future for mankind in due course.

From a global perspective, children’s book publishing has achieved remarkable development in recent years, with a rich variety of subjects covering literature, popular science, art, history, and many more. From exquisite picture books to imaginative science fiction novels, they are all designed to meet the reading needs of children in different age groups. At the same time, with the continuous advancement of digital technology, new publishing forms such as electronic- and audiobooks have emerged like mushrooms after rain, allowing children to enjoy more diversified reading experiences. In terms of international exchanges, publishers in different countries are paying more and more attention to collaboration with each other. Through copyright trade, joint publishing, and cultural exchanges, excellent children’s books from different countries can go global, allowing more children to share the common spiritual wealth of mankind.
On the world stage of publishing, children’s book publishing in China, rooted in tradition, embracing the era, and facing the future, shines with a unique light. The Communist Party of China and the Chinese government have always attached great importance to children’s book publishing. In his congratulatory letter to the first National Reading Conference, President Xi Jinping expressed the hope that "children will develop the habit of reading, enjoy reading, and grow up healthily." This message has pointed out the direction for children’s book publishers in China.

The Chinese government pays special attention to reading in the countryside. In the past 20 years, with RMB12 billion central finance and 3 billion matching local finance, 600,000 public libraries have been established in natural villages across the country. These libraries, known as Rural Reading Rooms, ensure that the rural population, including children, have access to books.

In recent years, with policy support and attention from all sectors of society, children’s book publishing in China has made remarkable achievements. According to relevant data, this segment of the publishing market is very active, involving more than 500 houses across the country. In the past decade, the steady growth of per capita GDP has led to a substantial increase of the public’s cultural consumption, including family investment in children’s reading. In 2023, the number of titles for children exceeded 45,000, with total sales exceeding RMB31 billion. At present, children’s books account for about 27% of China’s retail book market and the sector maintains regular cooperation with partners in more than 50 foreign countries.

However, we are also aware that the world children’s publishing faces problems that cannot be ignored.

First, unbalanced regional development remains a prominent issue. In general, developed countries have a mature children’s book publishing industry, with advanced technology, rich creative resources, and a sound market system. In some developing countries, ,the publishing industry is still relatively backward, due to difficulties such as shortage of funds, lack of creative talent, and inefficient market channels. The imbalance has not only led to a huge gap in the global supply of children’s books but also made it impossible for children in some regions to enjoy high-quality reading resources. This huge cultural gap in the publishing and reading of children’s books between developed and developing countries remains an indisputable reality.

Second, the challenges brought by cultural differences cannot be ignored. Different countries and nations have their own unique cultural traditions, values, and aesthetic standards, which to a certain extent affect the spread and acceptance of children’s books in the international market. To create children’s books with a global appeal on the basis of respecting cultural differences is a challenging but meaningful task for us all.

In addition, in our age of information, the continuous emergence of new media and new technologies and the surging of artificial intelligence have a huge impact on traditional children’s book publishing. All these have changed people’s reading habits, compressing the market share of traditional paper books. The flourishing social media and self-media,and diversifying information dissemination channels challenge the authoritative status of publishing institutions. The application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data has brought opportunities, but also affected content originality and copyright protection. How traditional publishing and digital publishing can break boundaries and integrate to adapt to the situation is testing the wisdom and execution ability of our industry.
In such a challenging era, how can children’s book publishing play its function to foster in young hearts a sense of community with a shared future for mankind? In the era of artificial intelligence, how to protect children from the harm of bad information is a major issue raised by the times.

To consolidate the foundation for human civilization and forge the soul of children for the future, I’d propose for us to work together to fulfill three missions:

First, to forge in children the cognitive cornerstone with the spirit of science.

The core function of publishing is to spread knowledge, convey information, inherit civilization, and promote the progress of human society. The key to instilling in the next generation a sense of right and wrong lies in integrating scientific truth and humanistic love into children’s books. Publishers must abide by the philosophy of “emphasizing both morality and knowledge in education”, as Confucius has advocated that education should “inspire students to pursue lofty ideals, foster in them virtue and benevolence, and train them in the arts.” When war is raging in the distance, we should offer children masterpieces like The Peace Tree: A True Story from Africa that call for reconciliation; when climate change threatens our survival, readings like A General History of the Earth help awaken children’s ecological awareness. We should adopt an open and inclusive attitude, draw on the best of excellent cultures from all over the world, and enrich the connotation of reading materials. At the same time, we should all practice the philosophy of “not doing to others what we do not want to be done to ourselves.” We should guide children, through reading, to cultivate empathy, respect and care for others, and learn to live in harmony with people of different cultural backgrounds.

Second, to empower the transmission of civilizations through technology.

The magical universe of Harry Potter has shown us that the vitality of a story lies in cross-border growth. The development of digital technology has brought new opportunities and challenges to children’s book publishing. But we should be mindful that technology is always just a vehicle and a tool. The mission of publishers is to use true knowledge as firewood to ignite and sustain the fire of exploration in children. We should provide children with more personalized and diversified reading services by innovating publishing forms and communication channels through the Internet, big data, and AI.. Imagine such a scene: children on the African savannah interact with Snow White through VR, and the AI reading partner of a European girl customizes a course on Landscapes in Tang Poems, enabling her to sing and communicate with Li Bai and Du Fu. Only when technology serves to promote the progress of civilization can it achieve an eternal value.

Third, to create a better future by pooling global wisdom.

Civilization is like a hundred rivers converging into the sea, each beautiful in its own way. The flying Apsaras in the Dunhuang murals and the mermaid in Andersen’s story shine with the same light of human nature. We should break down various barriers of prejudice, strengthen international exchanges and cooperation, and promote the sharing and complementarity of children’s book publishing resources in different countries. By holding international book fairs, carrying out copyright trade, organizing writer exchanges, and other activities, we will build more bridges for communication among children’s book publishers around the globe. With full respect for cultural differences and intellectual property rights, we are sure to achieve mutual benefits and win-win results in our cooperation.

The spirit of cultural respect is most aptly summed up by Professor Fei Xiaotong, a renowned sociologist: “Be proud of your own beauty, appreciate the beauty of others, share the beauty of each other, and the world will be in harmony.” These remarks profoundly reveal the importance of mutual respect, mutual appreciation, and mutual integration among different cultures. In children’s books, we should teach young readers how to love the beauty of their own national culture, and at the same time respect and appreciate the beauty of the cultures of other countries and nations. And it is through reading excellent books that children can learn the rich diversity and unique charms of different cultures, and develop an inclusive spirit in the process. Only in this way can we cultivate a generation of future talent with a global vision and a broad mind, who will make the world a better place.

Publishing for children is a cause full of hope and challenges, a cause that affects the future and destiny of mankind. The Chinese publishers are willing to work closely with international partners for open cooperation, and mutual benefits and win-win results. Through joint efforts, we will be able to consolidate the cognitive foundation for building a community with a shared future for mankind, and write a new chapter in the inheritance and continuation of global civilizations!