A forever story

In November 2020, Liaw attended the China International Children's Book Fair in Shanghai, a meeting place for illustrators and publishers. Liaw met editors from the Guangxi Normal University Press during the fair and introduced her work to them. Her style, combining collage, pastel and watercolor, impressed the editors.

After Long finished the tales in January last year, Liaw officially started her work last April. The biggest challenge was Shenme Yemeiyoude Gushi, she says.

"The editor and I had been thinking about how to draw the image of 'a story'; after all, it's not a concrete thing," Liaw says. "After studying a lot of other picture books, especially those about abstract ideas, we decided to represent 'a story' with the feeling of wind."

Commenting on Liaw's creation, the editor of the series Yang Yining says, "Fairy tales are among the most imaginative literary works. When reading fairy tales, every child has their own imagined scenes. As a result, when creating illustrations for fairy tales, artists should be able to apply colors and styles freely to convey the overall atmosphere and emotions of the stories, which will lead children into a 'feeling', rather than set scenes that will present children with fixed images. Monica's style meets this expectation."