Taipei, April 26 (CNA) Australian illustrator Shaun Tan was neither fazed by the fact that he was the shortest student in his class nor by the fact that he was not recruited by the famous Disney-Pixar animation studio. He has been enjoying being a picture book illustrator.
As a latecomer who started working on children's picture books at the age of 20, Tan is regarded as one of the most promising Australian illustrators. Tan is visiting Taiwan on a promotional tour for Australian picture books.
Tan was born in 1974 and grew up in the northern suburbs of Perth, Western Australia. His father is a Malaysian civil engineer of Chinese descent who relocated to Australia. In school, Tan became known as the "good drawer" which partly compensated for always being the shortest kid in every class.
He graduated from the University of Western Australia in 1995 with degrees in fine arts and English literature. Currently, Tan works full-time as a freelance illustrator and writer, concentrating mostly on picture books.
Tan began drawing and painting images for science fiction and horror stories in magazines as a teenager. He has won numerous awards for his work. He recently worked for Blue Sky Studios and Pixar, providing concept artwork for films, and turned down Pixar's offer of a full-time job.
Tan introduced to Taiwan two of his books, "The Red Tree" and "The Lost Thing", both of which are currently being adapted for short films. His works reflect a lot of his childhood memories and observations of life, making them suitable for both children and adults.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of an exhibition of more than 40 Australian picture books at Eslite Bookstores in Taipei Tuesday, Tan said he is proud of Australian picture books publishing and the country he comes from.
"Australia is an incredibly diverse country. And its picture books publishing is very disorganized, which is good. Artists in the field come from everywhere. There are businesspeople, school teachers, parents, people who live in the city, and people from the countryside," he said.
"And Australian picture books are being recognized for being experimental and adventurous, " Tan said.