Jimmy Liao

Jimmy Liao (Chinese: 廖福彬; pinyin: Liào Fúbīn, born November 15, 1958) is a Taiwanese illustrator as well as a picture book writer. The name Jimmy is his English first name which brought about his (phonetic) Chinese pen name, 幾米.

After graduating from Chinese Culture University in which he majored in art, Jimmy worked in an advertising company for twelve years, and then he worked as an illustrator for newspapers and magazines. In 1998 his picture books Secrets In The Forest (森林裡的秘密) and A Fish With A Smile (微笑的魚) were published in Taiwan. These two books earned him several book awards and were regarded as “The Best Children’s Books” in several Taiwanese newspapers, such as The China Times, Min Sheng Bao, and United Daily News. His picture book A Chance of Sunshine or Turn Left, Turn Right (向左走, 向右走), which was published in 1999, was voted “One of the Ten Most Influential Books” by the Taiwanese bookstore chain, Kingstones. Jimmy’s books have been translated into dozens of languages and sold around the world. His books have also been adapted for theater, movie, television, and animation. Many of his characters from his picture books have been applied to the making of dolls and pictures on other authorized products, notably leather purses. Jimmy was a middle-aged man who had survived a battle with leukemia in 1995 and was determined to devote himself heart and soul to his art. His pictures are characterized by their use of striking, bold colours and depict central figures that often appear small in the foreground, suggesting the viewpoint of a child in the wide, sometimes sinister, world, or to hint at loneliness.

• The Rainbow of Time, translated by Wang Xinlin and Andrea Lingenfelter (Balestier Press, 2015) ISBN 978-0-9932154-3-8
• The Sound of Colors: A Journey of the Imagination, translated by Sarah L. Thomson (Little, Brown and Company, 2006).