同样是七八十岁的老人，有人拄着拐杖挪不动步，有人还能跑马拉松！很多人以为，这差别是基因和运气。         Chinese picture book artist Cai Gao Photo: VCGOn Saturday Beijing time, the 2026 Hans Christian Andersen Award ceremony was held in Canada. Eighty-year-old Chinese picture book artist Cai Gao attended the event in person to receive the medal and certificate, becoming the first Chinese illustrator to win this honor in the award's 60-year history.
The prize is awarded every two years by the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to a living author (since 1956) and illustrator (since 1966). The award is often referred to as the "Nobel Prize for children's literature," honoring lifelong achievements that have made a lasting and important contribution to children's literature. 
During the award ceremony, IBBY President Basarat Kazim praised Cai for the elegant, unrushed style in her works, which encourages children to look closely and discover beauty in quiet corners, according to the Guangming Daily. 
Kazim said Cai's works have an unhurried elegance that encourages children to look closely and discover beauty in quiet, everyday moment.
"This year's winner, Cai Gao, is extremely special. She is as beautiful a person as the drawings she does," Kazim said.
Following author Cao Wenxuan's win of the Hans Christian Andersen Awards as a writer of children's literature in 2016, Cai's achievement means that Chinese creators have now won both the author and illustrator categories, a "double victory."
In her acceptance speech, Cai said, "The future of the world lies in children. There is no greater happiness than creating for them." She also noted that children's books are bridges, connecting cultures and hearts around the world.
Reflecting on her childhood and her years teaching in rural villages, Cai recalled that after six years working as a rural primary school teacher in the 1980s, she joined a publishing house, where she spent two decades as a children's book editor. "This job taught me the most important lesson: to see life through the eyes of a child, and to use art as a way of expressing my feelings about life," she noted.
"I feel the profound weight of this gift from life. I'm filled with mixed emotions. I'm moved and grateful for everything I've been through. Every experience has shaped me into the person I am today," she added.
Alongside her editing career, Cai kept creating original picture books. Her well-known book Yueliang Baba is based on folk songs her grandmother would sing in her native Changsha dialect. Works like Huocheng 1938 (lit: Fire City 1938) were inspired by memories of wartime in Changsha, capital of Central China's Hunan Province. The rural scenery and farming scenes in The Land of the Peach Blossom, a book which is also listed as textbooks for primary school students in Japan, all reflect her lifelong connection to the Hunan countryside and many years quietly editing books at her desk, according to the China News Service. 
Though her illustrations reflect the atmosphere of the times, Cai told the Global Times that her stories' true intentions go beyond the visual; she hopes her work can teach children that "fearlessness and love are ways to overcome hardship."
Books such as Bao'er, Hua Mulan, The Land of the Peach Blossom, and The Hundred Birds' Feather Robe have established Cai as an illustrator who skillfully interprets traditional Chinese culture. She constantly revisits the classics, striving to connect ancient stories to contemporary social and cultural themes.
Before winning the Hans Christian Andersen Award in 2026, Cai became, in 1993, the first Chinese illustrator to win the Golden Apple Award, one of the world's top international honors for children's illustration. Cai has always emphasized that these awards do not belong to her alone. 
"When I learned that I had won the award, my first thought was of all the creators of my generation. This award is not just mine, it belongs to all of us," she said.
Cai's victory fills a six-decade gap for Chinese illustrators in the award's history, Zhang Peng, an associate professor at Nanjing Normal University and also president of the university's publishing house, told the Global Times. It also shows that original picture books, rooted in Chinese tradition and told with Eastern aesthetics, are fully capable of earning global recognition, Zhang added.
Zhang noted that for a long time, the Chinese children's book market was dominated by foreign imports, and local authors often struggled with the anxiety of imitating Western works. At 80, Cai has set a striking example for the industry with her use of ink-and-wash folk art, proving that the more grounded in national culture a work is, the wider its global reach. This has inspired greater confidence among local creators and encourages more people to focus on traditional Chinese culture, while paving the way for Chinese children's books to go global.
"Cai's achievement is no accident. It marks the moment when Chinese children's books truly found their own voice on the world stage," Zhang said.
。这可能是过去几十年里，有些人没有养成运动的好习惯。

B | 这不是鸡汤，是一组被追踪了二十多年的数据告诉我们的事实。

多活7年，少瘫16年斯坦福大学做过一项长达21年的随访研究，跟踪了五百多名长跑爱好者和四百多名久坐不动的同龄人。

C | 结果出来后，最扎眼的数字不是"坚持跑步，让死亡平均只推迟了约7年"，而是另一个——跑步的人，失能到来的时间比不运动的人晚了16年。不运动的人可能七十出头就腿脚不听使唤、上下楼成问题，后面十几年基本靠人照顾过日子。而坚持跑步的人，多活的年份不算多，但需要别人喂饭、翻身、擦身子的日子，直接砍掉了一大半。

D | 这就是医学界说的"发病率压缩"，把那些病恹恹、瘫在床上的时间，尽可能压到生命终点的最后一段。前面几十年该吃吃、该走走、该自己动手就自己动手，最后走的时候也利索。跑步底触发了什么？很多人以为跑步就是消耗卡路里、出点汗。其实不是这么简单！跑步能保护细胞。细胞每次分裂，染色体末端的端粒就会缩短一截，短到极限细胞就死。

E | 跑步能激活一种酶，让端粒缩短得慢一些。有研究测算，规律运动的人，细胞年龄比同龄久坐者年轻得多。跑步能抑制慢性炎症。心血管病、糖尿病等，表面上看是不同系统的毛病，根子上都有慢性炎症在捣鬼。跑步能调节体内的炎症因子水平，抑制慢性炎症的发展。跑步能维持血管的弹性。跑步促进一氧化氮释放，这是血管保持柔软的关键物质。血管不硬了，血压就稳了，心脏就轻松了，脑子供血也好了。跑步还能给大脑"上营养"。跑步会刺激一种叫BDNF的物质分泌，这东西专门滋养海马体——大脑里管记忆和学习的区域。跑得久的人，记性更好，反应更快，认知退化的风险也更低。

F | 这些机制不是单独起作用，而是环环相扣：炎症少了，端粒损耗慢了；血管好了，大脑供血足了；大脑供血足了，神经保护更强了。一套组合拳打下来，各种慢性病被集体往后推。如何健康跑步？有人会问：我都这岁数了，现在开始跑还来得及吗？我想说，只要跑得动，什么时间都不晚！跑圈里有些七八十岁的老年人，每天跑步速度很慢，随着年龄的增长，从每天10公里，压缩到5公里，甚至3公里，但健康优势比同龄人依旧很明显。每周3到5次、每次30到60分钟的中等强度慢跑，时间投入完全可以控制。换回来的，是老年的时光，能自己洗澡、自己买菜、自己决定今天去哪。这种自由，多少钱都买不到。不需要配速多少，也不需要参加马拉松，更不需要拼命。规律、温和、能长期坚持的慢跑，就是普通人最好的选择。每次跑步5到10公里，微微出汗，常年不断。怕伤膝盖？那就从快走开始，循序渐进，配合力量训练和拉伸。

G | 有基础疾病？先问医生，量力而行。关键是别断。突击式锻炼没用，细水长流才是正道。写在最后人到中年，我们拼命赚钱、攒养老金，但最容易忽略的是：最好的养老本钱，是你的肌肉、你的心肺、你的行动力。有钱有房不如自己能走能动，不用求人搀扶、不用看人脸色、不用让子女为自己的身体疲于奔命——这才是一个人到“老的时候”最实在的体面。

H | 跑步真正的意义，从来不是让你活到一百岁。而是让你在最后那几年，依然能自己系鞋带、自己开门、自己决定怎么过这一天。