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An illustration named Jacques Maes & Lise Braekers. [Photo provided to China Daily]

In China, publishers have long paid students in fine arts academies a pittance to churn out illustrations for books.

"There is a joke about those cheap illustrations," says Gao Shan, chief executive of IlluSalon. "If you go to many illustrations and remove the hair or skin color of the figures in them you will find that all the eyes and noses－including those of dogs, cats and humans－are similar."

One reason such conditions have prevailed for so long is that there is a paucity of good channels through which anyone can find suitable illustrators, Hou says.

"Also, publishers demand the best illustrations, but are willing to pay accordingly," Hou says.

IlluSalon was founded in 2014 at a time when an upswing in demand in China for good-quality illustrations and picture books was showing itself. "We have lived through the printing era and the writing era and are now in the audio-visual era," Hou says. "So people are crying out for more pictures, especially really creative ones that express a creators' ideas."

IlluSalon has been the driving force between a new event that recognizes artistic talent, the Global Illustration Award. At the Frankfurt Book Fair in October IlluSalon hosted the awards ceremony. More than 10,000 entries from five continents were received in two months, in five illustration categories: covers; children's books; editorial; scientific; and one titled "Learning to live together". The awards went to 15 artists from seven countries and regions.