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Post-colonialism and Children’s Books in/about China
A thread
https://celiasuu.wordpress.com/2020/10/30/post-colonialism-and-childrens-books-inabout-china/
A thread
https://celiasuu.wordpress.com/2020/10/30/post-colonialism-and-childrens-books-inabout-china/
I am not sure if the post-colonialist theory could be applied in the analysis of children’s books in China because I have not read so much of them. I can only provide a personal response here.
However, my lack of reading Chinese children’s literature, as well as many other people like me, could be seen through a post-colonialist lens. In the field of children’s literature, we are ‘invaded’ with and ‘colonized’ by books written by foreign authors and in English.
The reason is not that Chinese children’s books are of no good quality, but that parents and educators are desperate to help kids catch up with their foreign (mostly European and North American) peers. ’To catch up with’ already indicates a primitive and inferior position taken…
…by us and a superior one taken by the West. Children’s books are considered to be (from the class advertisement) an appropriate way to teach children how to read in English and also how to write in both creative and academic context.
Of course, knowing more about the world is not something terrible, but I believe to see the world, we have to know ourselves first.
Back to post-colonialism, China was a semi-colonized country. I have gone through some introductions on the history of Chinese children’s literature, but none of the books mentioned shows the typical feature of a post-colonialist text.
Works written during and after the war against Japan always provides a positive child as a little warrior and a promising future with peace and unity. Nevertheless, my observation could be biased because of the limited scope of reading.
One book that catches my eyes is a new version of Pinocchio. The author directly appropriated Pinocchio from the original Italian text into China and depicted him as a traitor who conspired with enemies to overthrow the government.
To put it simply, he borrowed a western canonical literary figure without any changes, which might suggest two things: first, Pinocchio’s translation success into Chinese and its economic potential; second, the author’s inability to create a native figure as a traitor (but we…
…have to admit that Pinocchio is a safe choice, as he is not a human and there are no references to real people). The ‘appropriation’ of a western book into an eastern context can also be seen as from a post-colonialist perspective.
What is far more interesting is the book I finished two days ago. This time, a British writer wrote an adventure story set in Tibet that was occupied (or colonized) by China.
The protagonist Tash and her family lived in a village in Tibet under fierce control, and her parents who joined the resistance group were taken away. Tash and her friend had to embark on a journey to Tibet to ask for help from Dalai Lama.
From a Chinese perspective, Tibet is an indispensable part of China, and thus there should not be things like an occupation. However, I do believe that life there is much more different and challenging from other provinces.
The book was written by a westerner and was about the colonization of an eastern hidden gem unexplored by and appealing to western people. However, the main characters are Tibetan with rather western abbreviated names as Tash and Sam.
This thread can be read here: https://celiasuu.wordpress.com/2020/10/30/post-colonialism-and-childrens-books-inabout-china/
