             
 |
|
|
Children's Literature in China: From Lu Xun to Mao Zedong
|
||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
Comments/Reviews
Description: The first history of the vast, yet neglected, field of modern Chinese children's literature, this book introduces the major works and debates in children's literature within the framework of China's revolution and modernization. This literature was born out of the May Fourth period cultural renaissance in the early twentieth century; its rationale was the political importance of children as the nation's future at a time of war and revolutionary change.
Lu Xun and his brother, Zhou Zhuren, were the founding fathers of this new literature which swept major urban centers in the twenties and thirties. It began as an anti-Confucian attack on tradition, using social Darwinism as the framework for national survival and its application to education. Darwinism gave way to Marxism in the post-war period and children's literature subsequently adopted revolutionary approaches first formulated by Mao Zedong. It became the subject of major debates and political campaigns, particularly around the nature of fairytales.
Selected Contents:
1. The Historical Background: Traditional Children's Books; Western Impact on Chinese Children's Literature; May Fourth Children's Literature; Conclusion
2. Lu Xun and the World of Children: Lu Xun and Translations of Western Children's Literature; Lu Xun's Early Translations in the Qing Dynasty; Lu Xun and Children's Literature in the Early May Fourth Period; Lu Xun and Children's Literature in the Later May Fourth Period; Conclusion
3. A New Children's Literature: Ye Shengtao's Fairytales; Bing Xin's Letters to Young Readers ; Children's Literature in the Inter-war Period 1921-1937; Conclusion
4. Revolutionary Children's Literature: Revolutionary Children's Literature in the Pre-war Period; Revolutionary Children's Literature in the War Period; Conclusion
5. Comic Books and Popularization: Chinese Comics between 1908 and Liberation in 1949; Chinese Comics from 1949 to 1965; Comic Books in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 1966 to 1976; Conclusion
6. Children's Literature in the People's Republic of China: Children's Literature from 1949 to May 1957; Children's Literature from 1957 to 1965; Children's Literature from 1966 to 1976; Conclusion
7. The Post-Mao Canon: The Canon: Its Historical Development; Canon Formation: The Politics of Education; The Canon: Privileged Literary Forms and Genres; Conclusion
Review(s): "Farquhar demonstrates the importance of politics even in children's books and the establishment of the child as a political symbol. ... [She] is a thorough researcher and categorizer. ... The first serious historical survey of Chinese children's literature." -- Library Journal
"What emerges from Farquhar's very interesting volume is how far Chinese children's literature has to go before it produces the kind of literature accessible to children in the US. ... Merits the attention of students of children's literature at the upper-division undergraduate level and above." -- Choice
"This book is a very welcome addition to the literature on modern China. ...It is one of the very few English-language discussions of children's culture in China, and it is a fine piece of work. I recommend this book for the pleasure of its scholarship. It is meticulously referenced, and is written from a position of deep knowledge not just of literature but also of film and modern history, It is also well written, and is therefore a good book for student use." -- Asian Studies Review
"In a special way, children's literature reflects twentieth-century Chinese history...Farquhar skillfully represents the course of children's literature development, which was shaped and changed by the historical trends." -- Multicultural Review
"This book represents the culmination of twenty years' research on the fascinating but largely ignored subject of the development of children's literature in twentieth-century China. ... [Farquhar's] intimate understanding of the cultural context of this period is fundamental to the comprehensiveness of her book. ... The breadth of her study is a tremendous asset. ... Farquhar's work is the first truly comprehensive analysis, in any language, of all the major schools of Chinese children's literature." -- China Information
    
|