Parent, Child and State in Chinese Children’s Books

Authors

  • Lijun Bi Monash University, Australia
  • Xiangshu Fang Deakin University, Australia
  • Clare Bradford Deakin University, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2015vol23no1art1121

Keywords:

parents, children, State, Chinese children's books

Abstract

A marked characteristic of Chinese society is its alertness to hierarchical differences and its expectation of obedience to proper authority. From the Confucian point of view, tranquillity and happiness within society can only be achieved through xiao (filial piety), the principal value of Confucian morality. Filial piety is also central to the Confucian rationale for organising social order, revolving around conceptions of superior-inferior status in human relationships: children ought to obey parents, wives ought to obey husbands, and subjects ought to obey their emperor. The prevalence of such indoctrination in Chinese children’s books can be traced to the Confucian belief that children are able to reach their full potential sense of benevolence by imitating the proper behaviour of their elders and role models in books. Indeed, the political role of the moral training in books worked effectively following the adoption of Confucianism as the state doctrine around 100 BC, and helped to maintain dynastic reign for about two thousand years, until Western warships and guns shattered Chinese confidence in Confucianism in the late nineteenth century.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biographies

  • Lijun Bi, Monash University, Australia

    Lijun Bi lectures at the School of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics of Monash University. Her research publications are mainly on politics and ethics of Chinese children’s literature. Her most recent book is China’s May Fourth Poetry: Educating the Young (Common Ground, 2014).

  • Xiangshu Fang, Deakin University, Australia

    Xiangshu Fang is a senior lecturer at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Deakin University.  He has published  books and articles on political life in rural China, the Cultural Revolution and revival of Confucianism.

  • Clare Bradford, Deakin University, Australia

    Clare Bradford is Alfred Deakin Professor at Deakin University in Melbourne. Her books include Reading Race: Aboriginality in Australian Children’s Literature (2001), which won the ChLA Book Award and the IRSCL Award; Unsettling Narratives: Postcolonial Readings of Children’s Literature (2007); New World Orders in Contemporary Children’s Literature: Utopian Transformations (2009) (with Mallan, Stephens and McCallum); and The Middle Ages in Children’s Literature (2015).  From 2007 to 2011 Clare was President of the International Research Society for Children’s Literature. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities.  

References

Bernstein, R. (2011) ‘Children’s books, dolls, and the performance of race; or the possibility of children’s literature’, PMLA 126: 1, 160-169.

Bi, L. (2008) ‘The militant trend in early patriotic works of modern Chinese children’s literature’, in Vicziany, A. M. & Cribb, R. (eds) Proceedings of the 17th Biennial Conference of the ASAA, Melbourne. Available from: http://www.arts.monash.edu.au/mai/asaa/proceedings.php

Bing Xin (1926) Ji xiaoduzhe [To Young Readers]. Shanghai, Beixin shuju.

Chang, J. (1992) Wild Swans. London, HarperCollins.

Cheng Sheng (1988) Baiqizi [White Flags], in Pu Manding (ed) Zhongguo ertong wenxue daxi, xiaoshuo I, [The great anthology of Chinese Children’s literature, short stories I]. Taiyuan, Xiwang chubanshe, pp. 12-17. Originally published in Weekly Review on May 26, 1919.

Cui Daoyi (1979) Duiyuan de daolu [The Road of a Young Pioneer Member], in Selected works of Shanghai children’s literature, 1949-1979, vol 1. Shanghai shaonian ertong chubanshe, pp. 131–49. Originally published in 1956 in Shaonian wenyi, [Juvenile literature], no. 4, Shanghai.

Dai Pingwan (1988) Xiao Feng, in Pu Manding (ed) Zhongguo ertong wenxue daxi, xiaoshuo I, [The great anthology of Chinese children’s literature, short stories I]. Taiyuan, Xiwang chubanshe, pp. 288–302. Originally published in Taiyang yuekan, May 1928.

Dreyer, J. T. (2010) China’s Political System: Modernization and Tradition (7th edition). New York and London, Longman.

Fairbank, J. K. (1976) The United States and China (4th edition). Cambridge MA and London, Harvard University Press.

Fang, X. (2003) ‘Neo-Confucianism in Chinese children’s books’, Papers: Exploration into Children's Literature 13, 2, 15-26.

Gubar, M. (2009) Artful Dodgers: Preconceiving the Golden Age of Children’s Literature. New York, Oxford University Press.

Legge, J. (1971) The Chinese Classics. Taipei, Wenshizhe chubanshe.

Lu Ying (1988) Liang ge xiao xuesheng [Two Pupils], in Pu Manding (ed) Zhongguo ertong wenxue daxi, xiaoshuo I, [The great anthology of Chinese children’s literature, short stories I]. Taiyuan, Xiwang chubanshe, pp. 50-56. Originally published in Xiaoshuo ribao, August 1926.

Lynch, M. (1996) China: From Empire to People’s Republic 1900-49. London, Hodder Murray.

Ma Feng (1979) Han Meimei, in Shanghai ertong wenxue xuan 1949-1979, diyijuan [Selected works of Shanghai children’s literature, 1949-1979, vol 1]. Shanghai shaonian ertong chubanshe, pp. 131-49. Originally published in 1954.

Mao Zedong (1949) ‘Report to the second plenary session of the seventh Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party’, in Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (1966) Beijing, Foreign Languages Press, p. 193.

Mickenberg, J. (2006) Learning from the Left: Children’s Literature, the Cold War, and Racial Politics in the United States. New York, Oxford University Press.

Reynolds, K. (2007) Radical Children’s Literature: Future Visions and Aesthetic Transformations in Juvenile Fiction. New York, Palgrave Macmillan.

Rudd, D. (2004) ‘Theorising and Theories: The Conditions of Possibility of Children’s Literature’, Hunt, P. (ed) International Companion Encyclopedia of Children’s Literature (2nd edition). London, Routledge, pp. 29-43.

Wang Longlin and Zhong Yanfu (eds) (1995) Huihuaben Zhongguo jingdian qimeng gushi: San zi jing, qian zi wen, dizi gui, xiaoer yu [Illustrated copies of classical Chinese enlightment stories: The three character classic, an assay of a thousand characters, rules for the young and words for children]. Beijing shaonian ertong chubanshe.

Wu Meng (ed) (1991) San zi jing, bai jia xing, qian zi wen [The three character classic, a hundred family names and an essay of a thousand characters]. Shanghai guji chubanshe.

Xin san zi jing bianxie weiyuanhui [The New Three Character Classic Compilation Committee] (1994) Xin san zi jing [The New Three Character Classic]. Guangdong jiaoyu chubanshe.

Yu Hua (1993) Zai xiyuzhong huhan [Cries in the Drizzle]. Shanghai wenyi chubanshe. Available from: http://book.kanunu.org/html/2005/0716/374.html

Xu Xu, (2011) ‘Chairman Mao’s child: Sparkling Red Star and the construction of children in the Chinese Cultural Revolution’, Children’s Literature Association Quarterly 36: 4, 381-409.

Downloads

Published

2015-01-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

“Parent, Child and State in Chinese Children’s Books” (2015) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 23(1), pp. 34–52. doi:10.21153/pecl2015vol23no1art1121.

Similar Articles

1-10 of 152

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 > >>