“When I grew up, I studied hard out of fear that my parents wouldn’t love me any more if I fell behind others,” said Nei-Yuh Huang, a professor at the National Taiwan Normal University and writer and translator for children’s picture books. “Then one day a picture book magically changed my life for good because it taught me, via a little story, that learning should be a way to empower yourself for loving others in a better way. That picture book informed me that love, instead of fear, should be the inner motivation for learning.”
Picture books first appeared in the 18th century in Europe, and reached the golden age in the United States in the 1930s. After becoming popular in South Korea and Japan in the 1950s and the 1960s, parents in Taiwan began to read picture books to their children in the 1970s.
“Picture books, in a modern sense, are a new thing for the Chinese,” said Du Naifang, consultant for the Giving Tree Children’s Picture Books Publishing House (the Giving Tree) and former editor in chief of Parenting Science, a monthly magazine on children’s education.
However, an increasing number of picture books for children are now available on the Chinese mainland. While foreign titles still dominate, homegrown authors are catching up.
Define picture books
Picture books emphasize the connection between pictures and texts. Pictures are not only a tool for illustration but also an important part of storytelling. Some books even tell the story without a single word.
Topics of picture books can cover all aspects of a child’s life, including friendship, family love, dignity of life and the natural environment. Good picture books are more like an art work that can be collected and handed down in the family for generations, said Huang.
“Compared with other popular types of children’s books on the mainland, they are quite different in content, form and the painting skills,” said Du. “Lianhuanhua, or picture storybooks, a traditional choice for Chinese children, are often based on Chinese literature classics, such as The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, while picture books are often inspired by daily life incidences, thoughts and emotions.”
People assume writing and painting for children are a piece of cake for artists, but actually drawing pictures and writing stories for them are a demanding job.
“Words must be chosen very carefully to be concise, funny and in accordance with children’s reading habits, since there should be few words,” said Du. “What’s more, artists have to pay attention to every detail of the picture, the painting technique and style of the pictures, making sure those pictures are easily understood by all, especially kids because pictures are the main source for them to comprehend the story.”
Important functions
Picture books, a genre of children’s literature, are widely recognized as the most suitable reading materials for preschool education.
Cao Wenxuan, a writer and expert in children’s literature, pointed out one problem with children’s reading materials on the mainland. “Children’s books can be divided into two types: One for kids before their characters are shaped and one after that. But Chinese parents often take books of the second kind for their kids under school age,”Cao said.
Cao said it’s a serious problem that“many Chinese children have missed the phase of reading picture books, which are designed to help shape their personalities as a combination of true beauty, wisdom and kindness, while in developed countries such as the United States and Japan, each child from the middle class would read hundreds of picture books before growing up.”
The most important function of picture books is not moral teaching but helping children know about the world through equal communication and dialogue, said Du.
“It can help children learn about social etiquette, sharing with others, the art of compromising and how to deal with negative emotions,” she said.
While helping kids to learn a language, manage emotions and cultivate reading habits, reading picture books can help families function properly, said Huang.
“As there are more and more special families, such as single-parent families, step-parent families, and families that have adopted children, reading picture books together with their kids will help parents to maintain a healthier atmosphere and relationship in the family with love to hold everything together,” she said.
“Picture books are intuitive, vivid and designed to arouse the curiosity for reading in children,” said Xu Lu, Deputy Manager of Hubei Dolphin Media Co. Ltd., China’s top brand for children’s books. “With cute stories, hidden emotions and life philosophy, they can exercise an invisible influence on children’s reading and thinking habits and language competency.”
Prosperous market
Already a large and mature industry in many developed countries, picture book creation and publishing is nascent on the Chinese mainland, but has developed rapidly. Every year, lots of new picture books are published and more publishing houses are investing in this field.
“There are two reasons for the boom: Parents are paying more attention to children’s preschool education, and the importance of reading picture books has been more recognized,” said Yin Shanshan, editor in chief of the Giving Tree.
As a pioneer and advocate for introduced foreign classics, the Giving Tree is one of the first few companies to have introduced foreign classic picture books to China beginning in 2003. At first, even the first printing of 5,000 books didn’t sell out. But now, it has sold more than 100,000 copies for some most popular books it published.
The Giving Tree has developed in parallel with the market. It has secured the copyright for publishing the Chinese edition of nearly 500 masterpieces created by 100 famous foreign authors, such as Shel Silverstein, Leo Lionni, Maurice Sendak, James Thurber and David Shannon. Some classics it has published, such as The Giving Tree, Stone Soup and Swimmy have been widely recognized by readers. It publishes about 50 newly introduced picture books every year.
“With an estimated market share of 80 percent, introduced foreign classics have dominated the domestic picture book market,” said Yin. “Compared with original picture books, there are lower risks with foreign classics because they have more mature content and demand less editing work and less early-stage marketing efforts.”
Challenges of originality
The top 100 bestsellers of children’s picture books at Amazon.cn and Dangdang.com were almost all foreign titles. This dominance aroused concerns from parents, painters, writers and experts.
“Homegrown picture books are far from enough. It’s a quite demanding occupation that requires people to write well and draw well in a way children can understand. China’s good painters are not in this area,” said Cao. “Although human emotions are somewhat similar, we can’t expect foreign picture books to carry the essence of our culture.”
Meng Fanyong, who created the Shell Forest Picture Book Cafe in Wuhan, Hubei Province, shared the same worry with Cao.
“The unpopularity of China-produced picture books means the absence of Chinese traditions and literature classics in children’s early-age education. It may create difficulties for these kids to find their cultural identity when they grow up.”
Chen Xianming, mother of a six-yearold daughter and a fan of foreign picture books that are often delicately designed and decorated, is concerned about the too many Western elements in foreign picture books.“My daughter would ask me who God is,”said Chen. “Also, influenced by those picture books, my daughter loves strawberry pie and is more enthusiastic for Christmas than for China’s Spring Festival. I don’t want to see that happening.”
Compared with foreign picture books, homegrown ones still have a long way to go.
“For now, they don’t have a specific division of age groups and lack corresponding designs and painting styles. Besides, they don’t have a thorough understanding of children’s inner worlds and are not used to seeing the world through children’s eyes,” said Xu.
Mothers who have compared Chinese picture books with English books have the same opinion.
“I hope my kids can read and write Chinese, although they were born and will grow up in the United States,” said Yu Yinghui, a Chinese mother who has two daughters and now lives in St. Louis, Missouri with her family.
“I have sought for Chinese picture books designed for toddlers and preschool kids, but I couldn’t find many of them. The elder sister often feels frustrated when she comes across many strange characters in her Chinese reading material. On the contrary, she found a great variety of picture books in libraries and kindergartens interesting and easy to read, because these books, written in easy English, tell stories designed for kids of different age groups,”Yu said.
In addition, publishers are not confident in the market prospects of Chinese original picture books and are reluctant to invest.
“Chinese picture book authors are not paid well because publishers are unwilling to invest more on original picture books,”said Xu. “Generally, they can only earn 15,000 yuan ($2,361) for each book even if the book has a good market performance. But it usually would take them more than half a year to complete the job. Less than 100 original picture books are created on the mainland every year and less than 100 authors have picture book creation as their career.”
You are what you read, which is also true with children. “Why can’t our children grow up immersed in Chinese elements?”said Xiong Liang, a Chinese writer working on homegrown picture books. “We should give our children a memorable China, which is the foundation for carrying forward China’s civilization and strengthening their faith in our nation. That’s why I chose this as my career,” he said.
Various organizations in China are working to promote domestic picture book production. For instance, the China Children’s Press and Publication Group has held the China’s One Hundred Homegrown Children’s Books activity, with a special fund for subsidizing and promoting Chinaproduced picture books. Another example is the Feng Zikai Chinese Children’s Picture Book Award, which was established in 2008 to recognize, promote and encourage the creation of Chinese-language illustrated children’s literature.