Child Narrator, Narratorial Uncertainty, and Ethics in Lin Haiyin's My Memories of Old Beijing

Abstract

In China, Lin Haiyin's Chengnan jiushi [My memories of old Beijing] is one of the most critically acclaimed children's novels of the twentieth century. Set in the 1920s, it portrays several characters, most of whom were confined to the periphery of Chinese society at that time, through the eyes of a child. This article examines the ways in which child narration represents socially marginalised characters and subverts stereotypes about them. The child narrator challenges adults’ interpretations of events as well as their evaluations of the socially othered characters and gives opportunities to the marginalised to make their voices heard. The narrator's unreliable and uncertain narration also serves as a strategy to resist the othering of socially vulnerable people.