Comparative Analysis between Chinese and Western Picture Books for Children in Safety Education

Abstract

From the perspective of early childhood safety education, this study takes the top 30 picture books for children in safety education from Dangdang and Amazon as the research object, and conducts a comparative analysis between Chinese and Western picture books from target age group, theme coverage, character type and content presentation. The results show that both Chinese and western picture books fail to provide a clear and reasonable target age group. They have a similar proportion in theme coverage, but the Chinese picture books show a high repetition in topic choice. They also share a similar preference of human and animals as character type while western picture books show a richer ethnic diversity. Case analysis of the six selected picture books shows a dominant use of fresh and bright colors for both despite some improper uses of colors in Chinese picture books; and a poor coordination between pictures and texts, such as small fonts and large proportion of texts for both and a rigid use of words in Chinese picture books. Content analysis reveals the challenges and differences in creating interestingness and avoiding preaching. Suggestions are also discussed.