Chinese Children's Literature Research Articles

An Inquiry into the English Translation of Chinese Children's Literature from the Perspective of Reception Aesthetics: A Case Study of Bronze and Sunflower

An Inquiry into the English Translation of Chinese Children's Literature from the Perspective of Reception Aesthetics: A Case Study of Bronze and Sunflower

A critical discourse analysis on self-efficacy values in modern Chinese children's stories

This review article will explain teaching materials for self-efficacy in modern Chinese children’s stories. The materials focused on five grand topics. The topics are (1) find the moral values of thinking creatively, (2) find moral messages to design mapping the problems, (3) find normative values of work in order, (4) find moral values of taking initiative, (5) find moral values of thinking systematically. The method adopted by Fairclough’s (2001) construction analysis on critical discourse analysis. Data taken from children's stories, these (1) Immortal Devil Transformation, (2) Warlock of the Magus World, (3) Wu Dong Kian Kun, (4) Dragon Prince Yuan, (5) Great Demon (7) A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality, (8) Dragon Prince Yuan, (9) God of Cooking, (10) I Shall Seal the Heavens, (11) Heaven's Devourer, (12) Desolate Era, (13) the Human Emperor, (14) A Will Eternal, (15) Fields of Gold, and (16) Cultivation Online. Those stories were written in the periods 2005-2021. The results of this research indicate that self-efficacy in Chinese children's literature reflected on 6 results, those are (1) working based on problem solving, (2) working based on critical analysis, (3) working based on real facts, (4) working based on cognizance and (5) working based on integrity. The conclusion of this study is that self-efficacy in fantasy stories of Chinese children learning character education is based on exposure to universal values of self-efficacy. Keywords: self efficacy, ethics in schools, character education, children literature, chinese modern stories

Empathy as Mandate: Revisiting the Debates over Modern Chinese Children's Literature (1919–1949)

This paper reviews the most important debates in modern Chinese children's literature (1919–1949), revealing that empathy serves as a key to understanding the nature of those competing discourses. Modern Chinese children's literature mandated empathy as its core value, which develops into an idealised image of the child but keeps betraying that romanticised commitment with reactionary responses in political turbulences. The paradox of empathy interacts with the multiple identities of children embedded in the historic logic of modern China, revealing the (im)possibility of empathy itself.

Wasted Innocence: Children and Childhood in Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber

Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber is a classic Chinese novel dating back to 1792. This article investigates the formative experiences of the representative children from the book's four distinguished households against the unique historical and sociocultural context of premodern Chinese Confucian adulthood with all its rules for rigid regulatory order. We argue that a gap needs to be filled in the understanding of the premodern conceptions of children and childhood in Chinese literature through a detailed case study of Dream. Moreover, the novel's representation of childhood innocence as a form of resistance that draws its force from a dialectic of nature and culture provides an important alternative perspective on the Western Romantic conception. While the book is universally acknowledged as the pinnacle of traditional Chinese fiction, it should also be fully recognised as one of the most important precursors to modern and contemporary Chinese children's literature.

Introduction

Introduction David Russell, Karin Westman, and Naomi Wood In this issue of The Lion and Unicorn, we spend time with literature set in China, India, alternative versions of the United States, Australia, and the Nordic countries of Scandinavia. Lisa Chu Shen's "Masculinities and the Construction of Boyhood in Contemporary Chinese Popular Fiction for Young Readers" examines the works of two popular male Chinese authors, Cao Wenxuan and Zhao Lihong, to illustrate the transforming treatment of male characters in Chinese children's literature. Influenced by both economic, political, and cultural changes over the past several decades, Chinese children's books (like children's literature everywhere) are grappling with gender portrayal (notably stereotyping). Prior to the arrival of Western influences, the Chinese concept of masculinity exalted the wen (that is, the mind and intellect) over the wu (physical strength and prowess). But this began to shift toward the Western model of the domineering, macho male, a culturally antithetical view. And then, with the rise of Maoism in the twentieth century, Chinese manhood underwent a "second emasculation," when the government advocated the underplaying of gender distinctions, the consequences of which were dubbed, interestingly, yinsheng yangchuai ("the rise of women and the decline of men"). As Chen notes, "In contemporary Chinese popular fiction for children, the figure of the boy is invested with competing adult desires and anxieties around the changing notions of masculinity." Focusing on the works of two of China's most celebrated children's authors, Chen illustrates the transforming treatment of male characters in Chinese children's literature. Specifically, the author argues that "examining how masculinity is constructed in contemporary Chinese fiction for young readers reveals the continuous struggle between tradition and modernity, a topic of paramount importance in studies of Chinese literature and culture." We might add that this struggle is not peculiar to China, and that societies around the world are grappling with this, genuinely transformative, social phenomenon. Of Chinese children's literature, Chen sees hope in that, [End Page v] "[e]ncouragingly, alongside hegemonic masculinity that is widely perceived to be the ideal path toward manhood, into which male children are expected to grow, there have emerged nuanced and layered depictions of boyhood." Sharon Murphy's essay "'I think I shall die soon, Boosy': Child Illness and Morality in The History of Little Henry and His Bearer" analyzes a widely disseminated story by Evangelical writer Mary Martha Sherwood, based on her experiences as an English officer's wife serving the East India Company in early nineteenth-century India. Sherwood lost two children to tropical illnesses while in India and adopted several orphaned children in addition to caring for her own. In Murphy's reading of Little Henry and His Bearer, she connects the staggering infant mortality rate among English children in India—more than twice the rate of children in England—with stated and unspoken conflicts about the role of the English in India. Murphy provides a detailed context for those conflicts to illustrate the deep contradictions in England's Christian missionary projects, which could not mitigate the great costs to mothers and children of the "British appetite for India." Sam Morris, in "'Anything be better than this': Utopian Impulses in The Hunger Games Series and Orleans," pairs the well-known dystopian trilogy by Suzanne Collins with an unsparing and timely dystopia by Sherri L. Smith, set in a future New Orleans that has been expelled from the Outer States of America because of an intransigent and deadly disease, Delta Fever. Morris examines these dystopias and how they speak to the adolescent chronotopes of possibility and hope through the lens of Ernst Bloch's Principle of Hope, which stresses the unfinished and unfinishable quality of all utopian aspiration as the "Not-Yet." In both works the adolescent protagonists push toward utopian ideals, despite failure and even retrenchment. It is the "Not-yet" of hope that propels each to move away from the concept of utopia as a place and toward a utopian frame of mind that can disrupt complacency and acquiescence. In "Forging Truth from Facts: Trauma, Historicity and Australian Children's Picture Books," Martin Kerby and Margaret Baguley remind us how children's books about traumatic...

Ideological Manipulation in English Translation of Chinese Children’s Literature: Case Studies

It is widely accepted that translation is a form of rewriting and it is also true for children’s literature. Translation reflects a certain degree of ideological manipulation of the source text in order to either conform to the norms of the target culture or serve some ideological purposes. Since children's literature usually performs both didactic and pedagogical functions, ideological manipulation on children's literature translation is even more significant. Drawing on two English translations of Chinese children’s literature works, this article shows how ideology, cultural ideology to be specific, drives the adaptation and rewriting in translation. In source and target cultures, different norms of adult-child co-sleeping lead to the cover substitution for the picture book <i>A New Year’s Reunion</i> and different norms of father-daughter bond triggers plot adaptation for the adolescent fiction <i>Bronze and Sunflower</i>. The article further points out that conforming to target culture and considering target readers’ tolerance are principal contributors to the success of these two books in western world. Under the background of Chinese children's literature going global, this article attempts to shed some light on Chinese-to-English translation practice of children’s literature.

中国儿童文学四十年 [Four Decades of Chinese Children's Literature: A Historical Overview]. Fang Weiping. Translated by Huo YueHong

<i>中国儿童文学四十年 [Four Decades of Chinese Children's Literature: A Historical Overview]</i>. Fang Weiping. Translated by Huo YueHong

The Exploration of National Values in Chinese Children Literature Take Jasper Grasshopper for Instance

Chinese children’s literature is an integral part of Chinese history. Its various forms of subject matter and different styles never stopped influencing the generations of the Chinese children. As a carrier of adult’s thoughts reflecting the history of China and its people’s values, Chinese children’s literature has several distinct national features. Indeed the Chinese people in general, show similar values and attitudes towards life to a certain extent. This article takes the Han fairy tale Jasper Grasshopper, analyzes and discusses Chinese traditional values and core values based on the former researcher’s definition and classification of national values. It aimed at providing a new perspective for the better understanding of children's literature’s potential impact on children's psychological development, so as to create a better human environment and development direction for children's healthy growth.

Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Children's Literature ed. by Claudia Nelson and Rebecca Morris

Reviewed by: Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Children's Literature ed. by Claudia Nelson and Rebecca Morris Emily Murphy (bio) Claudia Nelson and Rebecca Morris, eds. Representing Children in Chinese and U.S. Children's Literature. Burlington: Ashgate, 2014. Print. This volume, a collection of nineteen essays (including a coda by Chinese children's writer Mei Zihan), is part of a growing body of scholarship on children's literature in Asia. It follows John Stephens' collection Subjectivity in Asian Children's Literature and Film (2013) by just one year, and, as such, effectively answers Stephens' previous call for "a reciprocal exchange of literary theories and methodologies between Eastern and Western scholars of children's literature" (7). The essays included in the collection provide a model for the kind of intellectual exchange that Stephens identifies as woefully absent from the bulk of children's literature criticism and is also a useful starting point for exploring the rich history of Chinese children's literature. Originally intended to create a dialogue between U.S. and Chinese children's [End Page 128] literature scholars, the book identifies its audience as "English-speak[ers]" (3), and thus shifts its purpose to educating this group of scholars about rhetorical traditions and literary movements in the Chinese tradition. Indeed, these aspects of the book are its strongest points and will be the focus of this review. The book is divided into five sections, which include essays on topics ranging from fantasy fiction, picture books, middle-grade readers, and young adult novels. In Section I ("Theorizing Children's Literature: Journey as Metaphor and Motif"), Roberta Seelinger Trites revisits a familiar classic of American young adult literature, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and considers how embodied metaphors related to Huck's physical journey are used to conceptualize his psychological growth. Ban Ma contrasts this motif of "dynamism" (represented by the active, travelling child) with the "quietness" of Chinese children's literature from the mid-Ming dynasty (1368–1644), which often required children to be still and stay within the home (23). Sections II and III primarily contain individual author studies, but the former, which deals with the May Fourth Movement, is broader in scope and considers how Chinese authors participated in this pivotal cultural movement that erupted after a 1919 student protest in Beijing. Section IV is devoted to didactic children's literature and features essays by leaders of Chinese and American children's literature. In "Children's Disposition and Children's Views," award-winning author Cao Wenxuan describes the difference between children's views and dispositions, and resists collapsing these two terms into a single descriptive category. Michelle Martin and Katharine Capshaw write about a different form of resistance, stressing the importance of picture books in challenging what Nancy Larrick, in 1965, referred to as the "all-white world of children's books." Importantly, the need for diverse books is a concern that is shared by Chinese scholars, as is evidenced in Tan Fengxia's essay on American realistic novels for young adults, where she draws upon the American literary tradition in search of inspiration for a nascent body of young adult literature in China and calls for more books that "deal with the challenges regarding the image of adolescents" (218). For me, Section II was one of the most informative and best aided in the editors' goal of educating English-speaking scholars about the rich history of Chinese children's literature. In this section, contributors Wang Quangen, Xu Yan, and Zhu Ziqiang provide a fundamental introduction to the May Fourth Movement, a period that many Chinese scholars agree to be the starting point of modern Chinese children's literature. With over five hundred children's publishers currently active in China, children's literature is now a substantial part of the publishing industry and is meeting new demands of a rising middle class. However, it was in the period of the May Fourth Movement, which flourished in the 1920s, that new ideas about children and literature [End Page 129] written specifically for this age group emerged. At this time, Chinese authors, including Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, Bing Xin, and Ye Shengtao, among...

C-E Translation of Children's Literature from the Perspective of Relevance Theory

Children's literature is a unique form that adds brilliance to present splendor of the literature. An effective translation is the precondition to restore the essence of Chinese children's literature. The research of history and theory in children's literature is marginalized and excluded. Because of the language barriers and the cultural differences between Chinese and English, it is difficult for target audience to get adequate cognitive context to understand the original correctly. Besides, the particularity of children's cognitive development makes the translation more challenging and tough. The translator of children's literature should adopt the most applicable approaches according to the children’s language ability so that they could easily achieve optimal relevance. This paper mainly discusses the application of the relevance theory on the phonetic level, lexical level, rhetorical level and cultural level.

Little Emperor Syndrome in Contemporary Chinese Children Literature

Little Emperor Syndrome in Contemporary Chinese Children Literature

Capitalist bears and socialist modernisation: Chinese children's literature in the post-Mao period

This article looks at what Chinese children have read in the last quarter of the 20th century. It first briefly examines the official guidelines for children's literature in the post-Mao era, and then analyses some examples to identify the new contents of children's books in China. These examples are taken from two subdivided periods: from the late 1970s to the early 1980s and from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.

A Change in the Family: The Image of the Family in Contemporary Chinese Children's Literature, 1949-1993

A Change in the Family:The Image of the Family in Contemporary Chinese Children's Literature, 1949-1993 Jane Parish Yang (bio) For the past two months, a most unforgettable event has been coursing through my brain. At nights before I sleep or in mornings when I have just awakened, this event clearly unfolds before my eyes like a scroll painting. It seems as if I can still feel the crisp air in my nostrils, so cold and sharp, and the moonlight flooding over my head, still so radiant and luminous. My hand, which Father had grasped tightly, still surges with warmth; my face still benumbed by Mother's icy tears! I have often told them both: "I will never forget that night." Mother then hugs me closely: "My child, I hope you will remember this forever." And what was it? That night two months ago, on the night of January thirteenth, when Father and Mother took me to Tiananmen Square to mourn our beloved Premier Zhou in front of the Monument to the People's Heroes. —Bing Xin, "Ji Yijian Zui Nanwang de Shiqing [Recalling a Most Memorable Event]" (1977) The quotation in the epigraph, from one of China's most famous modern writers, depicts a warm family relationship between parents and child connected to a larger political cause: the then-dangerous expression of support for moderation during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). From the thirteenth century on, how family and state relate to each other had been a central concern of Neo-Confucian philosophical and political teachings. Writings from the time of Confucius and Mencius, The Four Books, were annotated and explicated by the Neo-Confucian Chu Hsi (1130-1200), and were made the state-sanctioned texts for education in all of China. It was not the Neo-Confucians who first spoke of the family-state relationship, however, [End Page 86] as noted historian Donald Munro states: "To consider the government an extension of family relationships was a policy of Chou [1122-256 B.C.] feudalism" (46). Munro asserts that Chu Hsi and the Neo-Confucians merely tried to reconcile the "potential incompatibility between family-centered role fulfillment and duty to the public" (113).1 Proper relations among family members and between the family and the state were a central concern in these ethical teachings of Confucius: an individual was first and foremost a member of a family group, with duties and obligations to that group. Familial roles, especially the duties of the male side-father, elder brother, son—were specifically a part of these teachings. Only after one's duty to the family was fulfilled was one capable of serving the larger entity beyond the family: the state. The two roles were interconnected in NeoConfucian thought, with reciprocal obligations for each, but serving the family was seen as a prerequisite to serving the state. In fact, service to the state could be a means of empowering and enriching a family, and so service to the state often was subverted to the particular interests of the family. Neo-Confucians taught that one who was filial, that is, who carried out the proper role of a son, would not offend a superior. Likewise, it was thought that one who was fraternal, that is, who carried out the proper role of a brother, would know his correct role in regard to superiors. It was assumed that having learned proper behavior at home, one would know how to relate to superiors and inferiors in the wider realm outside the family. Yet even so, one's primary loyalty and interest lay with the family. The collective good of society was a secondary consideration in this family-centered ethical system. A change in values came with the advent of communist ideology, which influenced Chinese writings from the first part of the twentieth century. In the communist view, the interests of the individual, as well as of the family unit, were subsumed by the interests of society as a whole. The literary expression of communist ideology, socialist realism, allowed for no negative or vacillating characters in fact or fiction-only positive, exemplary ones, who would carry the Revolution to its inevitable victory. Such a...

Chinese children's literature ‐ then and now

This paper is a critical assessment of Chinese literature for children with reference to the People's Republic of China. It reviews literature for children in ancient and modern China. Children in ancient times could enjoy adult literature, mostly based on historical events and figures, of the highly romantic and adventurous kinds. In the post‐revolution era Chinese literature was imitative of the West, using fantasy and animal characterisation. In contemporary China the short story format is popular but realistic fiction is very rare. However, where children's literature excels is illustrations in picture books. Chinese children's picture books provide a visual feast because of the different art forms used, including classical Chinese painting style. Narrative style in picture books and short stories, on the other hand, lacks a child's narrative voice. More successful narration has been achieved by children's writers from elsewhere, e.g. Hong Kong and Taiwan. Contemporary Chinese literature is still rather didactic but there is a move towards fantasy adventure tales.

A Survey of Children's Literature in China

A Survey of Children's Literature in China Huang Qingyun (bio) The development of children's literature in its early stages in China was similar to that of other countries. It began with the oral literature handed down from one generation to another. Since China has a long history, its cultural heritage is very rich and very ancient. Fables were being recorded in China in the "Spring and Autumn Period" of 770-470 B.C. Many fables were quoted by scholars and politicians during that period and they have been widely known ever since. But children's literature did not emerge as a distinct and independent form until the 1920s. During its long feudal period, China regarded its children as adults in miniature or the possessions of adults. Their duty was to obey the teachings of their forefathers, and so-called childhood education was no more than learning the doctrines of Confucius. With the outbreak of the May 4th movement in 1919, an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, and cultural wave swept across the country and brought forth revolutions in all cultural areas. Children's literature was born in that period, in the new light of democracy and science advocated by the leading thinkers of that time. Previous to this time, all books for children had been written in classical Chinese, which was vastly different from the spoken language and too difficult for children to understand. Moreover, China had undergone a long period of chaos and poverty: there was no system of public education, and extracurricular reading became a luxury for children. Few children's books were published. There were, however, a few pioneers. The cradle of Chinese children's literature was guarded by two great writers, Lu Xun and Mao Dun. Lu Xun was the leader and standard bearer of Chinese literature and his famous remark, "Save the children," appealed to many writers. And Lu Xun himself wrote many articles commenting on children's books, criticizing the old and stale instruction and encouraging new and progressive ideas. Mao Dun, in the meantime, silently did a great deal of work in editing, translating, and writing books for children. And there are other great names that should be mentioned. Yeh Shengtao, even today a master of language, wrote many fairy tales for children. His fairy tale collection, The Scarecrow, was published in 1923. Lu Xun called it the foundation stone of Chinese children's literature. The theme of The Scarecrow is that we should see the world [End Page 23] through the eyes of the scarecrow, who had a deep sympathy for all the people suffering around him but could not move a bit to lend them a hand. The scarecrow symbolized the position of the intellectuals of the period. Its companion piece, The Stone Statue of the Ancient Hero, published in 1931, is less prominent. It is a satire, emphasizing that true power comes from the common people, not the dictator. Both books combine realism with romanticism in a wonderful way. His stories distinguish themselves by their keenness of observation, profoundity of thought, rich imagination, and eloquence. They have impressed young and old readers for half a century. Another milestone in children's literature was reached by Bing Xin, the famous woman writer. Her masterpiece, Letters to the Young Readers, brought her great honor in Chinese literature. These letters are heart-to-heart talks in poetic language. Her style is personal and emotional. She inspires young hearts with the love between mother and child, and with friendship at home and abroad. The full display of sentiment in this book certainly defied and conquered the coolness and dullness of the writing in the Chinese classics. In the 1940s, there were two other pioneering writers, Yan Wenjing and Zhang Tian-yi. Both are famous as writers for adults as well as children, but it is to children's literature that they devoted themselves and made remarkable contributions. Like Yeh Shengtao, they combine realism and romanticism in their work, but if Yeh Shengtao's short stories and Bing Xin's letters are sombre and full of sentiment, the works of Yan Wenjing and Zheng Tian-yi are optimistic, full of joy and hope, and...

Chinese Literature for Children

Chinese Literature for Children Nellvena Duncan Eutsler (bio) Chinese Popular Literature and the Child, by Dorothea Haywood Scott. Chicago: American Library Association, 1980. Dorothea Haywood Scott in her Chinese Popular Literature and the Child provides a valuable service for the Westerner recently attracted to Chinese literature. The book provides an articulate overview of Chinese literature, with background material for those who wish to explore further the long traditions of literature for children. Chinese popular literature had its beginnings between 1765 and 1123 B.C. and is thus the longest unbroken literary tradition in the world, with a wider audience than any other. Chinese literature reflects the historical changes within its culture: a diversity of minority peoples and their various dialects, invasion from without and turmoil from within, and everchanging political philosophies. Through various media the literature has been preserved from ancient times, and Scott recognizes their literary process as a "story of change within continuity." Scott considers Chinese children's literature in the light of the Chinese system of education. She points out that Chinese thought and pedagogy reflect the influence of sages such as Confucius, Mencius, the Buddhist monks, and the Taoists. She notes the impact caused by differences between scholarly classical writing and colloquial language. The Chinese, who have long been aware of the difficulties posed by these differences, have initiated recent language reforms that have revolutionized the style of Chinese writing; their literature now reaches a much wider audience. Their entire educational process had for centuries inhibited learning by its stylistic and classical requirements. At last the words of Feng Meng-lung, the late Ming Dynasty author and scholar quoted by Scott, have been heeded: "In this world literary minds are few but rustic ears are many." [End Page 183] In order to appreciate and understand Chinese children's literature, we must understand the traditions which shaped China's attitudes toward their children. Not until early in the twentieth century did China recognize the special needs of her children, although Chinese children had access to printed stories centuries before the English or American child had access to a book. Oral traditions have been as influential for Chinese children as for children from other cultures. By 960 A.D. the storytellers had become a highly professional body of public entertainers. Their prompt books served as the basis for later novels. Although, as Scott points out, there are no traditional collections of Chinese myths and legends, myths are found imbedded in the whole body of early Chinese literature. Chinese classics provide central sources in the Orient as do the Old Testament, Perrault, Grimm, and others in the Western world. As in the tradition of Western children's literature, Chinese children had their primers (the Thousand Character Classic and the Three Character Classic) and their early picture books (the Fifteenth Century Illustrated Chinese Primer, the earliest known extant copy of which is dated 1436). They had these books long before western civilization had Babes Booke in manuscript form (1430), or Caxton's Aesop's Fables (1484), or a hornbook (1540), or Orbis Pictus (1658). Scott does not discuss the omission of fables, but she explains that older literary collections contain few stories about animals. This evidence seems odd, since animals play an important role in Chinese myths. In her chapter on "Myths, Legends, and Symbols," however, Scott discusses animal legends and the Chinese use of animal symbolism. It is a shame that when she notes the nine resemblances of the dragon, she lists only "the horns of a deer, the neck of a snake, the scales of a carp," and leaves the reader with "and so on" for the others. Scott calls fifteenth-century Chinese novels "folk epics," in spite of the fact that Ch'ên Shou-Yi in his Chinese Literature: A Historical Introduction (1961) points out that China "is the only outstanding nation with a literary attainment completely devoid of an epical tradition." Ch'ên Shou-Yi explains this phenomenon by arguing that China's ideal human type has been the sage and not [End Page 184] the hero. Perhaps fifteenth-century novels, in spite of their length, would better be labeled fantasies in the tradition of Hans...

Flowers in Full Bloom: The Variety of Chinese Children's Literature

Flowers in Full Bloom: The Variety of Chinese Children's Literature

Heroic Quintuplets: A Look at Some Chinese Children's Literature

Heroic Quintuplets:A Look at Some Chinese Children's Literature Thomas A. Zaniello (bio) Once upon a time there were two fairy tales, one American, the other Chinese. Although worlds apart, the two tales recount ostensibly the same events: how five look-alike Chinese brothers, each of whom has a different superhuman power, circumvent a death sentence decreed for one of their number. My texts are the American Five Chinese Brothers (1938) by Claire Huchet Bishop, with illustrations by Kurt Weise, and the anonymous Chinese Five Little Liu Brothers (1960), with illustrations by Wang Yu-Chuan (in English translation from the Foreign Languages Press in Peking).1 Both versions of the tale begin with one of the brothers getting into trouble and end with all of the brothers avoiding punishment; both sets of brothers (with one exception) have the same superhuman powers: one can swallow the sea, a second has a neck that can resist the executioner's axe, a third can stretch his legs to any length (and can therefore survive being thrown from great heights), and a fourth cannot be burned. In the American version, the fifth brother "could hold his breath indefinitely," while the Chinese fifth brother, called "The Know-All," can "speak the languages of all birds and animals." The significant difference between the two tales lies not in the varying roles of the fifth brother but in the source of the brothers' difficulty and its resolution. In the American version, the brother who can swallow the sea tries to help a little boy who wants to go fishing. The brother sucks up the sea so that the little boy can roam the sea-bed at will. The little boy refuses to return at the pre-arranged signal and is drowned by the sea-waters as they rush out of an exhausted Chinese brother. This first brother is arrested and condemned by a judge for killing the boy, but before each attempt at execution, a different Chinese brother takes his place. Of course, the brothers survive all attempts at execution and the judge who condemned him (them) originally releases him (them), assuming that he (they) must be innocent, since execution is impossible. This rather kindly looking and permissive judge is replaced in the Chinese version by a nasty, marauding "big official" from the city. The "big official" begins the Chinese version by leading a hunting band of his men into the countryside of the five Chinese brothers. Brother "Know-All" warns his sheep and all the other animals of the forest to hide. The "big official" suspects his bad luck in the field is due to Know-All and he orders this brother to be thrown into a cage with a tiger. Know-All quickly befriends the tiger; the enraged official orders a new execution. The brothers' drama of exchanging places begins, as in the American version, but with certain crucial differences. In the Chinese version there is no judge and no trial; the brothers are not given permission by a judge to visit their mother to say farewell (and thereby exchange places easily), but each night the brother escapes from the autocratic official; and finally, the Chinese version has a happy ending only after the violent death of the "big official" and [End Page 36] his retinue when they attempt to throw overboard the brother who can swallow the sea. This brother swallows the sea and spits it out on the stranded official and his men: He sent the billows and rolling waves and drowned the big official and his men in the turbulent water. At dusk the water became very tranquil and peaceful. Only an official's hat floated on the calm surface of the blue, blue sea. The Chinese version of the fairy tale reflects—like all the other English translations of Chinese children's books available to us—2 situations and issues typical of a developing communist society.3 There is an overt, sometimes violent class struggle, which in the Five Little Liu Brothers is between the country folk and the city's ruling elite; there is, in addition, a special representative of the people who are struggling to survive at the...