Water Margin, written in the Song dynasty, was another great Chinese literary work
based on the adventures of bandits, criminals and stories of knights-errant. The spread
of Buddhism to China in the seventh century led to another grand epic tale about a
Chinese monk travelling to India. Journey to the West used incidents from this famous
journey, combining tales of fantasy, the supernatural, demons and monsters. At the
other end of the scale, the classic work, Dream of the Red Chamber written in the Qing
(Manchu) dynasty (1644–1908), a treatise on the social life of a wealthy Chinese family
in the seventeenth century, could be enjoyed by children because of the tragic romance
of the main protagonists.
It can be seen why epic tales like these had such enormous appeal to children, and
why these works could be translated into theatrical art. Whether it was oral or written,
Chinese literature was readily and abundantly available to children. Therefore, no
conscious efforts were made to write a literature specially for children. In Chinese
society children were often treated as adults, doing adult labour and shouldering adult
responsibilities, and education for children from wealthier homes, was only a means to
an end—to pass the Imperial civil service examination.
The term ‘children’s literature’ came to the fore only at the beginning of the twentieth
century when China was invaded by Western powers, and subjected to numerous
humiliating demands from the West with the result that the educated Chinese populace
clamoured for revolutionary reforms. Especially important among these was China’s
education system. The civil service examination was abolished, vernacular language
teaching was implemented, and the school system was modelled on that of the USA.
Post Imperial China and Children’s LiteratureThe movement of Chinese literature in the past seventy years has often been called a
‘renaissance’. It was a departure but not a complete break from tradition, and the force
that gave impetus to the new literature had come from abroad. This movement was
closely linked with the political developments in China with the fall of the Qing dynasty,
the First World War and the Chinese Revolution.
The new social developments had the unexpected effect of arousing Chinese interest in
and admiration for Western accomplishments in science and technology as well as
literature. Never before in China’s history were Chinese authors exposed so much to a
culture alien to them. As translations of Western literary works became fashionable in
China, the earliest works of children’s literature at the turn of the twentieth century
were mostly translated works from the West. Most popular among these translated
works were Aesop’s Fables, the fairy tales of the Grimms and Andersen, and The
Arabian Nights. The term Tong-hua (children’s tales) was coined for the first time.
The underlying reason why Western literature had so much appeal and popularity
with the Chinese readership was that this was the first time that literature had been free
from Confucian ideology and morals. It was also the first time that the Chinese readership
had access to reading materials with a wide range of subjects, setting, themes, including
animal characterisation and its very imaginative appeal. A unique feature of
contemporary Chinese literature is therefore the all-pervasive influence of the West on
forms and techniques, on spirit and ideology, even up to the present time.
THE WORLD OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE 821