A STUDY OF JUVENILE FICTION ON CHINESE LIFE
AND CUSTOMS PUBLISHED, 1940-1949
A THESIS
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF ATLANTA UNIVERSITY
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR
THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE
IN LIBRARY SERVICE
BY
FRANCINE LAURETTE JACKSON
SCHOOL OF LIBRARY SERVICE
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
AUGUST, 1951 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
To Dr. Virginia Lacy Jones, I am gratefully indebted for many helpful suggestions. To Miss M, Lucia James, I wish to offer my thanks for her genuine interest and encouragement throughout the study. Sincere appreciation is given to my mother and father whose untiring devotion and sacrifiée have made this study possible.
1 . L . J .
ii TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page LIST OF TABLES iv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS v
Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1
Purpose and Scope Statement of Problem Methodology Definition of Terms
II. BACKGROUND OF CHINESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS 7 III. CHARACTERISTICS OF CHINESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS FROM SELECTED TITLES OF JUVENILE FICTION 25
IV. AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS OF JUVENILE FICTION, 1940-1949, ON CHINESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS 67 V. SUMMARY 96
APPENDIX 102
BIBLIOGRAPHY 108
iii LIST OF TABLES
Table J ■ Page 1. Number of Titles of Juvenile Fiction on Chinese Life and Customs Published Each Year During the Period 1930-1939 5 2. Number of Titles of Juvenile Fiction on Chinese Life and Customs Published Each Year During the Period 1940-1949 5
3. The Classification by Region, Author, Title, Year and Theme of Juvenile Fiction Published 1940-1949 62 4. An Analysis of the Predominant Elements of Chinese Life and Customs as Revealed in Selected Works of Juvenile Fiction 64 5. Table of Grade Levels 100
iv LIST CF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Map of China 61
v CHAFTER I
INTRODUCTION
This study proposes to analyze the characteristics of
Chinese life and customs as portrayed in Juvenile fiction written on China and the Chinese people and published during the years, 1940-194-9.. The thirty-eight American publications written in this period on the subject are limited to stories and fiction works suitable for children ranging from pre-school age to twelve years of age.
During the last decade an increasing number of Juvenile books has been written on people in other lands, of ether nationalities and cultural backgrounds. Such books are vital to the building of inter-racial and international understanding, appreciation and tolerance. Therefore, it seems significant to analyze the Juvenile books written on various countries and nationalities to ascertain what unique cultural characteristics are portrayed and what concepts of the other racial groups are made available to children in this country. Factual material was used to verify the customs and life of Chinese people as it is portrayed in Juvenile fiction. This study devoted to Juvenile fiction on the Chinese people might be one of a series of similar studies of juvenile books on various races and nationalities.
Additional studies would provide material for comparison of the 1 2 treatment of various racial groups.
In addition to values inherent in analyzing the character¬ istics of Chinese life and customs as reflected in juvenile fiction for 1940-1949, the study Includes a bibliography of
juvenile fiction on the subject written during the fifteen years preceding the period used for analysis. Also biographical sketches of the authors and illustrators of these books are presented to show who they are and in what ways their lives and their personal and professional pursuits influenced their wri¬ ting and illustrating books on China for children.
It is hoped that the study will be of practical use for teachers and librarians in directing the reading of children on China and the Chinese people. Such material should be valuable in educational projects of an intercultural nature.
Methodology
The titles used for the study were secured from The Chil¬ dren^ Catalog,^ Rue's Subject Index to Books for Intermediate
Grades,2 the Basic Book Collection for Elementary Gradesand various publishers’ catalogs.
Before attempting to isolate the characteristics of Chinese life and customs as portrayed in juvenile fiction, the articles
^•Children's Catalog, ed. by Ruth Giles, Dorothy Cook, and Dorothy West. (New York: H. ¥. Wilson Co., 1946). p Eloise Rue, Subject Index to Books for Intermediate Grades (Chicago: American Library Association, 1950).
^American Library Association, Basic Book Collection for Elementary Grades (Chicago: American Library Association, 1943). 3 on China were read in the following juvenile encyclopedias:
The World Book Encyclopedia, Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia and Britannica Junior.-^ Pearl Buck's The Good Earth and numerous magazine articles were read on Chinese life and customs. From this material background information was secured to write Chap¬ ter II which describes the history of China, its geographical
features, government, religion, education, language customs and social life. The factual material from the encyclopedias helped the writer to isolate the various features and characteristics of Chinese life and customs in the books of fiction. For example, the stories of fishing and farming methods described in fiction were found to be authentic according to the accounts in the ency¬ clopedias. Thus the encyclopedia articles have been used to verify authenticity and to help the writer to judge the extent to which this body of literature actually reflects Chinese life and customs. Then the biographies of the writers and illustrators of the thirty-eight books in the study were secured and analyzed to get an indication of who the writers and illustrators were and what activities in their personal and professional lives influenced them in the writing of fiction on China. The bio¬ graphical data were secured from biographical dictionaries,
•^World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. Ill (Chicago: Field Enter¬ prise^s7~T9507T-" p Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, Vol..Ill (Chicago: F.,E. Compton & Co., 1951). ^Britannica Junior (New York: Encyclopedia Britannica Co., 1949). 4 newspaper clippings in library vertical files, book jackets, letters from publishers and magazine articles.
Definition of Terms
It is necessary to define certain terms in relationship to this study. These terms are: (1) Chinese - a Mongolian people, with yellowish skin, straight black hair, obliquely- set, almond-shaped eyes, and high cheek bones characteristic of the race;^ (2) life - the manner in which one lives, those factors which tend toward growth, development and progress of p the race; (3) custom - an ordinary practice or usual manner of doing or acting, the habitual practice of a community or
■5 people.
Production of Juvenile Fiction on Chinese Life and Customs, 1930-1949 For the purpose of determining the number of books of juvenile fiction written on Chinese life and customs during the period of the study, 1940-1949, and during the preceding decade Tables 1 and 2 were made to show annual production of such works over a twenty year period. These tables show a gradual increase in the publication of such books. Thirty- eight books were published during the period, 1940-1949, and only 23 were published from 1930 through 1939.
^Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 5th ed. (1941), 176.
2Ibld., p. 579.
3Ibid., p. 250. 5
Appendix I contains a complete list of the titles used in the study, and Appendix III contains a complete list of such titles published during the fifteen year period, 1925-1939, preceding the period used for analysis.
TABLE 1
NUMBER OF TITLES OF JUVENILE FICTION ON CHINESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS PUBLISHED EACH YEAR DURING THE PERIOD 1930-1939
Year Number of Books Published
1930 1 1931 2 1932 3 1933 1 1934 2 1935 3 1936 0 1937 3 1938 2 1939 6 Total 23
TABLE 2
NUMBER OF TITLES OF JUVENILE FICTION ON CHINESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS PUBLISHED EACH YEAR DURING THE PERIOD 1940-1949 Year Number of Books Published
1940 5 1941 1 1942 4 1943 6 1944 4 1945 3 1946 2 1947 4 1948 4 1949 Total
Perhaps the increase in interest in intercultural education 6 may account for more books on Chinese life and customs being published during the later period. CHAPTER II
BACKGROUND OF CHINESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS
This chapter is designed to give an over-all view of
Chinese life and customs. The ensuing provides a basis for the interpretation of titles devoted to Chinese culture, which are used in this study.
China is a large and old country; in fact, the largest country in Asia, excluding Siberia. Chinese history goes back to 2000 B. C. Since then the Chinese have made great advances in philosophy, literature, and fine arts. Five centuries before
Christ, Confucius was teaching his idea of right and wrong. His teachings about individual behavior, the family, and social re¬ lationships are still followed by many Chinese.
The area of China proper is 1,532,420 square miles; with dependencies, it is 3*875.512. The population of China proper is about 400,000,000 and with dependencies, 482,827,577.^
Geographic features of China of special interest are the
Himalaya Mountains (Tibet), the Gobi Desert, the Yangtze River, the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, the Forbidden City of Lhasa; the Altar of Heaven in Feking, and the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum at
Nanking.
"'■"Facts About China," Britannica Junior, Vol. IV (1949), 273. 7 8 Hankow, Peking (Peiping), Shanghai, canton, Tientsin, Hang¬ chow, Foochow, Ningpo, Changsha, Nanking, Tsingtao, Humming,
Sian, and Chungking are the chief cities in China.
Topography
With Nanking as its capital, China proper, ancient Cathay, or the Middle Kingdom, is the center of power. It occupies the eastern slope of the tablelands of Central Asia and is almost in the form of a square. Two-thirds of the interior is mountain¬ ous. The two great rivers of China are the Hwang Ho and the Yangtze. Besides these rivers and their tributaries, the most notable are the Se-Kiang in the south and the Pei-ho in the north. The waterways are the highways of China; joined by a vast network of canals, they form a gigantic system of inland communication, always thronged with craft of every description..
The coast line, "an irregular curve of 2,500 miles,"'*' is fringed with islands, the largest of which, Formosa, was ceded to Japan after the war of 1894—95. The greater part of China lies within the temperate zone, but the climate is marked by a great range of temperature, from tropical heat in the south, to arctic con¬ ditions in the north, according to seasons.
Rainfall and Climate The land of China is full of contrasts. Within its bound¬ aries are found glacier-clad mountains and parched deserts,
1,1 China," Universal World Reference Encyclopedia, ed. F. J. Meine, Vols. III-IV(1944). 9 broad prairies and subtropical forests, mountains over four miles high and land nearly 1,000 feet below sea level.
Most of the rainfall occurs during the summer season, but this is by no means evenly distributed over the country, "in the south, near the coast, it is frequently 100 inches a year, while at Peking, in the north, it rarely reaches 25 inches.""''
Agriculture
China Is an agricultural country and farmers constitute about three-fourths of the entire population. Farming is an occupation held in very high esteem because every inch of the soil must be used. The Chinese have made some of the land suit¬ able for farming by irrigation and terracing. Terraced hills and mountains can be seen throughout China; this makes farming look more like gardening. Fields are so small that they look like truck gardens. "The average Chinese farm is less than three acres while the average size of an American farm is more p than 150 acres." The farmers do all the work by hand, for they cannot use machines on such small and irregular patches of land.
Tools are primitive - a hoe, a bamboo or crude iron rake, a long- handled sickle, or a homemade flail. The typical Chinese farmer knows nothing about scientific seed selection and other aspects of modern scientific farming.
In agriculture, rice as the principal food of the people,
1,1 China," World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. Ill (1939), 1386. p "China," Compton^ Pictured Encyclopedia, Vol. Ill (194-8), 221. 10 is the staple crop; hut other grains are also grown. The mul¬ berry tree is extensively cultivated for silkworms, and the opium poppy and the teaplant furnish important crops.
The chief products of the country include rice, tea, millet, wheat, kaoliang (tall grain), soybean, cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, fruit, vegetables, swine, poultry, fish, bamboo timber, coal, tin, iron, clay, tungsten, antimony, gold, and copper.
Leading industries are silk, cotton goods, porcelain, lacquer ware, bronzes, ivories, jewelry, paper, fireworks, mats, baskets, rugs, and bristles.
Manufactures, Trade and Communications
China is well supplied with minerals, including gold, silver, copper, and iron. There also are extensive coal fields, inexhaustible beds of kaolin or porcelain earth, and abundant salt beds. The chief manufactures are silk, paper, porcelain and cotton goods. Besides an enormous domestic trade, a con¬ siderable and increasing import and export trade is carried on.
Tea, raw and manufactured silk are exported, and cotton goods, metals, metal goods, and opium preparations are imported.
China is being gradually opened up to foreign trade through missionary and political influence, but a greater part of the country is still unknown to foreigners. The modern developments in the export trade, railways, and telegraphic communications have been due to foreign rivalry for China's trade.
Government
The government is a committee made up of five councils 11
(yuans) - executive, legislative, judicial, examinative, and supervisory. The heads of each of these councils comprise the National C-overnment Council, the chairman of which serves as president of the National Government. Although Lin Sen (elected 1932, re-elected 1935) "was titular head of China, the dominant political and military figure was Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, virtual dictator since 1935. During the war with Japan, the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang (National People’s party) set up a Supreme National Defense Council which became the real ruling body of the country. The one-party rule of the Kuomintang was ended in 1947, when a new Chinese constitution became effective. It permitted the entrance of other parties into the government, and provided for the election of President and Vice-President by the people of representatives to a National Assembly. The new constitution qualified many new Chinese as citizens and permitted them to vote for the first time. Detailed civil liberties were also provided for by the constitution. But many of these steps for democracy had to be postponed in actual prac¬ tice until the civil war between Communists and Nationalists ended.
People Ethnologically, the Chinese belong to the Mongolian race,
^"Government," World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. Ill (1950)» 1407. 12 with the characteristic conformation of the head and face, tawny
skin, black and lank hair, oblique eyes, and high cheek bones.
They are peaceable and domesticated; capable of a high degree
of organization and local self-government, thrifty, sober, in¬ dustrious, literary, imaginative, and thoroughly imbued with a
practical, commercial spirit. The principal of filial piety
and ancestral worship form the basis of Chinese society. Vacil¬
lation, duplicity, insincerity, gambling, and opium smoking
are among their vicious traits, but the latter trait has been
lessened a great deal through efforts of the government.
China has suffered from having too many people. In some regions it is so crowded that many thousands live in sampans
or small houseboats on rivers and canals. Still the family has been regarded as the most important social unit, and the family tree must continue.
In general, the men and women of the household are kept
separate. In the interior, at least, the women have practically no social advantages. In the past, not many brides traveled far
from the house to which they were brought after the marriage
ceremony. This was probably due to the fact that bound feet
made walking difficult. For at this time tiny deformed feet were considered a mark of beauty. Today, however, this practice
is forbidden by law.
Chinese Homes
The farmhouses are generally clustered in little villages
and the farmers have to walk some distance to their fields. The 13 usual farmhouse is mud-walled. These one-story huts of the poor are sometimes made of sun-dried clay bricks, gray-blue in color.
They are roofed with thatch or clay tile. Wood is scarce and the farmers use it sparingly for roof beams, farm Implements, coffins and furniture. Oiled paper is generally used for win¬ dows. The floor is of earth or brick. Houses in the south may have walls of brick or woven bamboo. In the north, k'ang is an important part of the commoner's house. It is a brick ledge with an oven underneath in which fire is kept in winter, and on top of which a bed can be made. In the south the furniture is of wood and there is no need of a k'ang. Wealthier people have comfortable houses of brick with colored tile roofs. The various buildings composing the home of a wealthy Chinese are arranged around a court, or small garden, with a lotus pool.
Some of the loveliest flowers, such as chrysanthemums, camellias and gardenias, are native to China.
All towns and cities have temples, pagodas (temples or memorials), and pai-lous, that is, elaborate archways in honor of famous persons. These buildings have graceful, tent-shaped roofs that curve up at the corners. The roofs are covered with bright-colored tile.
Architecture
Chinese architecture had its rise from Indian art which was introduced with the worship of Buddha. Diversities of treat¬ ment soon appeared, and Instead of the Indian dagoba arose a towerlike construction of many stories, growing gradually smaller 14 toward the top, with each stage distinctly marked and covered with many-colored curved roofs, to which hells were attached.
These edifices were, for the most part, octagonal, and were constructed for religious purposes. Chinese structures have little that is durable about them; they are more remarkable for their elegance and slender proportions than for size. They have figures on them in high relief and are decorated with fan¬ tastic embellishments, such as dragons. The Chinese people do not possess the art of arching large spaces, and consequently numerous columns are introduced for the support of the ceilings and roofs.
Art
Though relatively little is known of early Chinese art, many unique specimens of pottery and sculpture, dating to the twelfth century B. C., have been unearthed. Though the ceramic crafts were as yet undeveloped, the nation attained its greatest artistic achievement from the seventh to the tenth centuries under the Tang dynasty. Under the Sungs (960-1280 B. C.), China experienced an upheaval comparable to the Renaissance, marked by a dynamic wave of creativeness. About 1800 Chinese art fell into a decline from which it never recovered. Both painting and sculpture in China attest a high state of development, with unmatched progress being made in jade carving, and the use of lacquers and porcelain. Unique color and form in painting and a tendency toward the grotesque in animal sculpture have for centuries dominated the nation's art. 15
Music
The music of the Chinese is based upon the division of the octave into twelve units and the use of the five-tone scale.
The black notes on a regular piano keyboard correspond in a way to the intervals in the Chinese scale. In the written music, no staff is used, and the characters are written vertically in columns, the columns being read from right to left. The music sounds monotonous as the characters have no marks designating the duration value of the notes. Certain stringed instruments, flutes, bells and gongs had their origin in China.
Religion
Three forms of belief, the Confucian, the Buddhist, and the Taoist, may be considered the religions of China. Of these, the Confucian and the Taoist are indigenous, but Buddhism was introduced from India. Confucianism is the basis of the social life and political system of the Chinese. It has been professed by all their greatest men and is still the sole belief of the educated classes. It is, however, less a religion than a phi¬ losophy and does not pretend to treat of spiritual things; hence, room was left for other creeds to supply this need. Temples belonging to the three religions are numerous. Those dedicated to Confucius are funereal in character. The Buddhist temples are crowded with images, and Buddha is represented expounding his doctrine to attentive listeners. 16
Customs in Food and Dress
Through centuries of keeping to themselves, the Chinese have developed and maintained customs that are different from those in the United States and other countries. For example, the Chinese use chopsticks instead of knives, forks and spoons.
They do this because they cut their food before it is cooked.
Instead of bread, the southern Chinese eat rice, and wheat; corn and millet are used in the north.
Since most water is unfit to drink without boiling, tea is a universal drink as a matter of taste and necessity.. The masses of people eat meat only on special occasions, but vege¬ tables are rather inexpensive.
The diet of the wealthy classes includes a variety of fish, duck, chicken, pheasant, pork, beef, mutton and other foods.
A special treat is birds' nest soup, made from the gelatinlike nests of a species of birds known as swifts, found in caves by the sea. Other delicacies are sharks' fins and preserved eggs.
Concerning fish and food, the following article was found in Uncle Ray's Magazine:1
If you paid a visit to China and went up the Yangtze Kiang you might see Chinese fishermen get¬ ting fish in a strange way. You might watch a man in a small boat with long sticks extending from either side and with several birds perched on the sticks. If you looked close¬ ly enough, you would find that the birds were "comorants. These rather large birds obtain their food by going under water to capture fish. Instead of diving from the air, they settle on the surface,
■^"Fishing in China," Uncle Ray's Magazine (January, 1950), 15. 17
then dive when fish are seen below. One comorant was found in a crab pot off the English coast at a depth of 120 feet which indicates that they know how to dive. Over in China, fishermen have been training comorants for hundreds of years. When a bird is young, a ring is placed around his neck. If a fish is captured, the ring keeps it from being swallowed. From time to time the bird's master takes off the ring and lets the comorant enjoy the fish. In the course of time the ring may be left off altogether. The bird has learned that it is expected to bring back most of the fish it catches. After it has captured enough for the fisherman, it does some fishing for itself.
Styles in clothing are the same in both the north and the south. The men wear baggy trousers. A Chinese gentleman, if he does not own a western suit, usually wears a long silk robe, often blue in color. His slipperlike shoes are made of silk or satin, with felt soles. The poorer people dress in a blue or black cotton tunic and trousers. Wool clothing is more ex¬ pensive in China. In cold weather several thicknesses of cotton clothing, or outer garments padded thickly with cotton, are worn for warmth. The high heels of western fashion and nylon hose are popu¬ lar with modern Chinese women. Others wear long silk gowns, much like those worn by the men except that they are brilliant in color, fitted to the form, and slit to the knees. Men no longer wear their hair in a queue ("pigtail"), a custom imposed by the Manchu rulers to show that they were subjects. In the days of the Empire, color as well as design had
symbolic meaning. Red was the symbol of happiness; therefore, the bride's gown was red. Some brides in inland China still 18 wear red, but many along the coast now wear white. White was once a mourning color. Children are dressed in clothes very much like those of their fathers and mothers.
Education, Language and Writing
China's old educational system was based on Confucian teachings and competitive examinations were offered which were intended to sift out, from the millions of educated Chinese, the best and ablest for public office and service. These exami¬ nations were held throughout the country at stated times and concerned themselves only with literature and philosophy. How¬ ever, the old literary examinations were abolished shortly before
China became a Republic in 1905.
In 1928 the government established a modern system of educa¬ tion, largely modeled upon American education, with primary and secondary schools, leading up to institutions of higher learning, and the whole system culminating in the universities.
The Chinese language has no alphabet, for it is not a letter but a syllable language. Each written character represents not a sound, but a word of one syllable, for no Chinese word has more. Thus, a Chinese child learning to read must learn charac¬ ters standing for every word he ever hopes to use. The diction¬ aries contain 44,449 word characters; however, even a well- educated man needs fewer than 3,000 characters in his vocabulary.
Today, revisions of the large list of characters have reduced the number of symbols to the above-mentioned 3»000. The same word may stand for a number of different ideas, according to its 19 position in the sentence, and as each sound may be pronounced in a number of different tones, each of which has a different meaning, the language has a singsong effect on our ears. When written, the characters are placed in columns and are read from top to bottom and from right to left.
The Chinese spoken language is not in itself difficult, but the many different dialects create great confusion. The simple explanation for this is that the lack of communication and transportation facilities has kept the people of one region from knowing the people of another region.
The chief dialect is the official language, Kuan hua, which foreigners call Mandarin. Subdialects of Mandarin are spoken all over north and west China, but most of them are so similar that people throughout this region understand one another freely.
On the other hand, dialects vary so widely in the southeast that people in neighboring cities are rarely able to understand one another. Although the people from Canton may not be able to understand the dialect of the people from Peking, they can write to each other, because Chinese writing is the same every¬ where .
Learning to write is much harder than learning to speak
Chinese. Scholars have to know more than 40,000 characters, but only 2,500 are needed for reading newspapers. The popular education program called for a more simple method of writing.
Mandarin was adopted as the national language and is taught in the schools. Textbooks used the old characters, but were based 20 on the ordinary speech of the people. James Yen, founder of the Mass Education Movement, devised a basic Chinese of 1,000 characters which peasants and coolies could learn to read and write.
Social Life and Customs
Society is democratic, with no caste or class system. The
family is the all-important social group. The Cninese is inter¬ ested first in his family and second in his village; but he is only remotely concerned with the nation and its problems. "Ru¬ lers may come and rulers may go, but Chinese families will re¬ main Chinese families," says Lin Yutang, well-known author of
Chinese books. That is just what has happened in the past.
The civilization that the Chinese built has lasted through many years of political change and even through conquest by foreigners, because of the loyalty to the family and the village.
The individual must put the Interest of the family ahead
of his personal interest. It is a young man's duty to marry
and have sons to carry on the family. The sons commonly bring their wives to their father's homestead, which the father rules
as long as he lives. His leadership passes on to the eldest
son. Old people are greatly respected, and when they die they take their places among the ancestors who are worshipped by their descendants.
Marriages arranged by parents are no longer popular with
college students. They want to be free to choose their own
life-mates. Divorce and remarriage for women is no longer 21 forbidden. Under recent laws of the country women are equal to men. Seclusion of women is a thing of the past. During
World War II women served in the armed forces. The old Chinese system under which parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews lived under one roof as a com¬ munity, has been gradually broken down. Thus the customs and laws of China are undergoing a great change.
On holidays, such as New Year’s Day, Independence Day
(October 10) and certain festivals, the Chinese are gay with the spirit of carnival. They parade and wander in the streets, which are lighted at night with bright-colored paper lanterns such as we sometimes use at garden parties. They set off fire¬ crackers, of which they were the inventors. Their entertainment includes speeches, plays, movies, and athletic matches.
Boys and Girls, Games and Holidays
When a boy is born, there is great rejoicing. Every man wants sons to carry on his name, to honor him when he dies, and to continue the worship of his ancestors. A son, when he is old enough to earn a living, contributes his earnings to the family income.
Girls are not so welcome, especially among the poor. Mar¬ riages are expensive, for her father must provide everything she will need in her new home. Also, she is of no use to her family after she marries for she serves her husband's mother and worships his ancestors. An old Chinese proverb says that one deformed son is better than eighteen daughters as wise as 22 the apostles of Buddha.
A child is considered to be a year old when he is born.
Everyone adds a year to his age on New Year's Day rather than on the anniversary of his birth, and so a baby born a week before New Year's becomes two years old on that feast day.
When a baby is a month old, a great feast is held. All the relatives and friends are invited and the child is given a "milk name." A boy may be called "Little Silly" or "Tramp" or by a girl's name, so that evil spirits will believe his parents care nothing about him and will leave him alone. Later, when he is of school age, the child receives his "book name."
Boys are likely to be spoiled. Everyone in the household pets them, and they are given everything for which they cry.
The lot of their sisters is quite different. Girls may not play with boys. They are taught to wait on their elders and on their brothers. In families that cling to old ways, girls are almost ignored and. their happiness is not considered much.
Children are taught reverence for their parents and that it is honorable to marry and have many sons. A family frequent¬ ly arranges the marriage of a son while he is still in the cradle, ’when he is sixteen, he dons the cap of manhood and he may marry soon afterward.
Children in farm families begin to help in the fields when they are scarcely more than babies. More fortunate children start to school when they are six years old.
The Chinese are by nature a fun-loving people, and children 23 have their good times in spite of hard work and lack of luxuries.
They play coin games, ball games, hopscotch and shuttlecock, and often engage in theatrical performances and Punch-and-Judy shows.
Toys are scarce and made of perishable materials such as clay, bamboo, paper and colored sugar. At New Year's time, however, almost every child has a toy for at least a day.
The Dragon Boat Festival, held on the fifth day of the fifth moon, is another colorful occasion. It is said to have risen from the search for the body of Ch'u Yuan, a statesman who drowned himself in 295 B. C. Daring boat races are held in boats decorated to honor the Dragon, a water god. Great crowds gather to see the races, which usually end with a grave disaster.
On the fifteenth day of the eighth moon the Mid-Autumn Festival takes place. It is celebrated in honor of the full moon, which symbolizes concord and harmony.
Another special occasion which the children love is the
Kite-Flying Festival. On the ninth day of the ninth moon all the children, and even the grown-ups, go out to fly kites from the hilltops. Many boys make their own kites, weighing and measuring them carefully. Some make octagonal kites with paint¬ ings on them. They hang whistles, wind organs, and bells from the corners of the kites, and tie gay little lanterns to the kite tails. They also make kites in the shapes of butterflies, dragons, and other beautiful fantastic objects. There is a certain gayness in the queer practices and folkways of the
Chinese people. The social life and customs, the rivers used as common channels, the devotion to the family, and the festivals 24 and holidays are all factors devoted to a very interesting and colorful background for stories for children, and for a better understanding of the Chinese people,
China proper has more than three times the population of the United States. But this figure does not give a true picture of the overcrowded conditions, because China's population is not evenly distributed, since most of the people are crowded in about one-third of the country. The average Chinese is very poor, compared with the average American or Canadian. He and his family often eat the same, food day after day. But eating only one kind of food is not healthful. The average length of life in China is only about half what it is in the United States.
Perhaps one reason old people are so honored in China is that there are so few of them. Starvation and death often come to the Chinese after a flood or a season of dry weather when crops fail. Disease spreads quickly in the crowded areas of China.
Some of the larger cities now have waterworks and sewage systems, but these are unknown in smaller towns and country communities.
The preceding paragraph gives a negative aspect of Chinese life which is presented in the encyclopedias used in this study, but it is not brought out in the books of fiction for children.
In these juvenile books of fiction, a more positive side of
Chinese life and customs is portrayed. This is understandable, for juvenile books which are designed to bring joy and pleasure to young readers would naturally not concentrate on the negative aspects of life and customs of the Chinese people. CHAPTER III
CHARACTERISTICS OF CHINESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS FROM
SELECTED TITLES OF JUVENILE FICTION
This chapter is designed to focus attention on Chinese life and customs as they are reflected in juvenile fiction atout China, published during the years, 194-0 through 194-9.
The inclusion of these characteristics of Chinese life and customs is of great significance to this study, for the culture and contributions of the Chinese people, as of any other national group, cannot be fully appreciated or understood with¬ out an accurate interpretation of the customs and habits that are peculiar to them. By comparing the data found in the juvenile fiction selected for this study with that secured from authentic sources (see Chapter II) some definite conclusions can be made as to whether the juvenile fiction books present the Chinese people realistically.
To ascertain exactly what factors are portrayed in these juvenile fiction books, certain isolated indicators are used to represent the culture of the people. Those selected include:
(1) observance of holidays, (2) superstitious beliefs, (3) con¬ flict between old and new customs, (4-) food habits, (5) native dress, (6) occupations, (7) religious or ancestral worship,
(8) patriotism, (9) traits of excessive politeness, (10) river
25 26
life, and (11) marriage.
Although there are some customs which are characteristic
of all Chinese people, there are others that are peculiar to
the people of a specific region. In order to secure a more
comprehensive view of the manner in which the similarities and
differences in northern and southern China, and China in general
are presented in these juvenile fiction books, a regional ap¬
proach is used. All of the books which have their settings in
southern China will be classed and discussed together, and
likewise, those which treat northern China and China in general will be considered separately.
Some general idea of the extent to which the purpose of
this chapter has been accomplished may be formulated from the
checklist of predominant elements evident in the various books
(see Table 4).
Social Life and Customs of Northern China
Observance of holidays..—Basically, the Chinese people are
regarded as a fun-loving group.^ In spite of their hard work
and lack of luxuries, they celebrate many holidays and festivals
with gaiety and lavishness. In fact, the Chinese people will p use anything as a reason to celebrate.. Many of the same
1,1 China - Vast Land of Yesterday and Tomorrow," Compton1 s Pictured Encyclopedia, Vol. Ill (1951), 268.
2"China," The World Book Encyclopedia, Vol..Ill (1950), 1406 27 holidays and festivals are celebrated throughout China. In northern China, however, careful planning and preparation are made for the observance of the New Year's Festival, the Lantern Festival or the Feast of the Lanterns, and the Festival of the Equinox. In each of the Juvenile books concerning northern China, there was a description of the manner in which these celebrations were observed.
Mary Jo and Little Liu (1)^ and Tai in Tale of Tai (38) experienced what every Chinese child looks forward to on New
Year's Day; they were taken to the fair to enjoy the special attractions, the tumbling acrobats, magicians, sword-dancers and various other types of entertainment. As evident in Lat- timore's Three Little Chinese Girls (8) New Year's Day is a time of feasting, rejoicing and exchanging gifts. These three little Chinese girls enjoyed the food which had taken a month p to prepare. New Year's Day, the biggest of all feast days, is celebrated in the fall.
The Lantern Festival, the most beautiful of all Chinese ceremonies, is picturesquely described in Creekmore's Little
Fu (9). Two weeks after the New Year's Festival, Little Fu and the other Chinese children paraded down the street carry¬ ing lanterns and kites attractively designed in various
•^The numbers in parentheses through the study will refer to the book in which that subject is discussed. Corresponding numbers are found in Appendix I. 2Ibid.
^Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, op. cit., p..268. 28 fantastic shapes.
Elaborate feasts are also associated with the Festival of the Equinox — the time when the sun crosses the equator making day and night of equal length everywhere and occuring about
March 1. In her Runaway Apprentice (10), Margery Evemden in¬ cludes a great feast with all kinds of food in describing the celebration that occured in Chao Ho's home during the Festival of the Equinox.
Superstitious beliefs.T-Authentic data on specific super¬ stitious beliefs to which the Chinese people of northern China adhere is limited; however, as one reads many of the juvenile books relating life in northern China, he becomes more cognizant of the fact that these people believe in magic, good and bad luck, evil spirits, fortune-telling and similar omens. Among those beliefs to which these people continued to cling are those which state that evil spirits swam under the water; that a huge eye painted on the side of a fishing boat frightened away the evil spirits of the water, for the eye was capable of directing the ship in deep water; and that red paper tied to the end of a pole symbolized good luck. In Li Lun (32) it was customary of the people on Blue Shark Island to paint a huge eye on the side of their boats, and Li Lun's mother tied a red paper to the end of the pole which he carried to assure Li Lun of good luck.
Other superstitious beliefs were also presented. Li Lun's mother gave him ground-up dragon bones to eat when there was 29
"fear in his heart"; and Li Lun made a doll to represent the girl-who-swept-clear-the-weather. It was generally accepted that the weather girl had the power to "sweep the weather clear."
Ling Tang, in Ling Tang and the Lucky Cricket (29) believed that the finding of a cricket would bring good luck, so Ling Tang rejoiced and eagerly awaited his good luck which was to follow.
In Bamboo Gate (21), a collection of fanciful tales, ad¬ ditional superstitions are presented; blue beads are worn to keep away evil spirits, and a monkey, symbolic of good luck, has the power to drive away evil spirits also. Many other supersitious beliefs were included in Bamboo Gate (21), but the ones mentioned are used as examples to support the fact that the Chinese people have a belief to fit practically every occasion or incident.
Conflict between old and new customs.—There are still many old customs to which Chinese adhere; however, the younger people of China are trying to convince their parents and elders that the traditional Chinese ways should be changed.'*' Through¬ out the books describing northern China, old customs are par¬ tially overshadowed by the new customs, which are gradually being accepted. Such traditional ways as education for boys only, marriages planned by parents, and bound feet for girls at an early age comprise only a few of the old customs, out they are signiiicant in that they furnish evidence for argumenta - tlon on the part or the moaern-tninking Chinese boy or girl of
•'•The Vf or Id Book Encyclopedia, op, cit., p. .1398. 30 today. An example of this modern thinking, as related to each of these customs Is ^resented in The Red Chair Waits (13).
First, Father Chien refused to let his daughter’s feet he hound. It was a nard-fought victory over his wife, who had
stumpy hound feet, to get her to break with this old village
custom. Then he contended that his daughter, Shu-lan, should be educated, so he sent her to the Christian primary school.
This was less difficult to do after the first custom had been broken. Bright little Shu-lan won scholarships year after year,
making it possible for her to continue her schooling, and thus become a teacher. Mother Chien believed that education was a
privilege reserved for boys; Mr. Chien was more modern in his thinking and encouraged Shu-lan to continue her studies.
Having marriage prearranged by parents is another old
Chinese custom which is familiar to most children. Refusal to
adhere to this tradition is the theme of The Red Chair Waits
(13).- Chien Shu-lan had been engaged to be married from infancy, because her mother believed in the custom of prearranged marriage.
However, "the red chair (marriage sedan chair) waited" because
Shu-lan, like many of the young people of China who have dis¬
covered that the new ways of thinking and of living may be
better than the old, rebelled. Instead, she chose her husband, who was Mr. Li, a physical education instructor..
From the Bamboo Gate (21) we notice other conflicts: educa¬
tion in a temple or school versus scholars as private tutors,
and belligerency versus patriotism. An example of the former
conflict occurs with Di-Di, who went to school in a temple in 31 spite of the fact that his father thought the old way, which consisted of the tutor coming to the home to teach the classics, was better. Interwoven also is the custom that boys were to be educated. Di-Di, however, was not from a wealthy family, another factor which is significant, for in former years only the wealthy could afford schooling for their children; the lower economic group of Chinese could not spare their children from work in the fields. Now, the new leaders of China are trying to bring education to all classes of people.'1' In ancient China as also stated in Bamboo Gate (21), it was a disgrace to be a soldier, for fighting was fit for only barbarians and stupid people; the nation and its problems were of remote concern.
Now, the people have been forced to accept the viewpoint that today soldiers are essential and a necessary protection for the country and their family life, which to them is foremost in im¬ portance. Conflict between new and old customs continues to occur in the China of today, but great progress has been made in getting the old Chinese people to accept new methods and ways.
Food habits.-r-Food has been considered as the most pressing problem of the Chinese people. Although the farmers utilize all available farm land, the supply of food is not ample to meet the great demand.. Farms in northern China are generally larger than farms in southern China, but nowhere in the country are farms 2 really large. The types of food grown are also limited, thus,
xThe World Book Encyclopedia, op. clt., p. 1403.
2Ibid. 32 the diet of the Chinese people is not too varied. Northern
Chinese use assorted dishes which can he prepared from wheat and millet, since they are the chief crops grown in the north. Meat is very seldom used, for the grain needed to feed animals often yields a greater amount of food value when people eat it themselves. A few chickens are kept, and they are used for food.1 The wealthy groups can afford to buy meat, but the poor¬ er class has meat only on holidays and for special feasts. Although there are only few foods available, the Chinese people have learned to prepare many dishes from these few foods. The diet of the Chinese people consists chiefly of rice, vege¬ tables and noodles (eaten instead of bread). These foods are always flavored with a little garlic or soy-bean sauce, or
O pickled bean curd. Like many families in north China, the Chiens (13) ate two meals a day, breakfast in the morning, and the second about four o’clock in the afternoon. Often, this latter meal consisted of millet porridge mixed with yellow beans and salty pickled turnips. Occasionally, there were dark brown bean sauce, persimmons and salty crullers.
The feast which was given for Mr. Li and Shu-lan (13) on their wedding day was typical of the types of foods which were used for special occasions. This feast consisted of orange soup, cucumber broth, bamboo sprouts, candied yams, mushrooms with
1Ibid.
O Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 263. 33
clams, fried water-chestnuts, lotus seeds, silver-thread rolls, duck-in-doilies, chicken velvet, fish with sweet-sour sauce,
sea slugs, red haw jelly, eight-precious pudding, apricot-seed
gelatine, shark's fins, toasted slices of Chinese bread spread with peanut butter, jasmine-scented tea, pork, beef, bean curd
in onion or garlic, dumplings with chopped cabbage and garlic-
flavored pork, red goose, wine, and watermelon seeds.
The diet of the islanders consists primarily of those foods which were easily accessible. For example, Li Lun's (32) diet
on the island consisted of fish, shrimp, seaweed, rice (which had to be brought from the mainland), and gulls' eggs. For
special celebrations there were other eggs, which were like black coffee jelly because they had been buried in sand many
years before. Sometimes the menu would vary to Include beans,
turnips, eggplant, green onions, fried bread on a stick, chicken
and dumplings, ginger, and candied plums. Such a menu was men¬
tioned in Three Little Chinese Girls (18).
In Runaway Apprentice (10), Chao Ho, born of wealthy parents,
had been accustomed to eating fish and meat every day, and some¬
times there had been pears, melons, and pomegranates. At festi¬
val time, he had eaten crimson oranges brought from a distance
of a thousand miles. Contrariwise, when he became affiliated
with the itinerant shadow players, who belonged to a lower
economic class, he seldom tasted such delicacies. A handful
of peanuts, some dried sweet potatoes, tea flavored by jasmine
or chrysanthemum petals, a few radishes, and an occasional
onion furnished their diet. 34
In the Bamboo Gate (21), a definite regional difference in food habits is brought out. For example, in south China, the Chinese eat rice, as we eat bread; but in north China, more people eat noodles than rice, since wheat is grown there. The families in Bamboo Gate (21) ate noodles with their vegetables.
Native dress.—Styles in clothing are the same in both north and south China, and the children and adults dress very much alike, both conforming to the usual dress of Chinese people. For the women, brilliant gowns fitted to the form, and slit to the knees were accepted, and the men dressed in loose, baggy trousers and high-collared gowns opened at the side seam almost to the knees.1 The Three Little Chinese Girls (18) looked very much alike, because their mother cut their clothes from the same pattern; jackets and trousers of printed cotton were used for spring and summer; an extra jacket or coat for fall, and cotton padded coats for winter. Their hair was cut in bangs across the forehead and braided in pigtails behind their ears.. The dress of a country woman consisted of a short blue padded jacket and trousers confined tightly at the ankles with a black woven band. On her bound feet she wore padded homemade cloth shoes. A contrast to this was the teacher, Chien Shu-lan of The Red Chair Walts (13 )> who seemed more slender in her straight blue student gown. The country woman's hair was not bobbed like Shu-lan's, but combed straight back In a knot at the nape of the neck. The corners of her forehead, from which,
1Ibid. 35 according to custom, the hair had been plucked on her wedding day accentuated the squareness of her face.
Trousers and jacket of violet silk, gold embroidered slip¬ pers, and topaz .stickpins glittering in her ancient hair con¬ stituted the accouterment of the Old, Old One in Runaway Appren tice (10).. The use of cosmetics was in vogue among young girls who put pink on their cheeks and forehead and red flowers in their hair to go to the fair in Tale of Tal (38). Native dress ordinarily, is simple, but the Chinese of New China are trying to pattern their dress by the students and wealthier people of the cities."^
Occupations.--Farming, the leading industry of China, is chief among industries in northern China. The Three Little
Chinese Girls (18) speak of the farmers, and in Runaway Appren¬ tice (10) mention is made of the jade carvers. The Chinese prize jade as we prize diamonds and emeralds, and no other people have approached them in the carving of this tough stone p into forms of exquisite beauty. Northern Chinese also engage in teaching, and others are silk merchants. As described in
The Red Chair Waits (13) and Three Little Chinese Girls (18) some of the northern Chinese are fishermen and shadow actors.
Religion or ancestral worship.—Very few Chinese are
Christians; the majority believe in various gods, in Confucius
1Ibld.
2Ibid. 36 and the worship of their ancestors. In the northwest there is a growing number of Christians; however ancestral worship is the reason for a great deal of Chinese resistance to change.^
Faith in the Christian religion was discussed in The Red Chair
'Waits (13) although only Shu-lan and her father were Christians..
The Second Brother was portrayed as having attended a Christian boys’ school without giving conscious consent to the religious principles which he had absorbed. Detailed description of an¬ cestral ’worship, or the worship of gods, was almost nil in the juvenile fiction books selected for this study.
Traits of excessive politeness.r-Politeness is a trait which characterizes the people of China, and children are taught at an early age to be polite and courteous, patient and honest.
Respect for elders, family and friends is traditional with the 2 Chinese. Forms of politeness are shown in Ling Tang and the
Lucky Cricket (29) when everyone falls to the ground and bows to the Prince of Mongolia and by Ling Tang's bowing to his grand¬ father from the waist.
When Chao Ho presented a scroll and message to the Emperor, he bowed low letting his head touch the floor nine times, which is an act of politeness exemplified in Runaway Apprentice (10).
It was also considered politeness, in old-fashioned country courtesy, to walk to the gate with a visitor. The
^World Book Encyclopedia, op. clt., p. 1406. 2 Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 262. 37 country greeting -was given by putting one clenched hand over the other, a little to the left of the stomach and juggling both up
and down. This was vividly described in The Red Chair Walts
(13). River life.—Approximately half of the people in China live on rivers in sampans or houseboats. Living in this manner helps to alleviate the over-crowded housing conditions which exist, and assures a family of a means of existence, for fishing is the chief occupation for those who live on sampans.'*' Little Fu (9) lived with his family in a sampan. Like other sampans, theirs had a neat canopy in the center where Little Fu's mother cooked and the family gathered to eat. His father, who was a fisher¬ man, also had trained comorants to dive after the fish and
O bring them back to the boat. Although life on the river may not be the most pleasant way to live, many of the children are accustomed to it, and enjoy their home as Little Fu (9) did. Marriage.--Country girls in China all expect to marry some¬ time,. According to custom, widows do not remarry but widowers do, and promptly; this increases the ratio of eligible men. The Chinese have no custom which requires a man to wait any definite length of time to prove his devotion to his deceased wife. Being practical, they feel that if the man has children he should secure a mother to care for them immediately. This idea is advanced in The Red Chair waits (13).
The social life and customs of the Chinese people of
•*-rbld~ 2Supra, see Fish and Food, p. 16. 38 nortnern China parallel the description of life and customs found in background readiiigs; however, the juvenile fiction books give a more lengthy and vivid description. To obtain the differences in the customs of the people in southern China, a discussion of the customs and habits of the southern Chinese will follow.
Social Life and Customs of Southern China
Observance of holidays.--The New fear's Festival in soutnern
China, as has been seen in northern China, is the most important holiday. It is the time when firecrackers boom and paper lan¬ terns are lighted, as explained by Chang, the cook, ,dn Yankee Sails to China (20). A more vivid picture of this holiday, as celebrated in southern China, is given in books representing this section. According to Chin (8), New Year's decorations con¬ sist of bright colored paper gods pasted on doors, and rad paper with mottoes. The Chinese also buy incense, new clothes for the hoi idays, and oil for their lamps.. These are the first New Year's gifts. Red bags were among the best presents, for they contained coins — two pieces, four pieces, or six pieces -- always an even number, even though some might be copper, some silver, some large, others small. When Kwok Ming saw a married cousin, he would stop, bow formally and greet him. Then the cousin would offer him a red bag. If he saw an unmarried cousin, he would hurry by; there would be no red bags from him! In the events presented in Honorable Goat (2) three weeks comprise New
Year's vacation in southern China. Great preparation was made r 39
in order to usher in the new year., Chengting and his tutor burned ail the old lesson papers in the Respect-Written-Character-
Basket and put the ashes in a box to be taken to the temple and presented to the Spirit of Literature. This was a means of ad¬ hering to the old Chinese belief that everything was to be im¬ maculate; all undesirable materials were discarded before tne
New Year arrived. Also in accord with this old New Year's custom of thorougn cleaning, Chengting took a new broom and
swept the goathouse ceiling, walls and floor.. During the cele¬ bration of the New Year, there was always a rite for the gaily colored picture of tne kitchen god who was made ready to go to heaven. This was done by sprinkling the mouth of the kitchen god with sugar before the picture was burned so that he would give a sweet report of the happenings in the household to the
spirit world.
Following the New Year's Festival is another well-known festival which is also elaborately celebrated; it is the Dragon
Moon Festival. The legend of the Dragon Moon Festival is given in Margery Everalen's Secret of the Porcelain Fish (11). A minister of state had asked his Emperor to correct certain in¬
justices in the government. The Emperor had refused to listen or change, and the minister had drowned himself in protest.
Ever since then, on the fifth day of the Dragon Moon, the people had celebrated the great man's virtue and had thrown rice cakes upon the river to feed his hungry spirit.
The youngsters of China, as well as the adults, await Kites' 40
Day. Chapter VII of Boat Children of Canton (35) hy Marian
Ward deals with Kites' Day, the origin of which can be traced from the ancient legend which held that on the ninth day of the ninth month, evil spirits would visit the home. However, there was the superstitious belief that one would be safe from danger high on a hilltop. While waiting atop the hill, the grown-ups and children flew their kites. Since then, there has always been a Kites' Day. These are only a few of the holidays and festivals observed by the people of southern China, for like the northern Chinese, any unusual event or happening is an ap¬ propriate time for a feast or a holiday.
Superstitious beliefs.--Superstitious beliefs in southern
China were as numerous as those in north China and many of the beliefs were prevalent in both regions. When it stormed, the sea dragons were not contented, so Chang said in Yankee Sails to China (20).. Most of the Chinese junks had a design of a great bird painted on the bow or stern for good luck; while sampans and other flat-bottomed vessels had eyes painted on the bow so the boat could see its way around boulders and other boats, and thus avoid coming in contact with the evil spirits that lived in deep water. According to another superstitious belief found in Yankee Sails to China (20), the Chinese believe that roof lines built upwards keep evil spirits away from the house-tops. In contrast to this, the modern view on this archi¬ tectural design is that the roofs are built upwards and over¬ hanging to keep the sunlight out when the sun is high in summer, 41 and to let the sunlight in when It is low in winter.^
The Chinese believe that the evil spirits cannot travel except in a straight line. Hence streets are never designed straight in China. They zigzag and are very narrow so the evil spirits will not have room to travel along them. The Chinese even have a screen in front of the door of their houses so evil spirits cannot enter. This "spirit screen" is mentioned in
Secret of the Porcelain Fish (11).
There is also great belief in the predictions of the old prophets. The Mystery of the Eighth Horse (20) emanated from a Buddhist hermit's prophecy. Wei-Kung and Bob, an American visitor, went to see the hermit, and ,he prophesied that danger, even death, hung over them. They tried to convince themselves that this was silly superstition, but, inwardly, wondered about the prophecy. Most of the village people called Bob "foreign devil" and thought he possessed an "evil eye" because he was not a member of their race. Another superstition was recorded from this book, when Bob and Wei-Kung found seven of the eight
Galloping Horses of Han, a set of precious magical jewels that signified horrible misfortune for the owner of the jewels, if the set were ever broken.
Other examples of superstitions were found in The Tangled
Web (34-) in which a charm piece was worn around the neck to ward off evil spirits; snow was called the breath of the dragon, and over a woodcarver's door were written the words: "House of a
^World .Book Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 1404. 42
Thousand Joys" In order to insure happiness.
The entire book, The Treasure of' Li-Po (27), is based on superstitions, magic, and figments of the imagination. For instance, there is the belief that water in China in the south¬ west will make a sick man well; that a fox’s daughter is able to appear and disappear at will; and that an old pot in a garden will make two of everything if some object is placed within..
Other beliefs prevalent in northern China were found in
Honorable Goat (2). Included among these were: glowing cats’ eyes are a good omen; a cock crowing is an evil omen; bamboo stalks predict lucky and unlucky omens; red is for good luck; firecrackers scare devils away; black cats are lucky; an eagle's coming is an evil omen; bats are symbols of good luck; and when snow falls it is good luck,.
In Two Lands for Ming (8), Kwok Ming wanted to scrape off the old Hew Year's door decorations with a knife, but Kwok Kang said the gods would be angry if he used a knife. The Little
Red Dragon (33) found in the book of the same title was a lucky charm made of jade and crystal. With a slight rub, its magical power was restored.
At a very early age, youngsters are prepared to accept many of these beliefs in which they place confidence. All his life
Li-Thirty-Nine (IS) was taught that it was wiser to nave nothing to do with the dead, for evil spirits hovered three feet above the body; that dying was referred to as the child's spirit as¬ cending the dragon; and if an individual made an attempt to save 43 a man from drowning, that prey was being snatched from the jaws of the river dragon. Li-Thirty-Nine was subjected to this latter belief in When the Typhoon Blows (19).. Each of these, along with many others, kept youngsters, as well as adults, tormented by fears and superstitions.
Many of these superstitious beliefs, which are revealed in the juvenile fiction books selected for this study, reflect several of the customs and traditions that are characteristic not only of southern China but of China in general.
Conflict between old and new customs.r-When the Typhoon
Blows (19) is filled with conflicts between old and new customs.
When the Chinese lieutenant killed two Japanese, it was not ac¬ cording to custom, for China through the centuries had considered war and warriors uncivilized, and proportionately few of her soldiers had been noted for brains or courage. But when the war came, the Chinese were forced to leave their homes; this presented a conflict in customs since it had been Chinese custom for centuries to build anew on ruins and men and women always clung to familiar bits of soil. During the war, too, Free China, unlike the one of former days that had acted slowly and deliber¬ ately, was breathless with haste. China's women led by Madame
Chiang Kai-shek, were breaking traditional bonds thousands of years old, by helping in every line of civilian work during
World War II. Many had gone straight to the front as nurses and helpers in the armed forces.
Girl Without a Country (25) brings out the conflict between 44 the old and new customs in marriage. On the way to see a bride- to-be, Maragaret asked Bei-tsung whether or not it was to be an old style marriage or new. The answer came thus: "Very old
style, for they have been betrothed since they were children."
San-pao, in the Mystery of the Eighth Horse (26), took
sick with scarlet fever, and because his grandmother did not believe in or trust modern doctors, she insisted that a priest
come to drive away the evil spirits of illness. Modern China
is accepting and establishing confidence in doctors and scienti¬
fic medical treatments, for China now has a developing education- 1 al program which provides for training, in these areas.
Native dress.--In southern China, native dress varies with the occasion and economic class as much as American dress does.
Some of the ladies dress in the latest styles, with bobbed and waved hair and high heeled shoes; but often there is the mixture
of old and new customs in dress. For weddings, the Chinese
ladies dress elaborately in finery in the old-style. For example, the bride in the Girl Without a Country (25) was dressed in an
old-fashioned robe of crimson brocade, and a long finely pleated
skirt came to her feet. A crimson jacket, trimmed with wide bands of richly colored embroidery, and a great red silk hand¬
kerchief transformed Ling-tse into a real Chinese bride. Rubies
sparkled in her ears. Her head was bare and her sleek hair was
drawn into a close knot at the back of her neck. Only the lower
lip was reddened in the old-fashioned way.
^-World Book Encyclopedia, op. clt.~ p. 1403. 45
The jacket of Jong, a groom in Two Lands for Ming (8), was sky blue and reached to his ankles. A piece of broad red silk was draped across his right shoulders and tied in a knot at his left hip.
On the other hand, leisure dress was not as elaborate, and the dress of the coolie and those in rural China was even sim¬ pler. In The Tangled Web (34) by Estelle Urbahns, the dress consisted of less elaborate attire. Here we find Chang dressed in embroidered slippers and jacket of beaten bamboo, as he draws contentedly on a water pipe for an hour of leisure.
A Mandarin's dress, as described in ïankee Sails to China
(20), consisted of a long robe of silvery-patterned silk, shoes with thick felt soles, a flaring-side cap with a round button like a jewel on top; strings of tasseled beads, and a fan. A typical outfit for a Chinese girl, as mentioned in Yankee Sails to China (20), was a suit, pants and blouse, embroidered with blossoms and butterflies. Sometimes, however, this dress was modified.
In Honorable Coat (2) there is a vivid picture of the varia¬ tion that occurs in the dress of many of the young girls. Wha
Mei wore a crimson wadded jacket and bright green trousers; her hair in two long pigtails bound with red worsted to ward off evil, and long silver earrings, embroidered shoes, and silver chain and padlock around her neck to protect her from evil spirits.
Chengting wore pongee pajamas in warm weather and woolen pajamas and black velvet slippers in winter, which was always tiiree-coat 4 6 weather. To the feast he wore a long, plum-colored gown of
silk "brocade lined with the light tan and white fur of the river otter, and a snort black satin jacket and a tight-fitting, visorless, black satin cap with a red braided button on top.
The description of the dress of the southern Chinese, as
presented in juvenile fiction used in this study was, for the
most part, not a description of tne comuon Chinese, for he could not afford to have the rineries wnich were used, but the upper-
middle class, and some of the middle classes, could.
Food habits .--The chief cro.k s oi southern Cnina are rice
and tea. These cro^s determine to a great degree tne kind of
food which the people eat. To supplement the rice and tea,
southern Chinese grow vegetaoles of all kinds, corn and soy¬ beans."^ From these products, their food is prepared. Occasion¬
ally, there is fruit, for it is grown on a small scale in the
subtropical south. Like the northern Chinese people, tne
southern Chinese eat very little meat; however, preparation is
always made to secure meat, chicken or duck for special- occasions
and festivals. Watermelon seeds, as presented in When the Ty¬
phoon Blows (19)» is a delicacy served with tea. Sometimes,
sesame seed cakes or sweetened cakes are used.
In The Little Red Dragon (33)» a delicious meal is described
as consisting of stuffed duck, bamboo shoots, sweetened eggs,
red sugar cakes, and a savory soup for washing down the meal.
1Ibld., p. 1403. Wheat cakes ana melon seeds were later served with the tea.
Wedding feast dishes were more palatable and delectable.
The wedding preliminary feast in The Story on the Willow Plate
(31) was composed of wine, eggs that were a thousand years old, peacock tongues pickled in lime juice, delicate slices of octu- pus seasoned with strange spices, and rare fruits from India and Fersia.
Honorable Goat (2) describes another typical feast, which includes goat's milk, rice cookies, almond cakes, hot tea, hot diced chicken with chrysanthemum petals, lily-sprouts, noodles served with a black salty sauce, Chinese cabbage, lotus seeds, bird nest soup, century-old eggs, mandarin duck, pigeons' eggs, pork-balls, sharks' fins, sea-slugs, sesame seed cakes, and mushrooms. When a rice bowl is set out before one, he can tell it is the end of the feast.
Bamboo is grown in practically every place in southern
China, and from this plant, the Chinese prepare practically every imaginable dish. Examples of the versatility of bamboo, as given in Bamboo, the Grass Tree (28) by Armstrong Sperry, in¬ cluded rice covered with tender white shoots of bamboo, pickled bamboo shoots or bamboo candied or preserved in sugar.
These elaborate meals are really descriptions of the feasts for special occasions, and usually for those who could afford to secure the various types of food. The diet of most of the
Chinese people in southern China consisted chiefly of rice, fish, and tea. This was especially true among the ordinary class.^
^-The V/ or Id Book Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 1398. 48
Occupations.r-Although the farms found in southern China are (generally smaller than the farms in northern China, farming is a principal occupation of the southern Chinese. Many of the food products -which cannot he grown in northern China, primari¬ ly because of the climate, are produced in southern China.^
In Bamboo, the Grass Tree (28), Honorable Goat (2), Yankee Sails to China (20), and Two Lands for Ming (8), there is mention of occupations other than just farming. There were nurses, water carriers, shop keepers (the Chinese make many useful articles and trinkets, which are sold to shopkeepers or peddled on the O streets; venders, public letter writers, gardeners (the wealthy class hire gardeners to care for their beautiful gardens. Al¬ though there is not enough land in China for farming, the wealthy use vast fields for their gardens). Tin mining is a well-established industry in China, especially in Yunnan.^ In
When the Typhoon Blows (IS) there were tin makers; and Treasure for Li Po (27) and the Secret of the Porcelain Fish (11) mention carpenters, laundrymen and porcelain makers (some of the world's finest porcelain is made in China).3
Religion or Ancestral Worship.--The worshipping of idols prevailed throughout China. There were several incidents occur¬ ring in the books with settings in south China to show the
1Ibld.
^Ibld.
3Ibid.
^Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 279. 5Ibid. 49 various forms of worship. For example, there was a Chinese prayer to Joss and to the gods of the other world for a safe and successful journey, and a reference to Tao, or God-of-Long-
Life, and the rain goddess riding in the air in Bamboo, the Grass
Tree (28) and in The Little Red Dragon (33) respectively. The latter also tells of a shrine built for Kwan Yin, Goddess of
Mercy and Pity. Although Chang Fen had no incense to honor the goddess, he made the customary kowtow (kneeling and bowing until the head touches the ground) before the shrine and swayed rhythmically back and forth, murmuring a prayer. Once on his journey, a countryman greeted him with 11 May the God-of-Journeys watch over you, Lame One."
In The Tangled web (34), Lui Fen laid down his heart in supplication to Kwan Yin, China's Goddess of Mercy, who was said to love and watch over China's younger ones. Kwan Yin is also referred to as the Go dde s s-Who-Y/at che a-Over-Mortals-Who -
Travel-Over-Water in Yankee Sails to Cnina (20).
Ancestral worship is as significant to the scuthern Chinese as it is to the people in northern China. Much ancestral wor¬ ship takes place in the home. In some instances there are special shrines.1 These shrines are written about in Secret of
Porcelain Fish (11) when Shen Ki, porcelain maker, knelt before the shrine of his ancestors and told them of the honor which had come to the family when he had to make porcelains for the
Emperor; and in Two Lands for Ming (8), where the custom of
^Supra, see "Religion," p. 15. 5.0 keeping a queue from an ancestor in a long narrow box is pre¬ sented. This queue was cut off during the first year of the
Chinese Republic giving proof of their faith in China's freedom.
Patriotism.--Like ancestral worship, patriotism prevails in southern China in a manner similar to that in northern China.
In the juvenile fiction books on south China, patriotic enthu¬ siasm was brought out in When the Typhoon Blows (19), when
Lewis expressed the idea that men, women, and children from the east, west, north, and south must work together in order to defeat the Japanese oppressor. From Two Lands for Ming (8) we find Ming feeling faint stirrings of pride in his own country.
He vowed to himself that no matter where he went part of him would always remain Chinese. He knew that by learning all he could about China, he would be able to tell people of the things they would want to hear most from him — stories of
China and her history and customs.
Traits of excessive politeness.--Foreigners were even in¬ fluenced by the excessive politeness of the Chinese people, for Deborah, an American girl, tried to learn to kowtow by kneeling down and touching her head to the floor three times in Yankee Sails to China (20) by Lois Maloy. Other examples of politeness, found in The Tangled Web (3^), are appellations such as Thrice Honorable Sir; Greatly Revered Ones; Twice
Honorable Father; Respected Sir; and Highly Respected Mother.
Usually three bows are customary when greeting an important personage. In When the Typhoon Blows (19), whenever Li-Thirty- 51
Nine was praised for a deed or act of merit, he was embarrassed
and bowed, saying he was unworthy of such kindness. Wha Mei,
a character in Honorable Goat (2), also felt embarrassed and
confused when complimented. This brings out the fact that
excessive politeness is often humbleness or modesty. When
visiting, Wha Mei and Chengting gave each other deep ceremonial bows. Before leaving, Chengting had to bow to each member of
Wha Mel's family separately. We learn, too, that proper eti¬
quette requires one to wipe mouth, cheeks, forehead, and chin
with a steaming towel at the end of a meal.
River life.--The Si, or West River, known also as the
Fearl River is the only large river in southern China, but sam¬
pans and boathouses can be found on practically every small
river in southern China. The only home which many southern
Chinese have is the sampan. Some cannot afford homes on land;
others cannot find homes available, and still others prefer to
remain on the river because of the trading and fishing advan¬
tages.^
Ek Khi and Tang Ek Hua, brother and sister in Boat Children
of Canton (35), lived on a Chinese junk which carried cargoes
of silk and boxes of flower tea from Canton to Hong Kong (See
Figure 1). Flat workboats or small fisheraft, on which como-
rants did the work for men were mentioned in When the Typhoon
Blows (19). Another phase of river life was brought out in
Yankee Sails to China (20), in which children from sampans were
^World Book Encyclopedia, op. cit., p. 1398. 52 paddling in the water without fear of drowning because of the hollow blocks of wood fastened to their backs to keep them afloat. Marriage.--The customs that are associated with the Chinese girl’s marriage are many. Very few of these customs vary from region to region, but are characteristic of China in general. In one of the books depicting southern China, Yankee Sails to China (20), Captain Trott explained to Deborah about marriage. "When a Chinese girl marries," he explained, "she does not be¬ long to her own family anymore. She belongs to the family of her husband." He goes on to say that the Chinese have great wedding celebrations, with processions and many rich gifts — and the bride's family must give gifts to the family of the groom. Unless the family is very well-to-do, it is a burden to them. They would rather have sons to grow up and take a place in the family, help with the business or farm, take care of the elders and see that they go to their ancestors in proper st at e. In Two Lands for Ming (8), an orchestra was hired, and the most beautiful black teakwood chairs and tables were brought out especially for the wedding. Outside there was a
sudden burst of firecrackers as the bridal procession came into sight. The bride rode in a sedan chair that was swinging from the shoulders of two coolies. Behind the sedan chair walked her friends, young men and women carrying the wedding gifts and
possessions that the bride was bringing to her new home. Her 53 clothes and jewels and other presents in bright leather chests and her red painted furniture carried proudly for all to see, represented the wealth of her family. The bride, of course, wore red for good luck. As seen in the previous discussion of social life and cus¬ toms in southern China, there was little variation with the customs found in northern China; however, there were fuller dis¬ cussions of some elements. It was also noticed t-.at some cus¬ toms were more predominant in southern China than in northern China. This was true of river life. Many more Chinese live on the river in sampans in southern China than in northern China. Included in the selected titles of juvenile fiction were some books which treated China in general. The discussion of these books which follows will try to synthesize those customs which are found in southern and northern China to determine if they, too, are characteristic of China in genera,!.
Juvenile Fiction Treating China in General Observance of holidays.--Although New Year's Day is a celebration generally observed in some manner by the Chinese people, it is only mentioned as a holiday in Chinese Children Next Door (4) by Fearl Buck, and Ficture Story of China (12) by Emily Hahn, without the vivid descriptions given in books concerning northern and southern China. Superstitious Deliefs.--Many of the superstitious beliefs that are adhered to in southern and northern China are typical of China in general, but several additional superstitious 54 beliefs were found in the books depicting China in general.
These were belief in magic, and belief that evil spirits could be driven away by lighted firecrackers. For example, during the Hsia Dynasty, people believed in magic, and because of magic, the Good-Luck Horse (7) was created. Firecrackers were lighted, and maids beat on pots and pans to drive away evil spirits in
Fepper Moon (57) by Esther Wood. Examples of superstitious beliefs that occurred in Pearl Buck's Dragon Fish (3) were: a white heron flying overhead was a sign of good luck, and the threat of rain meant the devils had come out.
Conflicts between old and new customs.—Conflicts between old and new customs were considered only in Picture Story of
China (12). One of these conflicts was centered around educa¬ tion which has always been a desire of the Chinese people, and at one time it was reserved for only the privileged boys.^ Today, as stated in Picture Story of China (12), the Chinese boy or girl may start to school when he is six and follow a course much like that in American schools.
Food habits.--Although many of these titles do not give the description of an elaborate feast as was presented in the other
sections, some of the food habits peculiar to China in general were unfolded. The custom of eating rice everyday is included
in Pearl Buck's Chinese Children Next Door (4), and pork, chest¬ nuts, rice and sharks' fins are eaten for supper in Water-Buffalo
^World Book Encyclopedia, op. clt., p.. 1403. 55
Children (5). Whereas we in America get soup at the beginning of a meal, soup means the end of a meal for little Deedee in
Picture Story of China (12).
Onion bulbs, cabbage, rice and tea are mentioned as common foods in The Story of Lee Ling (17); and crab meat, rice and cabbage in Poston's Ching-Ll (24)..
Native dress.--Throughout China, pants and coats and shoes of cotton are an example of a typical dress of the Chinese people. In the Story of Lee Ling (17), she wears a similar out¬ fit. Her hair style is described as "smooth black hair parted in the middle with a long pigtail down the back.'.' In the Dragon
Fish (3)» Pearl Buck gives the contrast in dress of the American and Chinese girl. Lan-may, the Chinese girl, wore a pink- flowered coat and trousers, white socks, and black sateen shoes which her mother had made. Lan-may's hair was braided into two pigtails and tied with pink yarn, with front bangs, the same style as that of the Three Little Chinese Girls (18). Contrari¬ wise, the American girl's hair flowed loose in curls. She wore a full, gathered blue linen dress, and black leather low-heeled shoes, which definitely distinguished her from the Chinese girl.
Even though Lan-may differed from the American girl in dress, her outfit was similar to the native dress in Water-
Buffalo Children (5). Here, the little Chinese girl's hair was braided in one braid with a piece of scarlet yarn threaded through it, and she wore straight bangs, pants and jacket also..
Both she and her brother, who wore short pants and a girdle of blue cloth around his waist, were barefoot. 56
Occupât IonaThe chief occupations found in southern and northern China were fishing, and farming. China in general is a
fishing and farming country.1 In Good-Luck Horse (7). Chlng-Li
(24), and The Dragon Fish (3), which treat China in general, it
is evident that farmers, fishermen, rich merchants, and shoe¬ makers comprise the general occupational groups of China.
Religion or ancestral worship.:—Idolizing ancestors is one of the highest forms of worship among the Chinese people. Sig¬ nificant information relating to this is furnished hy Emily Hahn
in Ficture Story of China (12). There is also reference to an¬
cestral images which the Chinese people worship in the corners of their homes. Presents are brought to funerals and there is the belief that the dead come back as a friend or relative.
This is another type of ancestral worship. Two types of reli¬
gion are discussed: Taosim means that to follow the way of Tao you are following the right way of life; and in Buddhism every¬ one becomes a part of one great soul in the Buddhist heaven.
However, Chinese are very liberal concerning religion.
The Chinese people had great confidence in the power invested
in their many idol gods, and hence sought aid from them. Lifu
asked the God of War to stop the war, and the Goddess of Mercy to send his father back home from the war in Lattimore’s Questions
of Lifu (16); whereas village men beat drums and gongs to attract the rain god and make him send rain for crops in Latuimore's
Story of Lee Ling (17). Each of these requests was granted.
1Ibid. 57
Patriotism..—There is a general feeling of patriotism that
exists among the Chinese people. Much of this is probably at¬ tributed to the fact that China is one of the oldest living nations, of which its inhabitants are very proud. Traits of
patriotism are interwoven in many of the stories. Additional
patriotism is shown when Feachblossom*s (15) brother wanted to
join the army in order to fight the enemy who was destroying his country.''" The "questions of Lifu" are centered around his
father who is a soldier, thus bringing in the aspect of war.
Definite patriotism is shown again by little Lifu who runs off
to be a soldier like his father.(16)
Traits of excessive politeness.--Excessive politeness is
given more attention in books on northern China than in titles
concerning China in general. However, there were examples to
substantiate the fact that excessive politeness was a trait
common to all Chinese people. Little Fish called his father
Honorable Fish in the story of Fish in the Air (36); Wah-Toong bowed three times and called the magician Honorable Sir in the
Good-Luck Horse (7), and the horse bowed three times to Wah-
Toong, his new master, thus paying him respect.
River life.r-The Chinese people use little effort and
energy to fish. They use big nets as traps for fish and wait
for them to be caught in the nets. These nets are tied to two bamboo poles which are stuck in the ground of the banks of the
^Supra, see "Social Life and Customs in Northern China — Conflict between old and new customs," p. 31. 58 river. This type of fishing is described in Kurt Wiese's Fish in the Air (36), which gives a vivid picture of Chinese life on the river.
In general, many of the customs and habits of the Chinese in northern and southern China have been found prevailing throughout China. This was particularly true of the supersti¬ tious beliefs, native dress and holidays. Very few of the oc¬ cupations vary because of region. Although farms in northern
China are larger than farms in southern China, practically every family cultivates a plot of land on which to grow food for the family.
The ensuing discussion will treat the Chinese in America, as discussed in the only book included in the juvenile fiction used in this study. The extent to which the Chinese bring their customs and beliefs to another country will be considered,.
The Chinese in America
There was only one book, The G-reen Ginger Jar (14), by
Clara Judson with a setting in America. The setting of this mystery story is in Chicago's Chinatown, the third largest China¬ town in the United States, which centers around Twenty-second
Street and Wentworth Avenue in Chicago,. In the beginning, there is the age-old argument about education, for the Old One believes that Ai-mei, the girl in the family, should stop school and allow Lu to continue his schooling so that he may obtain a medi¬ cal education. Another conflict between old and new customs came about when Ai-mei wanted to wear ner hair loose and in curls 59 instead of straight pigtails. There was a wedding in Chicago's
Chinatown and the bride decided to have an American wedding and dress in white.. However, the mother and grandmother thought the wedding should be Chinese style with the bride dressed in red, thus another dispute was caused by conflicting customs..
The idea of the oldest member of the family being head, and having rice at every meal are other customs brought out. The religious aspect was also included because the whole Chen family belonged to the Chinese Christian Union Church. As seen in The
Green Ginger Jar (14), several of the traditions that were ad¬ hered to in China are likewise observed by the Chinese who now live in America; however, as characteristic, the younger generation is still insisting that modern ways and methods be accepted, and the old ways abolished.
Conclusion
In paralleling the background readings with the contents from the selected titles, it was found that the juvenile fiction books gave more detailed information on customs and beliefs than the background readings, that both treated native dress and food with equal emphasis, and that the data in both correlated.
Very few books on northern China described marriage and patriotism, as compared with the descriptions of the same ele¬ ments in books about southern China; and river life was not considered as fully in books depicting life in northern China as in those treating southern China. This can be attributed to the fact that more people live on sampans in southern China than 60 in northern China. Holidays, superstitious beliefs, native dress and food of both north and south China and China in general were given lengthy discussions.
The juvenile fiction book which treated the Chinese in
America revealed that conflicts between old and new customs are as prevalent among the Chinese who live in America as found in
China in general, and the younger generation of Chinese are insisting upon the acceptance of new ideas and methods in lieu of the traditional Chinese ways.
There was little difference in the social life and customs in north and south China; however, the titles within the two distinct regions and China in general have something definite to offer toward an understanding of the culture of the Chinese people.
In general, the books of fiction are giving a factual picture of Chinese life and customs as indicated in encyclopedias for young people. 1 SHAA/6HAI ^ 2. MOMG- KûA/ff 3 CANTON 4 FOOCHOW 5 HAA/KûW/ N .SÙüTfiF RN LHINA foCHUA/fiK'lAlfi 7 MAAIKI/Vfl 8 SJ-KiANG 3 TSWGTflO"' iù PElPI/VGlPtKiNG) 11TIENTSIM ,TilF R N C M I /VA 32SIWKIANG
Pig. 1 62 TABLE 3 THE CLASSIFICATION OF JUVENILE FICTION PUBLISHED, 1940-1949, BY REGION, AUTHOR, TITLE, YEAR AND THEME 1 -r* : " : — Region Author Title Year Theme China in general Hahn Picture Story of China 1946 Social life and customs China in general Buck Chinese Children Next Door 1942 Social life and customs China in general Buck Yulan-Flying Boy of China 1945 Aviation as a vocation China in general Lattimore Questions of Lifu 1942 Little hoy as a soldier China in general Lattimore Peachblossom 1943 Patriotism China in general Chan Good-Luck Horse 1943 Definition of luck China in general Lattimore Story of Lee Ling 1940 How a little girl overcame shyness China in general Buck Water-Buffalo Children 1943 Superstitious be¬ lief in a magic stone China in general Buck Dragon Fish 1944 Two girls tired of their brothers China in general Wiese Fish in the Air 1948 Adventure of a boy and his kite Southern China Peking Stilwell Chin Ling 1947 Courage of a cricket Peking Young Tale of Tai 1940 Little boy lost at the fair Peking Stafford Ling Tang and the Lucky 1944 Social life and Cricket customs TABLE 3—Continued
Region Author Title Year Theme Peking Evernden Runaway Apprentice “Ï9W Adventures of a runaway boy Peking Oakes The Bamboo Gate 1946 Social life and customs Peking Lattimore Three Little Chinese Girls 1948 Social life and customs Peking Huggins The Red Chair Waits 1948 Break from tradi¬ tional marriage customs Tsingtao Ageton Mary Jo and Little Liu 1945 Chinese-American relationship Northern China Northern China in Creekmore Little Fu 1947 Life on the Min general River Canton Ward Boat Children of Canton 1944 Social life and customs Canton Chin Two Lands for Ming 1945 Social life and customs Banks of Yangtze Ritchie Treasure of Li-Po 1949 Six Fictitious tales Banks of Yangtze Sperry Bamboo, the Grass Tree 1942 The versatility of bamboo Chungking Lewis When the Typhoon Blows 1942 Experiences in war-torn China by a lad Hankow Urbahns The Little Red Dragon 1947 Honesty of adop¬ ted son Hankow Urbahns The Tangled Web 1943 Honesty of or¬ phan boy Island near Yangtze Thomas Story on the Willow Plate 1940 Love and courage of two lovers 63a
TABLE 3—Continued
Region Author Title Year Theme Outside Shanghai Poston Mystery of Eighth Horse 1949 Social life and customs Shanghai Poston Girl Without a Country 1944 Courage of an American girl in war-torn China Hong Kong Maloy Yankee Sails to China 1943 Adventures of hoy and girl on ship and in China Chinatown in America Chicago’s Chinatown Judson Green Ginger Jar 1949 Social life and customs in Chicago’s Chinatown 64
AN ANALYSIS OF THE PREDOMINANT ELEMENTS OF CHINESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS AS REVEALED IN SELECTED WORKS OF JUVENILE FICTION
Books Customs Ancestral Politeness Worship Conflict of Total Superstitions Food Excessive River Life Dress Religion or Patriotism Occupations Holidays Marriage
Region - China in General Chinese Children Next Door X X Picture Story of China X X X X Yu-Lan, Flying Boy of China X X The Questions of Lifu X X Peachblossom X X Good-Luok Horse X X X X Story of Lee Ling X X X Ching-Li X X Water-Buffalo Children X X Dragon Fish X X X X Pepper Moon X X X X Fish in the Air X X X 34 Region - Northern China Tale of Tai X X X Little Fu X X Ling Tang and the Lucky Cricket X X Runaway Apprentice X X X X X X Mary Jo and Little Liu X X 65
TABLE 4—Continued
Books Customs Worship Politeness Ancestral Conflict of Excessive Total Superstitions River Life Food Dress Occupations Patriotism Religion or Marriage Holidays
Chin Ling X X X Bamboo Gate X X X X Three Little Chinese Girls X X X X X The Red Chair Waits X X X X X X X Li Lun X X 36 Region - Southern China Honorable Goat X X X X X X Boat Children of Canton X X X Treasure of Li-Po X X When the Typhoon Blows X X X X X The Little Red Dragon X X X X X Mystery of the Eighth Horse X X X Yankee Sails to China X X X X X X X X X Secret of the Porcelain Fish X X X X X X X The Tangled Web X X X X X X Girl Without a Country X X X X X 66
TABLE 4—Continued
Books Customs Ancestral Worship Politeness Conflict of Excessive Superstitions Food Patriotism Total Dress River Life Occupations Religion or Marriage ' Holidays
Southern China Bamboo the Grass Tree X X X X x Two Lands for Ming X X X X X X X X X Story on the Willow Plate X X X 68 SUM TOTAL 14 19 6 23 15 17 13 6 12 7 6 CHAPTER IV
AUTHORS AND ILLUSTRATORS OF JUVENILE FICTION,
1940-1949, ON CHINESE LIFE AND CUSTOMS
It is necessary to have a general knowledge of the lives of the authors and illustrators in order to understand why and how these Chinese books of fiction were written. Certain per¬ sonal and professional qualities have led them to take an in¬ terest in and write about China. Therefore, biographies have been interwoven with the subject content of each book to show the influence that the background of a particular author or illustrator has unmistakably had in the writing of these juve¬ nile fiction books. The three groups represented in this chapter are: author-illustrators, authors, and illustrators.
Twenty-six writers and twenty-three illustrators are involved as a whole; however, nine comprise the author-illustrator group, and by profession, seventeen authors and fourteen illustrators are included.
Author-Illustrators
These authors have gained recognition by virtue of their writings as well as by their illustrations. Out of the twenty- six authors, nine fall under the classification of author-illus¬ trator. From this group, Eleanor F. Lattimore, Kurt Wiese, Lois
67 68
Maloy and Sperry Armstrong are the most outstanding. Brief biographical sketches of seven of these author-illustrators will follow.. Information was not obtainable for Lois Maloy and Leslie Thomas.
Eleanor Frances Lattimore.--Eleanor Lattimore, an American, was born in Shanghai, China, and lived there until she was six¬ teen years old. Since then her home has been in the United
States with her two sons, Peter and Michael. The last few years in China were spent in Peiyang University, near Tientsin. When she decided to write a book about China, Eleanor thought first about the country around Peiyang and of the villages nearby and the Chinese children she used to know, and wrote Little Pear, her first book.
Since 1931* when her first book was published, Miss Latti¬ more's stories and pictures, because they are simple, direct and warm in the understanding of young hearts and minds, have won thousands of friends among children here and in foreign lands. Many of Miss Lattimore's books are about Chinese chil¬ dren, including her first book and Three Little Chinese G-lrls
(18), published in 1948. Miss Lattimore has been equally suc¬ cessful in stories of American children. Some of these are:
Junior, Bayou Boy, Jeremy's Isle, and Davy of the Everglades.
Miss Lattimore is a gifted artist as well as writer. She illus¬ trated her own stories and her lovely drawings add greatly to the popularity of her books. Critics have often praised her feeling for background, which she presents with apparent 69 effortlessness. She explains this by saying: "I only write about, or draw the things I have actually seen or experienced.
Kurt Wlese.r-Kurt Wiese was born in Minden, Germany. His biography reads like an adventure story including his experiences in learning the export trade with China, Siberia, and Russia, as a prisoner of war in Australia, and as a traveler in Africa and South America.
Kurt Wiese is among America's best known and loured illus¬ trators. Primarily a good artist, his fine imagination and keen humor add a constantly varied appeal to his drawings. You can always trust Kurt Wiese to see the human side and especially the fun in an incident. The clever pictures that he has made for Phil Stong's priceless stories of Honk; the Moose, No-Sltch; the Hound and their other amusing American companions have created a fresh and needed enthusiasm for good and genuine humor in young people's books. Kurt Wiese has traveled with a sketch¬ book in which may be found a shy small girl in China, an odd animal in Australia or South America; a determined donkey, a superior hog, and sketches of small active boys in America.
Thus when Kurt Wiese is asked to illustrate a book he has not only his own first-hand sketches to work with, but also his keen imagination and Inimitable sense of humor. He is a fine artist and expert lithographer, making all of his own lithographic plates. He has illustrated over two hundred books. Wiese lives
^Stanley Kunitz, Junior Book of Authors (New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1934), p.,228. 70 on a farm in New Jersey where all the children around are his friends. They come every day to watch him work and bring him presents of animals to draw and befriend.'1’
Armstrong Sperry ..“-Armstrong Sperry was born and brought up in the rocky hills of New England. On one side of the family his grandfather and pjreat-grandfather were sea captains; on the other side were men of the soil. Today, he lives in New Hamp¬ shire with his wife and two children, Susan and John, and is still aware of these conflicting strains in his nature. He thoroughly enjoys .growing fine crops on the Vermont farm where he spends much of his time; but sooner or later he feels an irresistable pull toward the sea.
Ever since he was old enough to hold a pencil, Armstrong
Sperry has drawn pictures and scribbled stories. His first formal training was acquired at Yale Art School. After serving in the Navy during World War I, he studied at the Art Students
League in New York. He then spent two years drawing bottles and vacuum cleaners for an advertising agency until he became excited over the South Seas.
In 1925 he joined the Kaikiloa Expedition as an assistant ethnologist for the Bishop Museum of Honolulu. He sailed among the least known islands of the South Pacific, and learned the languages, the legends, and the music of these natives. He drew pictures and stored up memories that have found their way into
■^Letter from David McKay Company, New York, February 9» 1951. 71 many published books. His first-hand knowledge of Polynesia made possible The Rain Forest and Call It Courage. He is an artist and a craftsman who labors over each tiny detail, both in his pictures and his writings. The results certainly justify his efforts, for every Armstrong Sperry book is an artistic achievement.
Other children's books by Armstrong Sperry are Bamboo, the
Grass Tree (28) and Coconut, the Wonder Tree. These are two illustrated monographs on the native and world importance of these valuable and interesting trees."1'
Stanley Chin.--This young Chinese artist has used his ex¬ periences in China as a guide for his drawings in Two Lands for
King (8).. The attractive line drawings give added flavor to the understanding interpretation of the feeling of an individual who claims two homelands. Because the story parallels the life of Chin's so closely, it is thought that it is an autobiography..
One can accept the details of village life near Canton., before the war, as representative of Chinese life in a small village, for Chin probably has written as he saw and observed the people in this village.
Raymond Creekmore.r-Raymond Creekmore is the author and illustrator of Little Fu (9)» which is the story of a small boy's trip down the Min River. The author-artist's own trip down the Min River, under conditions similar to Fu's, gave him authentic background material to use for his beautiful illustra¬ tions. The author has written Lokoshi, a beautiful picture book,
-^Letter from Macmillan Company, New York, February 16, 1951. 72 which'tells the story of an Eskimo boy. Both stories are told in brief simple text with large lithographs..
In 1946, five years after Raymond Creekmore graduated from the Maryland Institute of Fine Art, he took a two-year trip around the world visiting Japan and China, and numerous other
Oriental and European countries. Drawings from this trip were exhibited in museums and galleries along the eastern seaboard..
These exhibits inspired the American Artist Magazine to do a feature article on Creekmore*s travels. During World War II,
Creekmore was an artist-correspondent for the official Air
Force magazine.. At present he teaches art at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New fork.
Alison Stilwell.--Alison Stilwell is the author and illus¬ trator of Chin Ling, the Chinese Cricket (30). She was born in 1921 in Peking, China. Her parents returned to the United
States when she was two years of age. At thirteen she started painting in oils and studied in California under Arthur Hill
Gilbert.
The Stilwell family returned to Peking in 1933, when her father was assigned there as a military attache. While attend¬ ing the Peking American School, she continued to paint in oils until 1936, when she was introduced to Prince P'u Ju, a famous
Chinese artist who specialized in landscapes and figures, and with whom she studied for three years. She also studied flower and bird painting with Yu Fei. In 1938 Miss Stilwell held her first one-man show in Peking. When she returned to the United 73
States in 1939, she held a total of thirty-two shows in New
York and other large cities throughout the country. Miss Stil- well has lectured and written numerous articles on Chinese art.
Chin Ling (30) is the first book for children by this talented
artist-author. The idea for the book was suggested by a younger brother who collected cricket cages and had cricket champions
of his own.'*'
Evelyn Young.--Evelyn Young was born in Teintsin, in North
China, in June, 1911.. Being an only child, she was encouraged to amuse herself quietly, and thus she developed a passion for
making pictures which illustrated the stories she made up for herself.
Throughout the years at school, in China and later in Eng¬
land, she drew and scribbled endlessly. For five years in China
again, Miss Young began to absorb and love things Chinese and worked at painting portraits and characteristic sketches of
Chinese types. The first book she illustrated was Chinese Nur¬
sery Rhymes which was published in China. She now lives in
China, and has written and illustrated two more picture-story books; they are Tale of Tal (38) and Wu and Lu and Li.- As in
all good picture books, the illustrations tell more of China,
in spirit, as well as in fact, than the text. The drawings are
small and glow with fresh soft tones. They have the simplicity
of outline of Chinese painting.
1Ibid. 74
Authors
The remaining seventeen authors will now be discussed from the viewpoint of their biographies and writings. Pearl Buck,
Martha Poston, and Vanya Oakes are the most prolific writers of this group.
Arthur Age ton.--Mary Jo and Little Liu (1) was written by the American sea captain, Arthur Ageton, for his little girl,
Mary Jo, to keep alive her memory and interest in China, where
she lived as a small girl. The incidents were based on actual happenings, when Mary Jo and her father and mother all lived in the "little house on Lai Yang Road."
Pearl Buck.-—An example of the influence which life in China has had upon some of these authors is explicit in the biographical
sketch of Fearl Buck. The early years which she spent in China had a great influence upon her later years. Her home on the
Yangtze River, in the city of Chinkiang, where her old Chinese nurse amused her with Chinese folk tales; her experiences in boarding school in Shanghai, and the part of her life which she
spent in teaching English literature in the University of Nanking and in the Southeastern University, produced for her a wealth of experiences from which she could draw upon for her writing. As a child, Pearl Buck wanted to write. She was a constant prize winner in the juvenile weekly edition of the Shanghai Mercury, but it was after the writing of her first full-length book,
East Wind, West Wind, that she received her first critical recog¬ nition. The book was accepted, but it did not arouse great public 75 attention. However, in 1951» her publication, The Good Earth, made literary history. It won for her the Pulitzer Prize, the
William Dean Howells Medal and the Nobel Award in literature, and it was filmed and became a popular movie.'1'
The majority of Pearl Buck's books deal with life and customs of the Chinese people.. Although the larger number is for adults, her Chinese Children Next Door (A) and Water Buffalo
Children (5) are very popular among children. Chinese Children
Next Door (4) is a story centered around the author's childhood days spent in China. The characters are the "little children next door" with whom Pearl and her many sisters played. There is little doubt that these events, which she has compiled for her big family of American cPxildren, are characteristic of
Chinese children's life, their habits, dress and customs.
V/ater Buffalo Children (5) is likewise a story of the author's childhood in China. A small white stone which she found in a field was not only accepted by Fearl as a magic stone, bringing her the adventure of a water buffalo, upon whose back a Chinese boy and girl rode; but it was also accepted by her as a possible theme for the story, Water Buffalo Children (5).
Martha Lee Poston.--The author, Martha Lee Poston, was born in Shanghai, China, and lived in Wusih, eighty miles from
Shanghai, where her father was a medical missionary. After graduating from the Shanghai-American School, she taught for a
■'■Stanley Kunitz*. Twentieth Century Authors (New fork: H. W. Wilson Co., 1942), p.,216. 76 year in a Chinese girls’ school in Wusih. When she was nineteen she returned, to America, and in 1930 was graduated from Sweet Briar College, near Lynchburg, Virginia. Mrs. Poston's previous book, The G-irl Without a Country (25), the story of an American girl's escape from China after Pearl Harbor, was most successful, as was also her gay picture book, Ching-Li (24), the story of a little Chinese boy. She bias two children to whom her new book, Mystery of the Eighth Horse (26) is dedicated.^" Vanya Oakes .--Virginia Armstrong Oakes or Vanya Oakes was born in September, 1909» in Nutley, New Jersey. Miss Oakes studied at Cambridge School, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and at the University of California. For nine years Vanya Oakes traveled through the Malays, the Dutch East Indies, Tibet, Burma, Thailand, China, through the "Northwest route" to Moscow, and to the Philippines. She traveled by boat, by car and by plane, covering over 50,000 miles;.
"Trouble eluded me," claims Miss Oakes," but when the world-shaping events took place, I was always there." She traveled with the Chinese government on its trek from Shanghai to the interior; she went down the Burma Road when it was first opened; and recently made survey flights over India from China.. Throughout this time she reported for some of the leading news organs in the United States, the United Press, North American Newspaper Alliance, and the Christian Science Monitor. During
■^Letter from Thomas Nelson Sons, New York, February 26, 1951. 77 the Japanese campaign in Indo-China, Miss Cakes reported from the scene, and also covered the negotiations between Japan and the Dutch East Indies.
She contributed to leading magazines throughout the country, and in 194-3 wrote White Man's Folly. Since her return she has lectured on her travels. By describing actual conditions and dispelling rumor and fancy, she creates a better understanding of the peoples and problems of the East. She is convinced that one of the most urgent needs today is to make children aware, at an early age, of the rest of the world and its peoples. Thus,
The Bamboo Gate (21), an expert collection of Chinese stories, and By Sun and Star (^2), which shows the wartime student-migra¬ tion to China's west, were written.
Estelle Urbahns.r-Born in Butte, Montana, Estelle Urbahns is a graduate of the Normal Department of the University of
Utah and studied at the University of California in Berkeley.
She has taught in the Salt Lake City schools, and has lived for some years in California, where she is a member of American
Penwomen and the Writers Conference of the West..
Estelle Urbahns has sold many stories for boys and girls, some of which have been widely reprinted by reputable groups such as the National Story Tellers League of America. In 1938 she won second prize in the Juvenile Short Story Contest of the
National League of American Penwomen. Although Miss Urbahns' writing stems from vicarious experiences, The Little Red Dragon
(33) and The Tangled >»ebb (34), which are similar in plot and 78 setting, give an indication that she is fully equipped to write on Chinese life and customs.'1'
Margery Evernden.r-Margery Evernden's Runaway Apprentice
(10) is a beautifully written story of old China into which are woven many fascinating details about the life of an itinerant shadow player. Although The Secret of the Porcelain Fish (11) was her first book, she has had a number of short stories and articles published. "The germ idea for The Secret of the Por¬ celain Fish (11) came to me," she says, "when I was taking a course in pottery making at a settlement house in Pittsburg,
Pennsylvania. The whole process seemed to me so fascinating that I thought children would surely like to know about it.
Since no one has ever made more beautiful porcels.ins than the
Chinese, and since I have always been attracted to Oriental art and poetry, it seemed only natural to use China as a set- p ting for a story about pottery."
Elizabeth Foreman Lewis.--Born and reared in Maryland, now living near Annapolis, is a writer of whom it might be said with earnestness, "They will find China v/ritten on her heart," for
Elizabeth Foreman Lewis, who is known here and abroad as "the foremost interpreter of China to young people," has concentrated on that purpose for years.
Once speaking in the crowded ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel
_ Letter from E. F. Dutton, Lew York, February 20, 1951.
^Book Jacket of Margery Evernden, The Secret of the Porcelain Fish (New York: Random, 1947). 79 in Washington, D. C., Mrs. Lewis admitted ruefully:
An audience must always he prepared to have me take any subject assigned and twist it into a Chinese design. If asked to speak on American steel (about which I know nothing), I should inevitably talk on Han Dynasty bronzes, about which I know a little more. For China, as well as everything related to it, has become my incurable obsession. There is a well-known saying to the effect that the Chinese throughout their long history have slowly but in¬ evitably absorbed all their enemies. It has been my own experience that they do the same with their friends. By what alchemy or virus this is accom¬ plished I cannot point out with exactitude, but all of you, I feel sure, have met former residents of that land who, ordinarily prosaic enough, wax lyrical whenever its name is mentioned.
China does seem to exert a strange fascination over most foreigners, but it can hardly be credited with bestov/ing liter¬ ary talent. Elizabeth Lewis's prose has been described in the
New York Herald Tribune by Carl Crow, also familiar with the
Chinese scene, as "art that is more than mere skill" and by
London critics as "felicitous in style" and "notable writing for this day." Her books have become standard literary texts in places as far apart as the United States and South Africa,
England and New South Wales. They have been translated into a dozen languages and transcribed into braille here and in England.
This record seems to indicate the presence of something more than interesting subject matter.
Mrs. Lewis was born and reared in Baltimore, Maryland. Of all the cities she has known since on this continent or in Asia she still considers Baltimore the most desirable for residence..
"'"Letter from John Winston Comoany, New York, February 14, 1951. 80
"Chungking;» of course," she hastens to add, "comes next." Here one has to smile for Mrs. Lewis has an almost fanatical devotion to Chungking, and she has probably written more about that city,
Free China's capital, than any other author.
When asked about her work, she tells you that she was li¬ terally pushed into each step of the way. She began writing stories about China at the suggestion of an editor-in-chief of the Winston Company. Her publishing demands still remain several times as great as illness and household duties permit her to produce. Every short story she has written has been reprinted elsewhere in anthologies, prize collections, or school readers.
Repeatedly Mrs. Lewis turned deaf ears to requests for a full-length book. "l haven't any idea how to go about writing a book," she told one persistent publisher. "Even if I had,
I could not find time in which to do it." Finally three dif¬ ferent publishers asked her to make a full-length manuscript of some short stories about Fu, a coppersmith's apprentice in
Chungking. This became Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze, which was at once accepted by the Literary Guild and received the
Newberry Medal for 1932 as "the most distinguished contribution to juvenile literature for that year." In England it became the Junior Book of the Month, and in Germany, the "Book of the
Month" for both young and old. It was translated into a number of different languages and transcribed into braille here and abroad. - The former Chinese ambassador to the United States,
Dr. Sze, called "Young Fu," "China's Huckleberry Finn.!'1
iIbid. 81
Ho-Ming;, Girl of New China was published in 1934- and was followed In 1937 by China Cjuest, Mrs. Lewis's third volume on
China for young people. A collection of short stories and sketches for adults, Portraits from a Chinese Scroll appeared in 1938. In October, 1942, her fourth book for young people,
When the Typhoon Blows (19), came off the presses. These four books are not serials in any sense, but they give the reader a continuing history of China's social and political changes from 1930 to 1942. At the moment Mrs. Lewis is at work on a new book about China.^
Clara Ingram Judson.--One of Clara Judson's stories about
Americans of foreign extraction, which is always a delight, is
Green Ginger Jar (14).. She has the gift of creating human, lovable American children who yet manage to retain the flavor and charm of the parents' old-country ways. Of all the long list of books in which Clara. Judson has introduced children of many nationalities, this one is outstanding. The mystery of the ginger jar aids in increasing the popularity of this book which gives a good understanding of the Chinese-American people and their way of living. "The atmosphere is so real, the adven¬ tures so pla.usible, that the young reader will close the book 2 reluctantly, wishing it could go on and on."
Clara Ingram Judson, the author, was born in Logansport,
1Ibld. p New York Times, October 2, 1949, p. 28. . 82
Indiana.. She graduated from the Girls’ Classical School in
1898 and married in 1901. Mrs. Judson is the author of fifty- seven hooks, many of which deal with children of other lands.
She is a contributor to magazines, as writer of feature stories for children, and is the originator of the following newspaper features: "Read It To Me Now," Woodland Fairies," and "Bed Time
Tales."
Clara Judson is writer and lecturer on literary topics, home economics, child training, and is frequently featured in radio programs. The creed that guides her personal and profes¬ sional life is best summed up in her own words: "I feel so deeply that as we help children to understand our neighbors, we help in the understanding of world problems. Peace, real last¬ ing peace, is a growth from the hearth and spreads to the neigh¬ borhood, the community, the town, the country, and some day throughout the world, and our hope lies in the children."^
Emily Hahn.r-'Picture Story of China (12) is for my daughter,
Carola," Emily Hahn said to herself as she wrote the gay and happy story of China where she had lived for nine years and where her small daughter was born. And Carola loves to have read to her this interesting story of the China she was too young to remember clearly. As a wise and world-wide traveler,
Emily Hahn has written of many countries.. She has written many books about her travels, among them several important books about
■'"Anna Rothe (ed.), Current Biography (New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 19^8), 332. 83
China - The Soong Sisters, Mr. Pan and China to Me. Iicture
Story of China (12) is her first story of China for children.
The pictures in color, including a map and a history of the events in China's development in small strip drawings, were done by Kurt Wiese, whose biographical sketch has already been given..
Emily Hahn was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, and has two children, Amanda and Carola. She was writer of stories and scenarios for New York and Hollywood, instructor of writing at
Customs College in Shanghai and Chungking, and instructor at
Customs University in Hong Kong. Miss Halm has done newspaper work and traveled in England, Europe and in North Africa, and has contributed articles and fiction to the New Yorker, Harper1s,
The China Quarterly, and Mademoiselle
Alice Margaret Huggins.r-Ml3s Huggins feels that mission¬ aries and other workers who live in China have much responsibil¬ ity in interpreting that country to our Chinese friends. In
The Red Chair Walts (13), she, Dr. Robinson and Dr. Ballou have tried to present the Chinese as they had become acquainted with them through twenty-five years of association. They present the
Chinese, not as exotic, or queer or inscrutable, but as pleasant, friendly people whose chief difference from Americans lies in their background and history. "Most of all," says Miss Huggins, author of The Red Chair Waits (13), "I hoped that the Americans
•%ho's Who in America (Chicago: Marquis Co., 1950), Vol. XXVI, 1100. 84 who read the booh would like the Chinese in it, and would think they would enjoy having 3uch people as friends."'1'
Miss Huggins was born on a farm about thirty miles from
Topeka, Kansas. When she was eight, the family moved to Topeka, with the express purpose of putting Alice and her sister into better schools than there were in the country. After college
she taught for four years and worked for one year in the Topeka,
Kansas, Y. W. C. A., after which she left for China. Shortly
after her arrival in China, Miss Huggins was made principal of
G-oodrich Girls' School at T'unghsien, fourteen miles east of
Peking. It was a boarding school of grammar grades, to which was added a junior high school.
On her first furlough, Miss Huggins spent a term at Colum¬
bia University, and on the second furlough she finished the
work for the degree of Master of Arts in rural education.. She
has always worked in the G-oodrich School in China, and has seen
hundreds of students go from there to further study, or out to
work. She is now dean of the School, which has 425 students.
In 1941 she started home, was caught in Manila when Pearl
Harbor was attacked, and spent nearly two years there, living
most of the time in the Presbyterian Mission Compound. Before
leaving on the second Gripsholm exchange, Dr. Hugh L. Robinson,
Dr. Earle Hoit Ballou and Miss Huggins wrote four books about
Chinese school and hospital life. They had to leave their manu¬
scripts, and hardly dared to hope that they would ever see them
■'•Letter from Westminister Press, Philadelphia, February 10, 1951. 85 again. But the manuscripts were all saved by friends, both inaide and outside the Santo Tomas Internment Gamp. From 1943 to 1946 Miss Huggins worked in the Chinese Division of the Of¬ fice of War Information in San Francisco, and later taught
Chinese at Yale University. As soon as the Japanese surrendered, she prepared to return to China and was the third American back at her station.
Esther Wood.--Esther Wood (in private life Mrs. George W.
Brady of Upper Montcle„ir, New Jersey) was born in Akron, Ohio, the daughter of a minister.. She attended many schools before entering the University of Rochester, and later, Boston Univer¬ sity. She spent several years in New York and then went to the
Orient upon an invitation from friends.
Her favorite hobby was writing children's stories, and she collected a suitcase of notes and sketches which accompanied her on a trip around the world. Her experiences and keen obser¬ vation furnish unusually interesting material for her stories.
Her stories of Chinese children are no exception, and Pepper
Moon (37) reveals the same quiet humor and penetrating under¬ standing of small children that characterize all her writings.
Pepper Moon is a little Chinese boy who is so in need of a pet of his own that the family begins to find snails in the teacups, mice in grandmother's sewing box, and frogs in shoes. When
Pepper Moon turns up one day with a water buffalo, things begin to happen. The drawings of Laura Bannon are in perfect harmony with the story, and the result is a charming and colorful book 86
for younger children. Books by Esther Wood also Include Great
Sweeping Day ; Pedro*s Coconut Skates; and Silk and Satin Lane.
Marion Boss Ward.--Marlon Boss Ward, author of Boat Chil¬ dren of Canton (35), was born in Binghamton, New York. She
attended Syracuse University and after graduation taught English
for a while. World War I found her in government service in
Washington; later, an urge to travel took her to Hawaii, Japan, the Philippines, and to China where she studied at Nanking Uni¬ versity. As a teacher she came to know Chinese boys and girls
and was a frequent visitor in their homes. Mrs. Ward's Chinese name is Mui Lang which means beautiful orchid. She often gives
illustrated lectures on Chinese life and customs when she ex¬ hibits her book, Boat Children of Canton (35), and her interest¬
ing collection of Chinese objects of art acquired during her travels
Carolyn Trefflnger.--Carolyn Treffinger has been in close
contact with children for many years through her work as teacher
and principal of an elementary school in the Middle West. Her
professional storytelling in libraries, schools and churches has also given her intimate knowledge of children's taste in
literature.
During the long summer vacations Miss Treffinger has trav¬
eled extensively, an activity which is reflected in her writing.
Much of her reading, too, has been of other countries and peoples.
In fact, an article of unknown source in a missionary paper some
■^■Letter from David McKay Company, New York, February 9, 1951. 87 years ago gave her the idea for Ll Lun (32). 'bceans of research followed," says Miss Treffinger. The geographical data, charac¬ terization of the fisher folk, superstitions and folklore are authentic, not only according to printed authoritative sources hut also according to persons who know intimately the Chinese island where the story has its setting.^
Kurt Wiese, who illustrated Li Lun (32), loves to draw pictures for children's hooks, particularly about countries where he has lived. Some of the details of Treffinger's story are based on sketches made by Mr. Wiese during the six years he spent in China.
Alice Ritchie.--Alice Ritchie was born in South Africa in
1857, the eldest daughter of an English mother and a Scotch architect father.. The family returned to this country (England) in 1917, and the following year Alice went to Newnham College,
Cambridge, where she took degrees in history and French. From
1922 to 1924 she was on the Secretariat of the League of Nations.
From 1926 to 1931 she was first associated in an editorial ca¬ pacity with a journal called "Women's International News" and later worked with the Hogarth Press where she met Virginia Woolf, whose writing she had always admired. She published two novels with Hogarth, The Peace-Makers in 1928 and Occupied Territory in
1930, both of which were favorably received by discerning critics and achieved a modest commercial success. After 1931 she did some reviewing and broadcasting but devoted herself mainly to
^Letter from Abingdon-Cokesbury, New York, February 15, 1951. 88 writing, though, unfortunately, without published results.
This was because she became so self-critical of her work that she tore up almost everything she wrote. She died from cancer of the spine in 194-1, at the early age of 46. The Treasure of
Li-Po (27), a series of stories, was found by her sister in an old trunk. These were the only things she had not torn up.
These stories show, without any doubt, what she might have achieved had she lived.
Kay Stafford.—In 1930, when lemonade stand competition became too keen in Westminister Ridge, Kay Stafford startled the neighborhood with "The Ridge News." This little sheet, which told all, both horrified and intrigued its numerous readers, and to the gratification of its author, financed many a soda. In time this activity was supplanted by high school and college activities and Kay went to Edgewood Park and selected journalism as a major.
Vacation time found Miss Stafford in South America where she learned to fly a sea plane. In turn she became a hospital receptionist, an aluminum welder, a copy writer, a play reviewer, and a book store saleswoman, before settling down to write Ling
Tang and the Lucky Cricket (29)
Illustrators
From the group of illustrators represented in juvenile fiction on China, 1940-1949, Weda Yap, Jeanyee Wong, and Thomas
^Letter from Whittlesey House, New York, February 12, 1951. 89
Handforth are the most prominent. The ensuing paragraphs will
Include brief biographical sketches of' the illustrators in general.
Weda Yap,--The artist, Weda Yap, was born Louise Drew Cook in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a descendant of Mayflower Yankees, among whom were John Alden and Elder Brewster. Her professional signature, wixich in ideographs means a witty and sagacious page, was acquired from the Chinese, for she lived in China several years.
Her childhood desire to become an illustrator was encour¬ aged in her artistic family, leading her to attend a full-time course at the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art in her early teens. Later, and at interims, followed private instruc¬ tion in portrait painting, in making miniatures on ivory, and in graphic arts. There was a brief season at the Art Students'
League before going to Europe. Then came six years of travel and residence in the Far East, principally in China.
Mrs. Yap also inherited from her sea-faring ancestors an enthusiasm for the American maritime tradition, so that during
World War II she worked as a qualified marine draftsman in a war plant for two years. In addition to Mystery of the Eighth
Horse (26) and Çhing-Li (24), she has illustrated over thirty books
Thomas Handforth.--The illustrator, Thomas Handforth, an
American artist, has gained recognition as an etcher, lithographer,
■^-Letter from Thomas Nelson Sons,' New York, February 26, 1951. 90 illustrator, and portrait painter. Because of his etchings of
Mount Popocatepetl, Mexico, in 1931, he was awaraed a Guggenheim
Fellowship for travel in the Orient. His best known illustra¬ tions, influenced by his visit to China, are for the book, Mel
Li, of which he is also the author. In 1939 this book won the
Caldecott Medal for its illustrations. Handforth was born at
Tacoma, Washington, and attended art schools in New York City and Paris. He is the author-illustrator of Far aw ay Me adow s, and he has also illustrated books of other authors.^
Plato Chan.:—The Good-Luck Horse (7), an old Chinese legend adapted by Madame Chan and beautifully illustrated with pictures by Flato Chan, was published when Plato was twelve years old.
His background, a blend of Chinese and western culture are re¬ flected in his illustrations. He draws with the precision of line characteristic of Oriental masters, combined with the dash and action of modern artists.
His father, attached to the Chinese diplomatic corps, served in many posts -- among them one in New York, where Plato was born. At the outbreak of World War II, he was attached to the Chinese Embassy in Paris. When France was defeated and he was held a prisoner of war, Madame Chih-yi Chan and her two children, Christina and Plato, took refuge in London.
Here Flato at the age of eight gave several exhibits, rais¬ ing money for war relief organizations. His work was widely
"Thomas Handforth," World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. VIII (1948), 3259. 91 acclaimed in the British press and publicly admired by many noted artists. David Low, eminent cartoonist, has said of Plato
"At eight years old he has a bolder conception of the principles of art than many artists have at eighty."
Paul Brown.--Paul Brown, American author and illustrator of G-reen Ginger Jar (14), became best known for his drawings of horses in action. His works also include drawings and water colors of various sports. He is the author and illustrator of a number of books for children and has illustrated many books by other writers. He was born in Mapleton, Minnesota, but was educated in New York City.'*'
Tyrus Wong.'—Tyrus Wong, illustrator of Vanya Cakes' Foot - prints of the Dragon (23), was born in Canton, China. He re¬ ceived his schooling at the Los Angeles County Art Institute formerly known as Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, California.
His comments about Footprints of the Dragon (23) are:
The story was especially interesting to me because it parallels the experiences of so many California Chinese -- not contemporary perhaps, but those of our fathers or grandfathers; and also because the book is written from the standpoint of the Chinese. I came to this country from China as a young boy so I have a kindred feeling with the leading character of the book. Ameri¬ ca and Americans were so strange to me that it didn't occur to me that I was a strange creature with strange habits to Americans.2
Tyrus Wong has been the recipient of many prizes. The
Western Family Magazine cover, designed by Tyrus Wong, won a
l"Paul Brown," World Book Encyclopedia, Vol. II, (1948), 1025
2Letter from Macmillan Company, New York, February 16, 1951. 92 first prize at the Los Angeles Art Directors Club show. The
Chicago Art Directors Club also gave him an award in 194-7 for
"The Haunted House" which he did for the February issue of
Coronet. In Kay, 1949, he was given the Raulston Prize, an
Alumni Award, at Los Angeles County Art Institute for a water color drawing, and he also won a first prize for a lithograph.
Tyrus Wong worked for three years for the Walt Disney Studios doing mood sketches for "Bambi," and is now a pre-production illustrator for Republic Studios. He also finds time to devote to woodcraft.
Dong Kingman.—Dong Kingman, illustrator of Bamboo Gate
(21), was born in Oakland, California, in 1911. At the age of five he returned to China to be educated and remained there for thirteen years. In 1929 he returned to the United States and studied under Chinese traditionalists. He is now nationally recognized as one of our finest water-colorists, having received two Guggenheim Fellowships and several important water-color prizes. He is represented in collections of the Metropolitan
Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, Boston Museum of
Fine Arts, Art Institute of Chicago, San Francisco Museum, and in many others. He has also taught water-coloring at the Fine
Arts Gallery, at Mills College, University of Wyoming, and Colum¬ bia University. He has been praised for his strong colors and feeling of motion, and is considered the foremost modern Chinese-
American artist.'*' Mr. Kingman has recently been released from r__ 93 the United States Army.
Margaret Ayer.--Marparet Ayer, the sister of Phyllis Ayer
Sowers (author), illustrated Mrs. Poston's hook, The Girl With¬
out a Country (25). she has also illustrated many of her sis¬
ter's hooks, and like Phyllis, has lived in many strange places..
When she was old enough to leave her family, she came to Phila¬
delphia to study art, and later studied in Paris and Rome. When
she decided on illustration for her career she settled in the
United States and has become one of the most popular illustra¬ tors for children's hooks. She later illustrated Anna and the
King of Slam and acted in an advisory capacity for the moving
picture production based on that book.
Frank Lleberman.--Frank Lieberman, who illustrated Urbahns'
The Tangled Web (34-)» was born in Atlanta, Georgia. He studied
in art schools in Baltimore, Maryland, and New fork City, after which he continued his art study in Munich and Vienna. Having
a keen interest in China and in Oriental design, Mr. Lieberman displayed his ability to illustrate Miss Urbahn's book on Chi¬ nese life. He now lives in New York City.'1'
Louise Zlbold.--Louise Zibold studied art at Skidmore Col¬
lege and later transferred to the University of Pennsylvania
for a pre-medical course. She and Kay Stafford, a forementioned writer of children's books, established a lasting partnership with Ling Tang and the Lucky Cricket (29), Kay doing the writing
Letter from E. P. Dutton, New York, February 20, 1951. 94 and Louise taking care of trie illustrations. This book was a reflection of their childhood desires and mutual friendship.^
Summary
From the author-il lustrât or group, there were seven Ameri¬ cans, one German, and one Chinese. Five author-illustrators actually lived in China and two only traveled in Cuina. By reputation and profession, four were known as eminent illustra¬ tors and three others were widely acclaimed by literary critics for their writings. Among the author-illustrators three were parents.
Considering the group of authors mentioned, Madame Chan was the only author of Chinese origin, and the other sixteen authors were Americans. Sight authors lived in China, and three traveled in China; the remaining six wrote without actual con¬ tact or experience in China; however, they wrote successfully.
The professions of these authors included five teachers, four writers, a captain on a ship, a school principal, a newspaper reporter, an editor, and a play reviewer and book store sales¬ woman. This grour contained six parents, the majority of whom wrote the books primarily for their children's enjoyment.
Four of the fourteen illustrators were native-born Chinese and the other ten were Americans. Five illustrators lived in
China for a period of time, and only two traveled in the Crient.
The majority of these illustrators were artists by profession..
Only two illustrators were parents.
^Letter from Whittlesey House, New York, February 12, 1951. 95 The preceding biographical sketches prove conclusively that the majority of these authors and illustrators have had a sincere interest in China and the Chinese people by virtue of the fact that they have either lived or traveled in China. It is characteristic of the whole group of illustrators and authors to make their work authentic with regard to the details of Chinese life and customs. It can be concluded that the personal lives and the professional activities of these writers and illustrators have had a positive effect on their success in writing about Chinese life and customs. CHAPTER V
SUMMARY
The object of the preceding chapters has been to present a composite picture of Chinese life and customs as revealed in juvenile fiction books, and as compared with background readings to determine the type of information projected; to find out how many books were published during 194-0-1949». the number of books that considered various traits of Chinese culture, and whether or not these traits were treated realistically.
Based on the facts obtained in the study through the analy¬ sis of readings, the following conclusions are drawn. There has been an increase in the number of fiction books concerning
Chinese life and customs as indicated in Table 1, which shows that thirty-eight books were published from 1940-1949 and only twenty-three were published from 1930-1939; an increase of ap¬ proximately 1,7 per cent in the publication of juvenile Chinese books of fiction.
In comparing the content of the 1940-1949 publications in Appendix I with the content of the 1925-1939 publications in
Appendix III, there is an apparent transition in the type of subject matter. The books written in the earlier period concen¬ trate on family life and customs. During the later period, however, the scope of the content is broadened considerably to include along with family life, general social life and customs, 96 accounts of Chinese-Amerlean children, attempts to understand the world outside of China, and the effects of war on the people.
During this period the book Illustrations are more colorful and numerous.
The most productive publishers during this ten-year period were Harcourt, Brace and Company, publisher of five books; Mac¬
millan Company, publisher of five books; John Day Company, pub¬ lisher of four books; and Thomas Nelson and Sons, publisher of three books (see Appendix II). The other publishers claimed one or two books each.
Based on interpretations from encyclopedias, fiction and non-fiction books, and magazine articles, the background of
Chinese life and customs in Chapter II included discussions of the factual material secured from juvenile encyclopedias on
China and the social life and customs of the Chinese people in¬
cluding topography, climate, agriculture, trade and industry,
government, home life, art, language, and social life and customs.
In the descriptive analysis of the thirty-eight books of
Juvenile fiction on China, some common indicators of Chinese
life were selected on the basis of the material suggested in the
juvenile encyclopedias and in tne content of the fiction itself.
The following characteristics or indicators were used for this
analysis; holidays, superstitious beliefs, conflict between old
and new customs, food, dress, occupations, religion and ancestral worship, patriotism, trait of excessive politeness, river lire
ana marriage.. 98
Twenty-three books presented food, nineteen revealed super¬ stitious beliefs, seventeen described various occupations typi¬ cal of tne Chinese people, fifteen pointed out customs of dress, fourteen books included tne portrayal of holidays, thirteen in¬ terpreted religion and ancestral worship, twelve revealed the trait of excessive politeness, seven portrayed river rife, six presented the conflict between old ana new customs, six depicted patriotism, and six books included accounts of marriage customs,
(see Table 4). This table snows tnat food, superstitious beliefs, occupations, dress, portrayal or holidays, religion and ancestral worship, and the trait of excessive politeness were tne predominant characteristics of the Chinese people re¬ vealed in the books analyzed. In the thirty-eight books used in this study, a phase or life not recognized in the titles concerned was the political scene in Chins.
The books, according to the setting given, were divided into three groups, representing the northern region, the south¬ ern region and those pertaining to China in general. A total of sixty-eight references were made to the preceding predominant elements in books on southern China; references were aiade thirty- six times in books on northern China to these categories, and thirty-four references to these characteristics were maae to books on China in general.
The location of the settings of the books were designated on a map of China (see Fig. 1 in Chapter III). Conclusions were drawn from the map to show regions that were most frequently 99 represented in the books analyzed, and these conclusions were made in taouiar form in Table 3. Peking (Peiping) was tne set¬ ting used in seven books, Shanghai in two books, Hankow in two books; two books had their settings on the banks of the Yangtze
River, two books used Canton, ana Chungking, Hong Kong, and
Tslngtao were each used once as a setting for a book. The map of China indicated other important cities which were mentioned in the texts but were not used as specific settings..
Twenty-nine books were concerned with boys as the main character, since they are responsible for carrying on the family line, and therefore, are considered more worthy than girls, while social life and customs was the general theme in nine books.
Table 5 reveals the availability of books for grades need¬ ing information on Chinese life and customs. Twelve books were so simply written that they could be easily understood by chil¬ dren in grades one through tour. Eight books were suitable for grades seven through nine. This particular group of fiction books could oe used to supplement students' texts in geography or social studies. However, the table shows Insufficient materi¬ als published for intermediate grades, four through six. Publi¬ cations designed for these grades are limited to two.
The most prolific writers in the group were: Pearl Buck who wrote four books, Eleanor Frances Lattimore who wrote lour,
Vanya Oakes, author of three books, and Martha Lee Poston, author of three books. Eleanor F. Lattimore, Elizabeth Foreman Lewis, 100 and Kurt Wiese were among the first writers in the field.
Each has continued to write aoout Chinese life and customs, (consult Appendixes I and III).
TABLE 5 TABLE OF GRADE LEVELS Grade Levels Dumber cl Books (1-4) .. . . 12 (3-5) .. 10 (4-6) .. . . 2 (5-7) 6 (7-9) 8
The most prolific illustrators of the ten-year period,
1940-1549, were Kurt Wiese, who illustrated four books, E. F.
Lattimore, illustrator of four books, and Weda Yap, who illus¬ trated three books. William A. Smith and Jeanyee Wong each illustrated two books.
There were nine author-illustrators. They were: Stanley
Chin, Raymond Creekmore, Eleanor F. Lattimore, Lois Maloy,
Armstrong Sperry, Alison Stilweli, Leslie Thomas, Kurt Wiese, and Evelyn Young. Sixteen authors and ten illustrators were born in or either traveled throughout China. This assures one that information was written arid pictures were drawn authenti¬ cally. In the final analysis, the fact that the majority of authors and illustrators were parents or school teachers must not be overlooked. By having children of their own and by coming in contact with children at school, each 01 these authors and illustrators received firsthand experience in observing reactions 101 of children to various books and reading materials. From this knowledge, their writings and pictures were more suitable for the reading interests or children. With the understanding that the negative aspects of Chi¬ nese life, such as the horrors of war, poor economic conditions, and unsanitary practices, were not stressed in the juvenile books of fiction, it is recommended that these thirty-eight books devoted to Chinese life and customs be read for the two most important values in the selection of books: Information and recreation. The information in this group of books has been found to be accurate. The delightful stories and charm¬ ing illustrations are excellent lor recreational reading. APPENDIX I
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BOOKS OF FICTION
PUBLISHED DURING 1940-1549
(1) Ageton, Arthur A., Mary Jo and Little Liu. Pictures by Clive Bailey. Whittlesey House, 1945. (1-4)
(2) Bliss, Helen (Cory), Honorable Goat. Illus. by A. A. Watson. Crowell, 1940. (4-6)
(3) Buck, Pearl, Dragon Fish. Illus. by Esther B. Bird. Day, 1944. (2^T)
(4) Buck, Pearl, Chinese Children Next Door. Drawings by William A. Smith. Day, 1942.. (1-4)
(3) Buck, Pearl, Water-Buffalo Children. Drawings by William A. Smith. Day, 1943. (3-5)
(6) Buck, Pearl, Yu-Lan, Flying Boy of China. Illus. by George T. Hartmarû Day , 19457 (3-4)
(7) Chan, Chih-yi, Good-Luck Horse. Illus. by Flato Chan. McGraw, 194JT (2-4)
(8) Chin, Stanley Hong, Two Lands for King. Illus. by author. Scribner, 1945. (5-7)
(9) Creekmore, Raymond, Little Fu. Lithographs by author. Macmillan, 1947.
(10) Evernden, Margery, Run aw ay Appr e nt1ce. Illus. by Jeanyee Wong. Random, 1947. (4-6)
(11) Evernden, Margery, Secret of the Porcelain Fish. . Illus. by Thomas Handforth. Random, 1947. (4-6)
(12) Hahn, Emily, Picture Story of China. Pictures by Kurt Wiese. McKay, 1946. (4-6)
(13) Huggins, Alice Margaret, The Red Chair Walts. Decorations by Jeanyee 'Wong. Westminister, 1948. [6-9)
102 103
(14) Judson, Clara Ingram, Green Ginger Jar. Illus. by Paul Brown.. Houghton, 1549. (6-9)
(15) Lattimore, Eleanor Frances, Feachblossom. Illus. by author. Harcourt, 1943. (3-4)
(16) Lattlmore, Eleanor Frances, The Questions of Llfu. Illus. by author. Harcourt, 1942. (3-5)
(17) Lattlmore, Eleanor Frances, The Story of Lee Ling. Illus. by author. Harcourt, 1940. (3-5) (18) Lattlmore, Eleanor Frances, Three Little Chinese Girls. Illus. by author. Harcourt, 1940. (3-5)
(19) Lewis, Elizabeth (Foreman), When the Typhoon Blows. Illus. by Kurt Wiese. Winston, 1942. (7-9) (20) Maloy, Lois, Yankee Sails to China. Illus. by author. 3 cr ibner, 1943 • (3-7 ) (21) Cakes, Vanya, The Bamboo Gate. Illus. by Dong Kingman. Macmillan, 1946. (5-7)
(22) Cakes, Vanya, By Sun and Star. No illustrator stated. Macmi11an, 1948. (7-9)
(23) Cakes, Vanya, Footprints of the Dragon. Illus. by Tyrus Wong. 'Winston, 1949. (6-9) (24) Poston, Martha (Lee), Chlng-Ll. Pictures by Weda Yap. Nelson, 1941. (l-3l (25) Poston, Martha (Lee), The G-irl Without a Country. Illus. by Margaret Ayer. Nelson, 1944. (7-9) (26) Poston, Martha (Lee), The Mystery of the Eighth Horse. Illus. by Weda Yap7 Nelson, 1949. (7-9) (27) Ritchie, Alice, Treasure of Ll-Po. Illus. by T. Ritchie. Harcourt, 1949. (4-7) (28) Sperry, Armstrong, Bamboo, the Grass Tree. Illus. by author. Macmillan, 1942. (3-5)
(29) Stafford, Kay, Ling Tang and the Lucky Cricket. Illus. by Louise Zibold. McGraw, 1944. (3-5) (30) Stilwell, Alison, Chin Ling, the Chinese Cricket. Illus. by author. Macmillan, 1947. (2-4) 104
(31) Thomas, Leslie, The Story on the willow Plate. Ulus, by author. Morrow, 1540. (5-7)
(32) Treffinger, Carolyn, Li Lun, Lad of Courage. Illus. by Kurt Wiese. Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1947. (5-7)
(33) Urbahns, Estelle, The Little Red Dragon. Pictures by Weda Yap. Dutton, 1943. (4-6)
(34) Urbahns, Estelle, The Tangled Web. Illus. by Frank Lieber- man. Dutton, 1943. (5-6)
(35) Ward, Marion Boss, Boat Children of Canton. Illus. by Helen Sewell. McKay, 1944. (3-5)
(36) Wiese, Kurt, Fish in the Air. Fictures by author. Viking, 1948. (2^37
(37) Wood, Esther, Pepper Moon. Pictures by Laura Bannon. Longmans, 1940. (3-4)
(38) Young, Evelyn, Tale of Tai. Illus. by author. Oxford, 1940. (1-37 APPENDIX II
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF PUBLISHERS CF
CHINESE FICTION BOOKS
Number of F.ubiications Publishers During 194-0-1949
Abingdon-Cokesbury 1
Crowell 1
Day 4
Dutton 2
Harcourt 5
Houghton 1
Longmans 1
McGraw 2
McKay 2
Macmillan 5
Morrow 1
Nelson 3
Oxford 1.
Random 2
Scribner 2
Viking 1
Westminister 1
Whittlesey House 1
Winston 2
105 APPENDIX III
ALPHABETICAL LIST OF BOOKS OF FICTION
PUBLISHED DURING 1925-1939
Bishop, Claire A., The Five Chinese Brothers» Ilius. by Kurt Wiese. Coward-McCann, 1938.
Cannon, Marian, San Bao and His Adventures In Peking. Illus. by author. Dutton, 1939.
Chrisman, Arthur, Shen of the Sea. Illus. by Else Hasselriis. Dutton, 1925.
Chrisman, Arthur, Wind That Wouldn't Blow. Illus. by Else Hasselriis. Dutton, 1927.
Coatsworth, Elizabeth, Cricket and the Emperor's Son. Picture by Weda Yap. Macmillan, 1932.
Doone, Radkov, Red Beards of the yellow River. Illus. by Harry Deitch.. Macrae Smith, 1939.
Eldridge, Ethel J., Yen-Foh. Illus. by Kurt Wiese. Whitman, 1935.
Flack, Marjorie, Story About Pins. Illus. by Kurt Wiese. Viking, 1933.
Handforth, Thomas, Mel Li. Illus. by author. Doubleday, 1938
Hekking, Johanna M., Pigtails. Illus. by Molly Castle. Lippincott, 1937.
Hollister, Mary B., Beggars of Dreams. Illus. by Kurt Wiese. Dodd, 1937.
Howard, Alice W., Chlng-Ll and the Dragons. Ilius. by Lynd Ward. Macmillan, 1931.
Lattimore, Eleanor F., Little Pear. Illus. by author. Har¬ court, 1931.
Lattimore, Eleanor F., Little Pear and His Friends. Illus. by author. Harcourt, 1934. 106 107
Lederer, Joe, Fa fan In China. Illus. by William Sanderson. Holiday House, 1935.
Lee, Melicent Humascn, Chang Ghee. Pictures by Laura Bannon. Harper, 1939.
Lewis, Elizabeth F., CL in a Quest. Illus. by Kurt Wiese. Winston, 1937*
Lewis, Elizabeth F., Ho-Ming, Girl of hew China. Illus. by Kurt Wiese. Winston, 1934.
Lewis, Elizabeth F., Young Fu of the Upter Yangtze. Illus. by Kurt 'Wiese. Winston, 1932.
Perkins, Lucy F., Chinese Twins. Houghton, 1933.
Rowe, Dorothy, Moon * s BIrthday. Illus. by K'O Shuang-Sho. Macmillan, 1927.
Rowe, Dorothy, Rabbit Lantern. Illus. by Ling Jui Tang. Macmillan, 1925.
Rowe, Dorothy, Traveling Shoes. Illus. by Lynd Ward. Macmil¬ lan, 192 9.
Sowers, Phyllis A., Lin Foo and Lin Ching. Illus. by Margaret Ayer. Crowell, 1932.
’Wiese, Kurt, Chinese Ink Stick. Illus. by author. Doubleday, 1929.
Wiese, Kurt, Liang and Lo. Illus. by author. Doubleday, 1930.
Wood, Esther, Silk and Satin Lane. Illus. by Kurt Wiese. Longmans, 1939.
Young, Evelyn, Wu and Lu and Li. Lithographed by author. Oxford, 1939. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Abingdon-Cokesbury . "Carolyn Tre.ffinger .'! Unpublished letter, Abingdon-Cokesbury, New York, February 15, 1951.
American Library Association. Basic Book Collection for Ele- mentary Grades. Chicago: American Library Association 1945.
Britannica Junior. Vol. IV. Article, "Facts About China."
Compton’s Pictured Encyclopedia. Vol. III. Article, "China."
Dutton Company. "Estelle Urbahns." Unpublished letter, E. P. Dutton, Hew York, February 20, 1951.
. "Frank Lieberman." Unpublished letter, S. P. Dutton Hew York, February 20, 1951
Cook, Dorothy (ed.). Children1 s Catalog. New York-c H. W. Wilson Co., 1950.
"Fishing in China," Uncle Ray * s Ma gazine, (January, 1950)» 15.
Giles, Ruth, Dorothy Cook, and Dorothy West. Children’s Cata¬ log. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1946.
Judson, Clara. "Green Ginger Jar," New York Times, October 2, 1949, p. 28.
Kunltz», Stanley. Junior Book oi~ Authors. New York: H. W. Wilson Co."i 1934.
Kunitz, Stanley. Twentieth Century Authors. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1942.
McKay Company. "Kurt Wiese." Unpublished letter, David McKay Co., New York, February 9» 1951.
. "Marion Boss Ward." Unpublished letter, David McKay Co., New York, February 9, 1951.
Macmillan Company. "Alison Stilwell." Unpublished letter, Macmillan Co., New York, February 16, 1951.
. "Armstrong Sperry.'.1 Unpublished letter, Macmillan Co., New York, February 16, 1951. 108 109
. "Dong Kingman." Unpublished letter, Macmillan Co., New York, February 16, 1951.
. "Tyrus Y/ong." Unpublished letter, Macmillan Co., New York, February 16, 1951.
Nelson Publishers. "Martha Lee Poston." Unpublished letter, Thomas Nelson Sons, New York, February 26, 1951.
. "Weda Yap." Unpublished letter, Thomas Nelson Sons, New York, February 26, 1951.
Rothe, Anna (ed.). Current Biography. New York: H. W. Wilson, 1948.
Rue, Eloise. Subject Index to Books for Intermediate Grades. Chicago: American Library Association, 1950.
V/ebster's New Collegiate Dictionary. Springfield, Mass.: G. C Merriam Co.7 1949.
Westminister Press. "Alice Margaret Huggins." Unpublished letter, V/estminister Press, Philadelphia, February 10, 1951.
Y/hittlesey House. "Stafford-Zibold." Unpublished letter, Whitrlesey House, New York, February 12, 1951.
Who's Who in America. Vol. XXVI. Chicago: Marquis Co., 1950.
Winston Company. "Elizabeth Foreman Lewis.'.' Unpublished letter, John C. Winston Co., New York, February 14, 1951.
World Book Encyclopedia. Vol.-III. Article, "China."
. Vol.-II. Article, "Paul Brown."
. Vol. VIII. Article, "Thomas Handforth."
Universal World Reference Encyclopedia. Vol. III-IV. Article, "China."