JOMEC Journal Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies
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JOMEC Journal Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies Published by Cardiff University Press Marketing Chinese children’s authors in an age of celebrity Frances Weightman University of Leeds Email: [email protected] Keywords Chinese Children’s Authors Celebrity Marketing Books Cao Wenxuan Paratexts Abstract In this paper I explore the topic of authorial self-fashioning in an age of celebrity. Specifically, I consider the persona of the contemporary children’s author, as he or she is constructed within the paraphernalia surrounding the main stories in children’s books. This paper is part of a broader project examining how authors and translators choose to represent themselves, or are represented by their agents and publishers, within the paratextual elements of books. The primary case study for this enquiry is Cao Wenxuan 曹文轩. Since winning the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen Award, and with an increasing volume of his work available in translation, Cao is the prime example of a celebrity Chinese children’s author, now with global recognition. Cao has always been a prolific preface writer and many of his works have other paratextual elements, including an exceptionally large number of photos of the author, all of which provide a rich source for a comprehensive evaluation of the image constructed by author/publisher of the author’s persona as presented in the ‘margins’ of the books. Acknowledgement: The research for this article was funded by a Princeton University Library Fellowship, and I would also like to acknowledge the generous help and expertise of the librarians and curators of the Cotsen Children’s Library during my time there. Contributor Note Frances Weightman is Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Leeds, and Director of The Leeds Centre for New Chinese Writing. Citation Weightman, Frances (2020), ‘Marketing Chinese children’s authors in an age of celebrity’, JOMEC Journal 15, ‘Advertising China’, ed. Sally Chan and Rachel Phillips, 1-17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18573/jomec.199 Accepted for publication: 07th July 2020 https://jomec.cardiffuniversitypress.org/ @JOMECjournal Marketing Chinese children’s authors books. This short study is part of a broader in an age of celebrity project examining how authors and translators choose to represent themselves, The uneasy relationship between culture and or are represented by their agents and commerce is both the object of academic publishers, within the paratextual elements of debate and the lived experience of many books. cultural practitioners worldwide, as producers of literary and artistic works grapple with the In my project as a whole I argue that these need to make money from their work, while paratexts provide a unique space in which a at the same time maintaining a vision for it particular image of the person of the author apparently unsullied by such mundane can be constructed, whether by the author concerns. This paradox holds true in China, him/herself or by the publisher or other agent. where working for ‘fame and profit’ (mingli 名 Of course, there is no guarantee that the 利) was traditionally and explicitly regarded as image of the author provided in these incompatible with true scholarly enterprise, paratexts is any more ‘genuine’ or ‘realistic’ but yet where entrance to the civil service than an authorial voice or persona within the bureaucracy and hence a stable government fictional text itself, or that the actual agency post and income, status and public prestige directing this image is the author rather than were essentially determined by one’s the publisher or literary agent. However, it is performance in a series of literary exams. clearly consciously constructed and, in the st century, the age of social media and 21 celebrity, it appears to be an increasingly Despite early twentieth century drives to reject some Confucian cultural values, the significant tool in terms of sales and marketing. Maoist era, albeit for different ideological reasons, ensured that the literati continued to eschew capitalist enterprise. Heroes at this This article explores how these concepts apply in the rapidly expanding world of time, both real life ones and fictional Chinese children’s fiction. I am not a specialist protagonists, were promoted primarily for their loyalty to Communist values and the on children’s literature, but while reading a Party. After the end of the Cultural Revolution Roald Dahl book to my five year old daughter recently, I was struck at the amount of (1966-76), and the (re-)emergence of the entrepreneur, a central industrial policy shift, information about the author provided, in a favouring the individual and private enterprise child-friendly way, in appendices and blurbs, including pictures of his garden writing-hut over centrally-driven nationwide projects, was mirrored in the cultural sphere. As a result and descriptions of the physical process of there was a notable shift towards the his writing. The emphasis on stepping back from the wonderful and engaging plotline, to development of individual literary talents who focus on the figure of the middle-aged male were not afraid to aspire openly to writing best-sellers and to achieving celebrity status. author, seemed remarkable to me. While we expect and often encourage young children An increasingly market-focused publishing to immerse themselves unquestioning into infrastructure to support, encourage and exploit these endeavours also began to magical realms of fantastic plots, deliberately blurring the lines between fact and fiction, yet develop, laying the foundations for a new type we equally presume them to be interested in of hero, the cultural celebrity. the (usually adult) creator of these textual The following article explores the topic of realms. We would not, I think, expect them to show similar interest in the director of a authorial self-fashioning in an age of celebrity. Specifically, I consider the persona of the Disney film, or even the voiceover actors or contemporary children’s author, as anyone else ‘behind the scenes’ in children’s film – or indeed the creators of other types of constructed within the paraphernalia surrounding the main stories in children’s children’s toys and merchandise. It seems 1 https://jomec.cardiffuniversitypress.org/ @JOMECjournal that in the world of books, we are asking transferred from reporting on their public role children, who are often just learning to write […] to investigating the details of their private sentences themselves, to engage with and lives’ (Turner 2014, 8). In this discourse, the relate to ‘children’s literature’, from the dual point at which an individual becomes a perspective of both reader and writer. celebrity appears to be primarily the responsibility of those who represent him or her, either in their interests, or with other As a parent of young children, this concept agendas. In the People’s Republic of China, fascinated me, and so I decided to explore the these agendas may be both commercial and way in which the author figure was state-driven. constructed in Chinese children’s literature. This may be a relief to those who are uneasy The primary case study for this enquiry is Cao about the intersection between cultural and Wenxuan 曹文轩 (b. 1954). Cao has received other forms of capital, since it means there is multiple prizes for his work, culminating in his no requirement (or indeed reason) to actively winning of the 2016 Hans Christian Andersen pursue celebrity oneself. I have already noted Award. With an increasing volume of his work the traditional disdain within the Confucian available in translation, Cao is the prime mainstream for such petty pursuits as ‘fame’ example of a celebrity Chinese children’s and ‘profit’. Similarly high-minded views can author, now with global recognition. Cao has be found in many traditional civilisations, with always been a prolific preface writer and such vulgar objectives being contrasted with many of his works have other paratextual more noble values. The realities of making a elements, including an exceptionally large living have somewhat diminished these number of photos of the author, all of which attitudes, and while cultural practitioners provide a rich source for a comprehensive often prefer to use the vocabulary of evaluation of the image constructed by ‘reputation’ and ‘recognition’, rather than author/publisher of the author’s persona as ‘fame’ and ‘celebrity’, there is increasing presented in the ‘margins’ of the books, and acceptance that cultural products are how this has developed as his reputation has created by individuals, who deserve due grown. credit for this. Authors are increasingly taking to social media, like the rest of us, and are quickly learning the art of self-fashioning in Celebrity and authorship the age of the internet (like the rest of us). Celebrity Studies is a burgeoning academic In his monograph on the topic, Joe Moran has discipline. In an important early volume, extensively analysed the phenomenon of the celebrity was defined as not ‘a property of author celebrity in the United States, noting certain individuals. Rather it is constituted that the impact of commercialism on authors discursively, by the way in which the individual is not straightforward, but ‘forms part of a is represented’ (Turner, Bonner and Marshall complicated process in which various (eds) 2000, 11). In a later monograph on the legitimating bodies compete for cultural topic, Graeme Turner states ‘We can map the authority and/or commercial success, and precise moment a public figure becomes a regulate the formation of a literary star celebrity. It occurs at the point at which system and the shifting hierarchy of stars’ media interest in their activities becomes (Moran 2000: 4).1 Again, just as the creation of 1 Another useful comparative study looking at the comparative overview of the situation in the UK author as celebrity in the US is Loren Glass’s in his conclusion, that the phenomenon is often Authors inc (New York: NYU Press, 2004).