The Present Situation of Children's Literature in China

Many people are optimistic about children's literature in China. The number of published works greatly exceeds that in the past, and the sales volume of works is also "the east wind overwhelms the west wind". Every writer who is a little famous suddenly becomes a "hot cake", which is taken by many publishers and promised by packaging, numbers and money. Children who can't remember the names of writers in textbooks suddenly become die-hard fans of some writers. Everything seems so optimistic. But what about the actual situation?

I think the east wind will overwhelm the west wind, not by the number of the Great Leap Forward, but by the quality of the works. It is also fantasy literature. Among the children's literature works published at present, which one can be compared with the rigorous story structure, grand narrative, integrity of fantasy world, serious humanistic connotation and mythological tradition of Harry Potter? How many children's novels can be compared with the multicultural connotation of Shining Crystal and The Cabin on Mango Street? In the forward-looking concept of children's education, how many works can be compared with The Education of Love and The Little Peas by the Window? In terms of fairy tales, which fairy tale can touch people's hearts like Charlotte's Web? Which character can last as long as Pinocchio and Pippi Longstocking?

In my opinion, the present situation of children's literature in China, with its diversity, numerous works and outstanding achievements, also has many problems, which cannot but arouse our deep thinking:

First, the bumper harvest of figures is in sharp contrast with the inferior quality. In 2004, we published 188 1 original children's literature with 28.38 million copies. In 2005, 65,438+0,960 books and 365,438+0,650,000 copies were published. Among the hundreds of good books recommended to minors by the General Administration of Press and Publication this year, experts are delighted to find that, unlike the children's books introduced in previous years, the original children's literature occupies an absolute advantage. The monthly ranking of open books respected by the publishing industry shows that our original children's books have beaten Harry Potter and jumped to the top. However, the bumper harvest of this figure can't hide the fact that we can almost see: the original children's literature is similar in content, style, barren in thought and rough in art, such as the success of Harry Potter has brought a series of magic novels. As long as you stand in the bookstore and have a look, you can see hundreds of follow-up works with similar binding and doubtful content. These plagiarists are just rough copies of the original. For readers, it is just the superposition of information, without any information proliferation. This kind of works that have no new information and can't sublimate readers' thoughts are being distributed to students in the name of various recommendations and introductions, killing children's limited reading time.

Secondly, popular happy literature and childhood novels dominate the literary world, while other styles and genres are seriously excluded. If it's not as famous as Cao Wenxuan and Jinbo, it's at least as powerful as Chang Xingang. Otherwise, if you create any works that are not humorous or funny, those that describe social reality and tap the richness of human nature, rather than those that are written on the theme of people's conceptualized happy childhood, it will be difficult to get a chance to publish. In this case, many writers began to give up their original writing styles and subject areas and began to become "happy childhood literature". China Children's Literature published Peng's short story Shandan in issue 1 in 2007. I am here to put aside the artistic success of this novel and only talk about the significance of her writing this novel. In our impression, Peng is a writer with a distinctive personal style. Her works are good at beautiful lyricism, and most of the protagonists are beautiful and poetic. Her previous works can be classified as "juvenile novels". But now Dandan is a humorous work with primary school students as the protagonist. Perhaps Peng's motivation is to broaden his subject area and change his writing style. We can admire Peng in this respect. But at the same time, we can see that the noisy situation of children's literature creation has affected writers' adherence to the original literary beliefs, and many writers are surrendering to reality. Because childhood novels are selling well now, and juvenile novels are not selling well. Influenced by the whole publishing tide, in recent years, publishing houses have focused on "Ma Xiaotiao-style" happy childhood novels, not only ignoring juvenile novels, but also paying little attention to fairy tales that once dominated childhood literature. Many fairy tale writers have to put down fairy tales and start to devote themselves to children's novels. The series School for Pupils published by Haiyan Publishing House is a collective performance of fairy tale writers such as Tang Sulan and Xiao Ding Li. Fortunately, fairy tale writers have many natural advantages in transforming into children's novels. Some critics have pointed out that the creation of children's novels by fairy tale writers has brought "strangeness, interest and poeticization" to children's novels, which is also a mistake. The most successful example is Yang, who was an excellent fairy tale writer before writing children's novels.

Thirdly, another problem brought by the happy childhood literature that leads the contemporary children's literary world is that the works are seriously divorced from reality, and the writers pay insufficient attention to the current problems, even fail to pay attention to the current consciousness, courage and determination. From the 1980s to the early 1990s, China's children's literature writers not only explored as much as possible in art, but also deserved praise for their determination and courage to face the reality. I think my works, such as Meat Cutter, Alone Boat, and Girl Red Hairpin, can all be called "problem novels". In today's view, we can think that these works have certain deficiencies in concept and art, but the questions and thoughts they raise have obvious marks of the times. When we are talking about the history of children's literature in China, we can't avoid this topic. They used their works to record the thoughts, educational methods, attitudes towards life and social status quo of children and adults in that era. But what about now? We have a large number of works published every year, and each writer has written dozens of books at a young age, but who are you writing? Where did it happen? I can't tell from the book. This phenomenon can be justified in fairy tales, and it also appears in the current children's novels, which deserves our deep consideration. Wu Qinan, a scholar, has fully discussed this issue in the article "Time Lost: Hidden Dangers of Contemporary Children's Literature" (see Wen Yi Daily, May 29, 2007), so I won't repeat it here. Of course, some writers think that time is not important. 1997 children who have lost their mothers have the same sadness as 1897 children who have lost their mothers. But the child's mother died of tuberculosis on 1897, probably because there was no penicillin; 1997, the mother died of tuberculosis, probably because the medical expenses were too high. The social significance of events is different. Of course, we can also find the obvious imprint of the times from the current works, that is, colorful popular symbols. For example, the children in the book like Jay Chou, which must have happened around 2000; If a child's idol is South Korean superstar RAIN, there is no doubt that this child must live in the present. However, the imprint of social life should be far deeper than a popular symbol. At present, China society is in a period of transition, which brings pain, contradiction of values and crisis of faith to everyone. These things are rarely reflected in our works. All works are a virtual reality, describing a virtual childhood and a virtual happy life. Although many writers write campus novels, they are actually "making" works out of school and social life. A bunch of popular symbols, plus a few funny jokes, is a novel. The work lacks time and details. This kind of work is actually another kind of "conceptual" thing, which is a virtual childhood life. There is neither rich life connotation nor aesthetic freshness, but it caters to children's life topics such as SMS, online games and QQ chat. Now, however, it is this kind of virtual childhood works that are favored. Those works that face reality, pay attention to real life and children's spiritual life are not taken seriously. These "conceptual" works lack vivid details, so they lack appeal. These works make people laugh without answering, and children will not leave any traces after reading them.

Fourth, the works lack spiritual strength and human brilliance. This is the inevitable result of the work divorced from reality. When children's literature is too entertaining, it also lacks guidance for children's spiritual life. At the end of 1990s, China children's literature returned to children-oriented literature. Children's literature pays attention to children's nature, which makes children's literature break away from preaching and become cordial. However, at the same time, we have lost our fine traditions. China's literature has always paid attention to "carrying Tao". Children's literature is a literature given to children by human beings, which contains deep feelings and wishes for children. Children's literature should "lay the foundation" for children's life. Cao Wenxuan believes that "children's literature is literature that brings happiness to children" is an unreliable definition. He believes that "children's literature should be literature that brings pleasure to children, and the pleasure here includes comedy pleasure and tragedy pleasure-the latter is even more important than the former in some cases". The excessive entertainment of children's literature caters to hedonism and lacks tragic spirit, which can't enhance the spiritual world of readers and nourish children's growth. In fact, whether it is a popular type of work or a pure literary work, we must have humanistic care and dreams, and we must give readers something. If a writer's works lack the depth of thought and the height of vision, but are just a bunch of interesting things, and all the readers know their views, then the artistic value of such works is questionable. Nowadays, many works are loved by children, and adults don't look interesting. "If a children's book is not good enough for all of us, it is not good enough for children."

Robert mckee said in the story, "The source of all art is the most primitive human demand for the following aspects, which precedes language: solving depression and conflict through beauty and harmony, reviving a life lifeless by everyday things through creativity, and seeking a connection with reality through our instinctive perception of truth. Just like music and dance, painting and sculpture, poetry and music, story is the first, last and eternal experience of aesthetic emotion-the meeting of thoughts and feelings. " A well-told story can provide you with something you can't get in life: a meaningful emotional experience that can arouse our innate sensitivity to the truth.

On a boulder in front of the China Museum of Modern Literature, Mr. Ba Jin's words are engraved: "What a rich literary treasure house we have, which is a masterpiece left by many writers. They support us, educate us, encourage us, and make ourselves kinder, purer and more useful to others."

A literary work should not only give readers pleasure in reading, but also arouse thinking and introspection. There should be ideals, spiritual yearning and pursuit in the works, not just fun. I once saw a Hollywood children's film "Young Agents". Although I was bored by the rough production and typing performance, at the end of every scene, CIA officials told the young agent that "your country will be proud of you", but it made me excited. I think this is how patriotism is instilled in the hearts of American children, and this is how Americans' sense of superiority is formed from an early age. We lack ideals, loftiness and awe in writing because our writers have lost their ideals, which is an extremely terrible phenomenon. Without spiritual strength, we can't see the brilliance of human nature, nor can we sublimate readers' thoughts and lead children's growth.

Fifth, the absence of heroes and the disappearance of role models. In our present children's literature, there are no heroes or role models, only a conceptual child or a group of vague children. When writers are divorced from real life and have no difficulty in choosing a kind of writing, their characters do not need to make choices under pressure, nor do they need to highlight their personalities in a series of real events. The characters in their works only need to put on various labels and symbols. They are "naughty boys", "troublemakers" and "crazy girls". They are poor imitations of Pippi Longstocking, Emil Naughty, Maddy March and Pinocchio in the corridors of Chinese and foreign children's literature. In the mountain of children's books published every year, few characters are tenable and can stay in children's hearts for a long time. People with distinctive personalities like Tan Ying, Wang Bao, Li Jia, a boy, and Mei Jia, a girl, have disappeared. What we see are only some types of labels that are very conspicuous. There is absolutely no such hero as Private Zhang Ga.

However, as william faulkner said, "Humanity is the only theme that will not be out of date". As readers, we know more about the characters in the works than our friends, because although it comes from reality, it is also higher than reality and is a metaphor of human nature. A character is a work of art and a reference for readers to examine themselves. Especially growing children, they should look for the strength of example, the comfort of friendship or arouse inner reflection from the characters in their works. Unfortunately, it is difficult for us to find real and sensible roles in many original children's books. The children not only found role models, but also found good friends like Charlotte, and good teachers and parents are rare. That's why we pay special attention to teachers like the Cowherd Spring and grandmothers like childhood.

Sixth, writers lack the spirit of artistic innovation, and typed writing is highly sought after. Typed writing is understandable, and literary creation has always been divided into pure literature and popular literature. Especially when a certain type of work has achieved great success in the market in a certain period, it will inevitably give birth to a large number of follow-up works. However, due to our mainstream media's admiration for certain works regardless of artistic facts, a large number of writers, especially young writers, have followed suit, abandoned their artistic pursuit and chose to write effortlessly. The numerous series of works flooding the market is an example. Write down the same kind of stories repeatedly along the existing character stories, three, five and ten. Writers no longer pay attention to artistic innovation. The fun of writing itself, the fun of stylistic experiments and the fun of language expression have all been replaced by money and the joy of becoming famous. If a generation of writers give up artistic exploration, the appearance of classic works will be completely impossible. When we look back on our literary history, those classic works add something to the spiritual world of mankind without exception. The duty of a serious writer should be to create spiritual value for the society, at the same time expand the space for the infinite possibilities of art, and create new human aesthetic value or new artistic style with his own exploration spirit. Because literature can help people realize their dreams, especially children's literature.

Seventh, the number and quality of writers are low. At present, there are a large number of children's literature writers, and new people and new works emerge one after another. The number of people involved in writing children's books and the number of children's books published are unprecedented. However, when we count the works of children's literature published since the new century, the first thing that comes to mind is still the works of writers born in the 1950s or even 40s, such as Jin Bo, Cao Wenxuan, Zhang Zhilu, Gao Hongbo, Qin Wenjun, Huang Beijia and Zheng Chunhua. Not because of their great names, but because of their artistic level, deep exploration of human nature and artistic attainments, we have to admit that "ginger is still old and spicy." These writers are experienced in art and study hard, and have their own creative ideas and clear views on children's literature. Their writing does not follow the trend, is not blind, and adheres to their own artistic standards. In contrast, although subsequent writers have begun to enter middle age and enter the golden age of personal creation, there are not many good works. Many people are still vacillating in the face of the noisy literary situation, and their artistic exploration is not enough, and they rarely hear personal opinions on children's literature. Influenced by the market environment, the younger generation began to pay attention to the market, print run and hype from the beginning of creation, taking it as their responsibility to cater to children's reading interest at present, and had no time to take care of artistic exploration and innovation.

Eighth, media criticism replaces literary criticism. At present, a literary work has nothing to do with the work itself, but the role of the media and many non-literary forces. A large number of media and strong voices tell us that popular, profitable, reproducible and mass-produced consumer children's literature is the best and most outstanding children's literature. This orientation invisibly obscures the voices of other excellent works, thus killing the writer's innovative spirit and creative vitality. The present situation of children's literature has much to do with this kind of media criticism.

Of course, we always hear good news. The children's book market in China is growing at the rate of 17%~ 18% every year. With the people of China marching towards a well-off society, more and more families attach importance to the education of their children, and regard literature as an indispensable nutrient for nourishing the soul. More and more teachers and children's books promotion agencies are promoting the reading of children's literature. The party and the government have also paid unprecedented attention to children's literature. We were lucky to catch up with the good times. China's children's literature is calling for everyone, excellent writers and excellent works. Facing the current situation, each of us should keep a clear head. Once children's literature writers establish writing as their own ideal, they should strengthen the training of ideas and skills, strive to become an excellent writer, always maintain the enthusiasm for exploring the artistic world and the childlike world, and always have the spirit of innovation and the courage to constantly surpass themselves. I believe that as long as each of us makes sincere efforts, a truly pluralistic new era of children's literature will surely come.