In New York, London, Tokyo, or Taipei, the same chain stores sell identical products, the same eats, and the same movies. But the very uniformity of this emerging worldwide mass culture means the disappearance of unique and diverse local cultures. Taiwan is no exception. With this in mind, Yuan Liou (遠流) Publishing Company has created Children's Taiwan, a series of books devoted to preserving Taiwan's folktales, folklore, and history for children, ages five to eight.
The graceful rhythms of nursery rhymes and spellbinding folktales once delighted listeners all over rural Taiwan. Typically, families would sit outdoors on summer evenings to escape the heat. While the mother of the house was busy preparing tea and snacks, grandparents would recite folktales and teach the children to sing nursery rhymes. But urbanization has brought new forms of entertainment—crowded in small condominiums, people now watch TV to relax after work. The nursery rhymes and folktales of tradition have yielded to more modern forms of entertainment such as MTV and videos.
As a result, the young people of Taiwan are losing touch with their roots. Only a handful of people concerned about this trend are making efforts to rectify the situation. Hao Kuang-tsai (郝廣才), editor-in-chief of the children's books department at Yuan-Liou, talks about the initiative in publishing Children's Taiwan: "Taiwan has a rich and varied culture. But it accounts for only a small portion of China's vast culture, and it has long been ignored in Chinese history. For example, in our elementary school textbooks, not enough information is pro vided about Taiwan's customs, folktales, architecture, and history. It is our obligation to record it."
Three years ago, with the combined efforts of more than ten specialists, including folklorists and history professors, Yuan-Liou published the 36-volume Children's Taiwan. The first part of the collection is a series of twelve Taiwanese folktales. For the Yuan-Liou editorial staff, the most difficult task was selecting only a dozen folktales from thousands of choices. "The stories we chose all originated in Taiwan," says Hao. "We don't deny the value of translated children's books such as Snow White and The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, but we want something that properly reflects and represents Taiwan, our birthplace and home."
Hao's concern has historical roots. According to Lin Liang (林良), a prolific author of children's books and manager of the publishing department of the Mandarin Daily News, the development of children's literature in Taiwan can be divided into three periods: nostalgia (1949-1960), translation (1960-1970), and awakening (1971 to the present.)
In the nostalgia period, many authors of children's literature followed the KMT government to Taiwan. In their new home, they cherished memories of childhood and growing up in mainland China. Thus, their writings were filled with nostalgia for a bygone era. Some publishing houses also brought out abridged children's editions of still popular classic Chinese novels such as The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, All Men Are Brothers, and Journey to the West. Then in the early 1960s, collections of fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm appeared in Taiwan. The translations of these and other Western works were best sellers. Starting in the 1970s, when writers realized that translated works could no longer satisfy the demands of the local audience, they began to create their own.
Taiwan has a total population of only 20 million, and consequently the market for children's books is small. According to Lin, "The print run on the first edition of a book with two-color illustrations is usually two thousand copies, while for a new book with four-color illustrations it is around five thousand copies. Profits are meager, so local publishing companies find it easier and cheaper to buy the rights to foreign books and have them translated than to create original children's books." Lin's observation helps explain why the children's sections of local bookstores are flooded with translations.
In China, folktales have been handed down orally. Over time, the stories have been polished and embellished by generations of storytellers. Yuan-Liou invited many well-known local authors to write their own versions of traditional folktales for Children's Taiwan. Li Ang (李昂), a women's rights activist and the author of The Butcher's Wife, wrote Water God and A Lazy Person Becomes a Monkey for the series. Li remembers that an early draft of the latter story, by a male writer, titled A Lazy Woman Becomes a Monkey angered her because of its negative portrayal of women. After reviewing reference materials, including original versions of the tale, she found no gender bias. She says: I rewrote the story and called it A Lazy Person Becomes a Monkey because I don't want children to develop stereotyped impressions of the sexes." Even though the story was written for youngsters, Li says she spent as much time on it as she would have for a longer story for adults.
Besides being artistically finished works of fiction, the folktales are also highly moralistic-the good are always rewarded, the bad punished. Master Magic Nose, one of the stories in the series, clearly displays the didactic nature of the tales. The story recounts the misdeeds and eventual punishment of the wastrel A-Fa. More than just a moral tale, it is also a fanciful story about the origin of ants.
As the story opens, A-Fa's wife gives him some money and asks him to buy a few turnips. Instead, A-Fa goes out and gambles away all the money. When he returns home, his wife gives him a sound thrashing. His nose red, and swollen as large as a bulb of garlic from the beating, he is teased by the neighborhood children. To save face, A-Fa tells the children that the Earth God gave his nose magical powers by whacking it three times with his walking stick.
This face-saving fib leads to endless trickery and deceit as A-Fa attempts to convince people of his magical powers. From his village to the emperor to heaven and the gods themselves, A-Fa—or master magic Nose as he comes to be known—manages to fool everyone. Unable, however, to fool all of the gods all of the time, A-Fa is finally caught and punished. He is cast out of heaven by the god and goddess of lightning and falls to earth where he is smashed to smithereens. On the spot where Master Magic Nose fell, thousands of ants appeared, sniffing about apparently searching for something. II is said that all ants are the incarnation of Master Magic Nose.
If the story is the bones of children’s books, then pictures are the flesh. A variety of artistic forms were employed in creating the illustrations for the storybooks: paper cuttings, prints, watercolors and oil paintings. Lesley Liu (劉宗慧), illustrator of a number of books in the series, says, "I always vary my style. Whenever I receive a new story, I like to challenge myself by using a new form to illustrate it."
Lesley Liu illustrated The Bird of God, which was awarded the 1990 Gold Dragon Medal by the Children's Literature Association. The story is based on a fairy tale of the Atayal aborigine tribe, originally concentrated in northeastern Taiwan. Liu did extensive research on the flora and fauna of the mountains inhabited by the Atayal to make her illustrations more authentic. She also used Atayal art motifs. She says: "There are not many written records about the Atayal tribe, but we do have a number of pieces of exquisite Atayal cloth. I used some of the patterns of contrasting color throughout the book." An award-winning artist and attentive to the minutest detail, Liu claims that her illustrations must all pass the severest of tests—the appraising eye of her nine-year-old son, her first and foremost critic.
Children's tastes are a major factor in each book's artwork. They generally have acute powers of observation and an interest in detail, but too much detail can be distracting for five-to-eight-year-old children. "To hold their interest," Hao Kuang-tsai, the book editor, explains, "we strive to create visually stimulating pictures by maintaining a certain amount of tension between the various parts." For children who have not yet learned to read, such colorful pictures can be a major source of enjoyment. Hao also considers children the best critics. When the first draft of the artwork is finished, the company conducts tests by inviting children to tell the story after looking at the drawings. Where the children falter or are easily distracted, the drafts are redesigned.
In addition to the series of folktales in Children's Taiwan, Yuan-Liou has de voted another twelve volumes to folklore. Separated from the mainland by the Taiwan Straits, the island province has evolved its own unique culture. The volumes of the folklore series deal with traditional customs, architecture, and handicrafts. Among the topics included are: Lukang's Lungshan Temple, a Paiwan aborigine wedding ceremony, and the annual Firecracker Festival at Yenshui.
The book on Lukang's Lungshan Temple provides a history of the temple. Built three hundred years ago in an old port city on the southwest coast, Lungshan Temple is known for the artistry and craftsmanship that went into its construction. As this book shows, building a temple was no simple matter. Geomancers were first consulted to choose an auspicious site for the temple. Then architects, carpenters, stone carvers, tile makers, and a host of other artisans took part in the actual building. These trades all involved skilled labor requiring the use of a wide variety of tools, all of which are detailed in this volume. A knowledge of traditional aesthetics governing design was also needed. Many of the building materials, such as lumber and stone, were shipped from mainland China. All the planning, materials, skilled labor, and workers were orchestrated to produce a striking architectural landmark.
Also in the folklore series is a rather unique volume of Taiwanese nursery rhymes. Like all other titles in Children's Taiwan, this book is richly illustrated. But nursery rhymes must be heard to be appreciated. Since the pronunciation of the Taiwanese dialect is different from Mandarin, simply reading the characters will not give a full sense of the music and rhyme of the original. To help the reader, the editor has supplied Taiwanese romanization to accompany the text, as well as a pronunciation chart at the end of the book.
The third part of Children's Taiwan consists of twelve volumes on Taiwan's history. This section posed the greatest challenge for the Yuan-Liou staff. For many people brought up on textbooks, history can be a dry, dusty subject. But the editors knew that history could be fascinating if presented properly. That is why they decided on a comic book format for the series.
Numerous difficulties were encountered in researching the stories. Fortunately, with the help of several history professors, Yuan-Liou was able to verify the accuracy of details such as aboriginal costumes, Stone-Age tools, and architectural ornamentation. In editing this series, researchers at Academia Sinica and local museums were consulted frequently.
Yuan Chang-jue (阮昌銳), curator of the department of anthropology at the Taiwan Museum, was a consultant, pro viding a great deal of information, especially photographs of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. "After Yuan-Liou finished its illustrations," Yuan says, "they asked me time and again to look over them. Compared with other local publishing companies, Yuan-Liou is much more attentive to detail when it comes to research." Yuan is quite pleased with the results, and feels the books accurately present the facts.
The series attempts to trace the origins and historical development of Taiwan from the Stone Age to the present. "We wanted to record the historical transformation of Taiwan," says Hao, "and not assemble a mere collection of political events. History is a record of all human life." Cultural and linguistic legacies remain from all the powers that have occupied Taiwan. In the local lexicon, for example, "red-haired earth" is another word for cement. The name was first coined to describe a cement substitute made out of red soil, rice husks, and lime by the Dutch. "Holland pea," a green pea popular in Taiwan, gets its name from the fact that it was first introduced to Taiwan by the Dutch. Attention to such details as well as its comic book-style illustrations make the series informative and entertaining.
Only five thousand copies of the first edition of Children's Taiwan were printed, and two-thirds have already been sold. Presently, Yuan-Liou is actively seeking markets overseas. Thus far response has been warm. Sun Ya Publications Ltd. in Hong Kong plans to publish the entire series for sale in Hong Kong and Singapore. Northland Publishing Company of the United States has acquired the translation rights for the volume of Taiwanese nursery rhymes. And Maruzen Book Store in Japan has also purchased the translation rights for one of the folktales.
The warm reception received by Children 's Taiwan overseas is a small indication of its success. It is one of the finer examples of a recent trend in children's publishing, one which is moving away from the standard didactic tales and translated stories. Lin Liang, the author of many children's books, says, "I admire Yuan-Liou's determination and courage to dedicate so much time and money to create such high-quality children's books, while most local publishing companies are reluctant to do so."
In a world which seems to be moving faster and faster toward cultural uniformity, it is refreshing to see a publishing company making an effort to save vanishing local culture. Yuan-Liou has published a set of well-written, lavishly illustrated books capturing the richness of Taiwanese culture, preserving it for younger generations. Or as Hao says, "We don't want these beautiful folktales to be forgotten with the passing of time. And we were just in time."