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The girl, Yu'er, lives with Doubao's grandfather in a hutong in Beijing. Yu'er dreams of becoming a swimmer, but her legs and feet are disabled and her mobility is impaired, so the Youth Swimming Training Center refuses to accept her. However, this is not a good grandfather who is happy all day long and has a big belly full of ideas. No, grandpa designed a unique swimming training ground for the fish in his yard with the help of an old locust tree! The happy fish trained hard, and his grandfather also bought a lot of swimming textbooks and served as a "coach" quite professionally. On an ordinary summer afternoon, Grandpa was napping in the shade of a tree, and a miracle happened – the fish slowly floated in the air and swam freely in the sky! The friends in the alley and the young students in the training center were all dumbfounded......
This is the first story "Fish" in "The Fairy Tale of the Old Street" published by cartoonist Nie Jun in 2016, which also includes three stories: "Worm", "Letter" and "Painting", all of which take place between Yu'er, Grandpa and neighbors in the alley. After a series of hilarious collisions and care, Yu'er learned to draw with his grandfather's best friend, Grandpa Hulu, and found the true love of his life.
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Originally published as a graphic novel, "The Fairy Tale of Lao Cai" is a collection of four stories presented in a single book, presented in sequence under the titles of "Dream", "Worm", "Letter" and "Old Child", like an animated blockbuster composed of four units, slowly unfolding in a soothing rhythm. Interestingly, although it was named "fairy tale", it failed to attract much attention in the domestic children's book industry after its publication, but it touched many adult comic readers with its warm and romantic style, and received praise from many readers on Douban, with a comprehensive score of 8.8 points. What's even more interesting is that when it was translated overseas, it received more praise, including high praise from mainstream professional media, and won a series of awards and honors in the children's book industry.
Among the many awards it has received, the American Library Association's Baddock Award Honorable Mention is the most weighty. Established in 1966, the award is named after veteran librarian Mildred Batcheld for her outstanding contributions to children's books that have been translated into English for her outstanding work in non-English-speaking cultures. The Fairy Tale of Lao Cai was originally translated into French as "Les Contes de la Ruelle" (the title is basically literal), and then translated from French into English as "My Beijing: Four Stories of Everyday Wonder" The contrast between "everyday" and "miraculous" is emphasized, which not only arouses curiosity, but also carries a certain common emotional value.
It was very interesting to read the reviews of the book from Western readers and critics. A reader on Goodreads wrote, "If you tell me it's Studio Ghibli, I'm absolutely convinced! It's not that he's reading anything similar, it's that the work has a similar temperament and interest, "blending contemporary life with magical reality, combining exquisite art, compassionate, intelligent, childlike characters (both children and adults), whimsy, and the sense of wonder in the ordinary that I expected......" Another reader who wrote a short review in Persian said that he liked the story of "The Letter" the most, and it felt as moving as "Marnie in Memories". Another librarian commented that in fact, she didn't think the part of the book about Beijing culture was worth it as a tour guide, and what touched her the most was the emotions of Yu'er and her grandfather, which felt too sweet!
"The Fairy Tale of Old Street Series" (4 volumes)
Author: Nie Jun
Relay Press
So you see, what really moved them was the power of beauty and emotion in their works, as well as the common humanity. Tessa Schmidt, president of the 2019 Batcheld Prize jury, commented on the four honorable mention-winning books: "What is particularly noteworthy is how these four stories combine grim reality, humor, magic and joy when describing the adventures of the protagonists. This sentence is indeed very appropriate to evaluate the story of the fish and the grandfather.
Although "The Fairy Tale of Lao Cai" is full of laughter from beginning to end, if you think about it, the lives of the two protagonists are actually quite not easy. The two of them depended on each other, and the rest of the family was somehow absent. Yu'er looks like an upper-middle elementary school student, who has to walk on crutches because of his handicapped legs and feet, and has to sit on a cart or a tricycle ridden by his grandfather when he goes out. Grandpa is a retired postman who lives a simple and simple life, fat and fat, and has old problems in his waist. Grandpa has always taken good care of the fish, and always thinks of ways to fulfill the child's wishes. The book doesn't shy away from some of the real-life embarrassments that fish encounter: being rejected by swimming training centers, being ridiculed by children practicing swimming, being bullied by several bear children in order to protect a butterfly — strictly speaking, that constitutes bullying. But the author handles it quite naturally and peacefully, the fish is not sad that he is bullied, but he will be sad that the butterfly is injured, and the boy's righteous and courageous behavior is also a bit of child-like. Come to think of it, reality does have a rather grim side, but it does not prevent people from maintaining warmth and kindness, and feeling the joy and magic of life with a sense of humor and curiosity.
Holland Bloorview Hospital in Toronto is Canada's largest rehabilitation hospital for children with disabilities, established in 1899. The hospital has a magazine for sick children and their families, Bloom, who took notice of the book in 2018 and interviewed the author, Nie Jun, to see the origins of creation from another perspective, as well as the special attention from different cultural contexts. Nie Jun said that Yu'er's role comes partly from his childhood memories, that there was such a disabled girl in the large courtyard where he lived, and her mother often took her to the street to buy small groceries, but would deliberately distance herself. Those ignorant children often play tricks on the girl, trying to provoke her, and the mother just watches from afar. Nie Jun said that he later realized that the mother was training her daughter's survival ability and helping her learn to face life. Regarding some of the "unfair" situations in the book, Nie Jun believes: "There are many unfair things between people...... I prefer to show the peaceful way of getting along in the story. People did not deliberately pity the fish, nor did they treat the fish preferentially, they treated her equally. This kind of getting along makes the fish feel happy and their hearts become sunny. Moreover, he allowed the fish to surpass herself in the story, and made the children who had laughed at her look up in amazement. This is another theme that he is trying to express, which is reconciliation, reconciliation with the power of kindness and understanding. I think at the beginning, among those boring bear children who played tricks on girls, maybe he was one of them.
Bloom magazine also asked an interesting question: Why hasn't the fish seen herself in a wheelchair when she is sometimes on crutches and sometimes on a cart or tricycle? This is a very real problem. Nie Jun's answer is that it is very inconvenient to take a wheelchair in the hutongs of old Beijing, the threshold of the gate is high, there are many stone steps, and there is no elevator, so Yu'er can only use crutches or sit in a small cart for others to push. The kind of tricycle that my grandfather rode was also very distinctive, commonly known as "riding a donkey upside down", and it was very convenient to ride on the old street to transport people and things. It is conceivable that this kind of living environment is not so friendly to people with disabilities in the eyes of Westerners, but the especially sunny and cute fish and the grandfather who is never stumped will leave a deeper impression on the reader. Yu'er and grandpa are always embracing life and the world with innocent enthusiasm, and they are also infecting their neighbors and big friends.
The 2019 Eisner Award nomination for "The Fairy Tale of the Old Street" is also worth mentioning. It was one of the most important comic book awards in the United States, the equivalent of the Oscars in the comic book industry. Will Eisner, who bears his name, is a master comic book who has taught at art schools for many years, and he began to promote the "graphic novel" as an art form in the late 70s of the 20th century, and wrote his monograph Comics and Sequential Art (1985), which laid the theoretical foundation for the creation of graphic novels. Apparently, "The Fairy Tale of Lao Cai" was nominated as a graphic novel. This form of book has become mainstream in the children's book industry in Europe and the United States, and it is basically on a par with picture books, children's literature, and non-fiction children's books. Originally intended for adult readers, graphic novels have won top honors such as the Caldecott Award in the United States and the Carnegie Award for Illustration in the United Kingdom (formerly the Kate Greenaway Award), and are prominently displayed in bookstores and libraries. The English version of "The Fairy Tale of Old Street" has been honorably recommended by the American Library Association, the New York Public Library, and public libraries in Maine, Maryland, Utah, and other states. This is worth our reference.
I'm also glad to see that this book has been adapted into a picture book, which is originally made up of four stories, and it can be adapted into four picture books, a bit like a four-unit animated blockbuster being adapted into a four-part series. Perhaps, if it is converted into the form of picture books that are widely accepted in China, there will be a chance that more young Chinese readers will be able to read it.
The picture book version is titled "Fish", "Worm", "Letter" and "Painting", and I think that although it has been split into four separate works, the reading order should still be retained, because there is some kind of internal logic in it-
"Fish" is a wonderful appearance of two protagonists, who work hard for their dreams in their own unique way, so they create miracles with magic in ordinary life.
The next "Worm" connects the childhood of Yu'er and Grandpa in a way that is both real and illusory, allowing us to feel the relay of kindness and love, and the continuation of the optimistic spirit.
The story of "Letter" continues the idea of time travel, but the structure is more ingenious, the narrative logic is more tortuous and dense, and the boundary between reality and memory is more blurred. The deceased relatives (grandmothers) came back to their side in a trance, and the beautiful moments in their lives were perfectly frozen, as if they were circulating in the river of time.
As the finale, "Painting" is the only story that does not contain surreal elements, but it successfully portrays an artist who returns to his childhood as he gets older, and he forms an extreme contrast with Grandpa Doubao, who grew up together, but it is this perhaps unlikable Grandpa Gourd who discovers the potential of the artist in the fish and is deeply moved by the "simple power" she conveys in the painting. Perhaps, this is also the strength that Nie Jun himself is trying to pursue and maintain.
However, despite the fact that they are both continuous image narratives, there are quite a few differences between the narrative grammar of graphic novels and picture books. For example, graphic novels derived from traditional comics often rely heavily on the use of frames, and use the shape, size, position, and interrelationships of the frames to advance the narrative and control the rhythm. However, it is rare to use a large number of frames in a single picture of a picture book, and more single-page full-frame or spread-page drawings are used, and the small frames in the picture are more used for local close-ups, and the surprises generated in the narrative are often achieved by turning the pages. In addition, graphic novels are usually intended for a slightly older audience than the target audience for picture books. Therefore, it is difficult to make a picture book suitable for reading simply by rearranging the frame screen of a graphic novel.
It was also a very interesting experience to compare The Fairy Tales of Lao Cai before and after the adaptation, which was a challenging and experimental adaptation process that showed the inherent differences between the two book formats. Both the author and the editor put a lot of effort into the process, and Nie Jun said he actually redrew many of the images because the original drawings did not fit the format required for a picture book.
Overall, the picture book version has a more soothing pictorial narrative, omitting some details, leaving more white space between pages and requiring more reader involvement. However, the picture book version also adds more narrative text, which makes it easier for adults and children to explain and discuss when reading together, and also greatly reduces the difficulty of understanding the story. Patient parents or teachers can teach to children over the age of four without having to wait until after they are in the second or third grade of primary school.
At first, perhaps in order to relive the endless fun of his childhood, reminisce about his love for dreams and unchanging feelings, Nie Jun took up his painting folder and went into the old alleys of Beijing, recording those ordinary images with sketches, everything was so calm and beautiful, and the people inside and outside the paintings were full of kindness and warmth. The story of the fish, the grandfather and the neighbors flows naturally, with some warm and bright colors and a little fantasy gold dust, and the girl with dreams can swim freely in the sky...... In the end, that innocence and enthusiasm led her to the path of artistic exploration.
An evocative and warm fairy tale that has come full circle around the world and is back.
New Media Editor: Li Lingjun
Image source: Courtesy of the publisher
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