The Shanghai International Children's Book Fair is getting lively every year.
Lead Writer/Chen Sai
"David, No" series of picture book illustrations
Hesse once said in a 1930 essay, "The Magic of Books," that no matter how technologically advanced, reading would be an eternal human desire. "We don't have to fear a future without books. On the contrary, the more certain needs for entertainment and education are met through other inventions, the more the book can regain its dignity and authority. ”
He was at least half right. In China, although adults are less and less concerned about their spiritual life, they have been investing heavily in the education of their children. Children's books have thus become one of the hottest sectors of the Chinese book market, and it is said that thousands of publishing institutions are now making children's books. Middle-class parents are full of contradictory enthusiasm for children's reading, as can be seen from the chaotic scene of the book fair: adults carrying large bags and small bags full of "goods", children are stuck in the corner of a comic book and refuse to walk away; adults buy books in an orderly manner, queue up, eager to get a signature for their children, but you ask them how long they have not read the author they once loved...
Since the first children's book fair was held in 2013, with the rapid expansion of China's children's book market, the guests invited by the book fair organizers, from creators, commentators to publishers, have become more and more popular. At this year's book fair, I basically spent time in a constant rush of interviews, and I hardly had time to browse the booths and look at the newly published children's books.
American children's book author David Shannon is completely unable to understand his popularity in China. In a signing event with him as the protagonist, because the scene was too noisy, the security guards of the mall were alarmed, and even six or seven security guards had to follow behind the toilet. That night, Mr. Shannon triumphantly sent a selfie to his wife, who replied: "When you come back, the garbage will still be thrown away." ”
American children's book author David Shannon
Like "Guess How Much I Love You" and "The Cat Who Lived a Million Times", his "David, No" series has become a must-have childhood classic for modern Chinese children. His 5-year-old David, small eyes, short eyebrows, nostrils facing the sky, front teeth leaking, all the misfortunes that children can break into, he is ignorant and fearless - digging his nostrils at will, scribbling on the walls, wearing an iron pot on his head, clanging, running on the street...
It is not that Chinese parents have a particularly strong tolerance for their children's naughtiness, the best children's book writers are not only familiar with the psychology of children, but also understand the adults hidden in the shadows. The real secret of this set of books is that, just as children get the thrill of breaking taboos in David's various "no's," parents get confirmation of love in the final "Yes, I love you."
Ms. Eiko Kadono, 90, is another big star at this year's book fair, and she has a large group of fans everywhere she goes. Her "Witch House Rush" was already well known in China by Miyazaki's animation of the same name, telling how a little witch named Kiki found the courage and wisdom to live with the help of a kind of magic. In a speech at the Changning Library, Ms. Kakuno mentioned how she experienced war in her childhood, how she lost her mother, lived with her stepmother, and how the loneliness, sadness and darkness of those childhoods were transformed into the energy of growth and creation.
The famous Japanese children's literature writer Eiko Kadono
She said that she was old and did not know when she would leave, so she had something more important to express in her heart, so she created a new book, "The Forest of Tunnels", which tells the story of how a brave little girl, in the war years, crossed a terrible forest tunnel to go to school every day.
The story of "Tunnel Forest" is very moving, especially the loneliness, the loneliness of the little girl and the deserter, written lightly, like a cloud in the sky, and deep into it, like a thorn in the heart. But there was always another little thorn in my heart. If my grandmother were alive, the same age as Eiko Kadono, she once told me about the horrors of hiding from Japanese soldiers when she was a child. The father of the little girl Yizi in the book is of course a very gentle and kind father, but who knows what he has done in China? Of course, he was also a victim of war, but he was also a perpetrator. Can the distortion of human nature be the good father of one little girl at the same time and the demon of another little girl? And I can't let go of that thorn, is it because of the nationalistic intolerance, or is it just because the war had the fears and pains of my grandmother's childhood, and when these memories are gone, everything actually doesn't matter?
So, by contrast, I prefer Katie Krauser's gentleness and amiability, without the shelf of a famous writer, and without the domineering translator on the side. We met on the road and made an appointment to meet at the café in the pavilion, and when the time came, she came alone with a book in her arms.
Clauzer is a Belgian children's book author who won the Lindgren Memorial Award, the highest international children's literature award, in 2010, and among the contenders that year was The British laureate writer Quentin Black. In her acceptance speech, she wrote: "In her world, the door to fantasy and reality is always open, and the work always makes the reader feel the most secret thing in her heart, so that those who encounter difficulties, depression or disappointment can find hope and strength in her picture books." ”
Someone once wrote a long essay trying to explain why Clauzer was able to explore such serious, profound topics in children's books without losing his childish side. For example, her Grim Reaper is a little girl who walks very lightly, knocks on the door softly, and shyly approaches the person who is about to die.
She also painted a woman who lived alone in the forest, tired of herself, tired of the fish she caught, tired of the chair in front of the window, tired of the postman who came once a year, and finally jumped into the lake in unbearable loneliness on a night when she suddenly woke up, and found an opportunity to be born again there.
Illustration of "Witch House Rush"
Her latest publication in China is a small book titled "Daddy and Me, featuring a strange six-legged insect father and daughter, Poca and Mina. Mina, like all children, is mischievous, lively, passionate about things, and will do things you don't expect. Poca is a mild-mannered single dad who is often a little confused with his daughter, but he is always by her side when her daughter needs him.
This little book is easily reminiscent of Gabriel Vincent's Ait Bear and Xena Mouse. Ait is a tall Siberian bear, and Xena is a little gray mouse in a red cloak who lives together in a dilapidated old house in a snow-covered European town.
Krauser acknowledges the connection between the two sets of books. It was the sheer kindness between Ait and Xena that touched her deeply in the first place, and it was her Poka and Mina that came to her. British psychologist Donald Winnicott once said: "Love is a kind of self-surrender, letting go of one's own needs and presuppositions, in order to listen more closely and carefully to the needs of another person, respect his secrets, and give maximum tolerance." "Of course, anyone who has ever been a parent knows that it is not easy to maintain this kindness and tolerance in the details of the countless conflicts of everyday life.
"I believe that a child who has been properly listened to, loved, and accepted can be powerful. Some parents believe in harsh love and think that strictness only makes them strong, but I think it will only make them more vulnerable and unhappy. I think being a happy person is more important than being a tough person. ”
The little book, she says, is her "pastime." During the interval between the creation of some relatively heavy themes (such as loneliness, death, identity, gender, etc.), she wants to draw some light-hearted stories, about some very simple themes, such as shopping, picnics, fishing, watching movies, depicting the poetry and pleasure of these small moments in daily life.
In fact, her book, whether the theme is big or small, deep as death, or light as a moment, is about the most basic level of life, about love, about sadness, about the magic of nature and the world, about how small life can gain the power to control life in the big world.
In the world of Poca and Mina, everything is small, small rooms, little windows, little tables and chairs, little pots and pans, even Mina's shoes have a certain insect nature, as if they could fly away at any moment. The inhabitants of the six-legged insect country each look strange and dress each with their own modern entry time. Red men and green women, leisurely strolling through the streets of the city, eating, drinking tea, watching movies, visiting museums, you almost have to wonder, is there really such a highly evolved insect civilization in this world?
The famous Belgian children's book author Klauser
Klauser deliberately did not draw poca and Mina's mouths, relying only on eyes and body language to convey a variety of subtle and complex emotions, which is presumably a way for her to pay tribute to her predecessor, Tove Janssen. At that time, tove Janssen painted the elves in "Moomin Valley" just had no mouth, and relied on eyes and movements to express emotions.
Why insects as the protagonists? Is it because insects are fragile in a state of existence like children?
"No," she said, "insects are not weak at all. If you grab a bug and pull out its thin legs, they are indeed fragile. If one day, humans really destroy the earth, it will be insects that will survive, not humans. They are much more powerful than we are. ”
She took out a pen and paper and drew a crooked drawing of an animal like a bear on the paper. Called the tardigrade, she said, it's the smallest insect in the world, small enough to be the size of a pen tip, but it can survive in almost any environment on Earth. In the animal world, it has so far been a champion, both hardy and heat-resistant. By draining the body's water, it can survive temperatures ranging from minus 200 degrees Celsius to 150 degrees Celsius. It can survive in space for days.
I found that when she talked about trees and insects and jellyfish, that curiosity was scientistic. Painting is her first tool for exploring and understanding the world, and every time she sees something she doesn't recognize, her first instinct is to draw it, write down its name, and flip through it for more information. If it weren't for her hearing impairment as a child, she would probably have become a scientist. When she was 17 years old, the first time she read Miss Potter's biography, she knew she would also become a picture book author.
Children's book author Beatrix Potter, an English woman born 100 years before her, is the most important muse in her work. She admired her talent and courage, intense curiosity, pragmatic approach to life, and her ability to find a sense of humor in the absurdities of everyday life.
A lot of women paint, they can paint cutely and sweetly, just like society expects the style of female painters, but there are some women, like Miss Potter, whose paintings are full of power. Potter's paintings are very realistic, she depicts the animals, plants, gardens and woods in the story with a scientific precision, and her animals must be real and precise in every detail—not only in personality and behavior, but also in anatomy. But at the same time, she paints so beautifully, so beautifully that it's so breathtaking, as if you could walk up to the painting and sit with the person in it. "When I was a kid, I really believed that Peter rabbits lived in England and could visit them when they grew up."
Unlike Miss Potter, there is a large area of Clauser's life that has been carved out for the mysterious and the unknown, and she feels that she is spiritually connected to the ancient animistic world. "In the UK and Sweden, we believe in a lot of invisible things like fairies, goblins, elves. There is a boulder in Iceland that is said to be where fairies live, and people still take detours to this day. When I was a child, my father used to tell me to leave some food for the goblins in the house, otherwise they would play some pranks on you. That's how I grew up. ”
In her opinion, this kind of relationship between man and nature is very beautiful, although it is not true, but who cares?
Illustration of "Little Death"
"You know what? Scientists have found that in the forest, underground that we can't see with the naked eye, all the trees are connected together through the roots of the stretch, and there are mother trees and sub-trees in between them, and they frequently exchange information and nutrients with each other. If one tree is sick, other trees will heal it. If one tree doesn't get light, the other trees make room to help it get light. If an animal comes to eat the leaves of a tree, other trees will know that if they secrete acidic substances, the animals will not come back to eat..."
"We're so arrogant that we think we know everything, but we really don't know. Today's truth may not be true 100 years from now. ”
So, her philosophy is: "Don't try to understand everything, or master everything, because mystery rises above our lives." It's best to get used to it and learn to live with it. ”
In fact, she believes that whether it is content or form, a story needs magic to impress children. For her, magic may not be heaven and earth, but it can also be a fallen leaf, a flower, a soft wind, hearing someone singing in the street, the first time a little baby looks deeply into your eyes, the first time your child learns to ride steadily on a bicycle.
She is happy to present to her children the beauty, mystery and magic of these seemingly ordinary daily lives, but in her writing, the world seems to become more relaxed and magnificent, and plants, animals and even stones have souls. In the strange gap of time and space, there are also some small unnamed elves, they have their language, etiquette and daily life, through all this, she wants to tell the child that all life is precious and magical, worthy of our love and pity.
In Daddy and Me, one of my favorite episodes is Mina and Poca going fishing, but are taken away by the big fish, meet a strange lady, invite them to drink moss tea in a Japanese-style room, eat moss cake, and then ride a dragon lice and wear oxygen bubbles to roam the underwater world. The story is imbued with a gentle, bright atmosphere, like a dream on a summer afternoon. In this dream, every minute of a father and daughter together shines with joy and mystery.
In our hometown, when I was a child, every family had to eat moss dumplings every time I went to the Cold Food Festival, and now I suddenly saw moss cake in the recipe of a pair of insect father and daughter, and I couldn't help but laugh. Klauser is also fascinated by moss dumplings, saying that she only became interested in moss after she went to Japan.
Dragon lice are also a magical insect. She said that when she was a child, she was afraid of such bugs, they would carry an oxygen tank to the depths of the water to feed, when the oxygen ran out, they would stop on the branches of the underwater plants, slightly their hind feet, and squeeze out a bubble from under the elytra as an oxygen tank. Isn't it like magic?
Illustration of "Daddy and Me"
The strange lady is reminiscent of Grandma Tang in Spirited Away. Clauser likes Miyazaki because his films often have these inexplicable stories and characters, such as The Faceless Man, Mother Tang and Grandma Qian, they are twins, one gentle and amiable, one greedy and miserly, but their good and evil is not black and white, but you have me.
She said that since she was a child, she liked stories that she could not fully understand, because it was these incomprehensible places that stayed in our memories for a long time, and repeatedly invited us to observe, to pursue, to imagine, to try to solve the mystery.
Death, for example, is a thing that is not easy to understand, especially for children. When my child Worm was 4 years old, walking on the road, seeing the fallen leaves on the ground, he would ask, "Mom, is this leaf dead?" Sometimes, he would learn from a book in which a European wildcat was dead and warped, cheerfully declaring, "I'm dead because I'm old." Sometimes, he would suddenly and sadly ask, "Where does Grandma live in heaven?" ”
Clauzer's "Little Death", someone read the broken mouth scolding, how can you read such a terrible story to your child? Someone exclaimed that this story was so beautiful and really helped my children. Some people say, ah, this story is so cute and sweet.
For me, the most moving thing about this book is the author's tone and rhythm mixed with gentleness, sadness and humor. She once said that she did not deliberately write for her children, and the reason why she wrote and painted this way was because it was her personal language. "There is no doubt that I have a strong interest in children. I love their freshness, casualness, humor, and wisdom. They are much more real than many adults who hide behind masks and forget who they are. ”
But how did this language come about?
I'm afraid it will start with her childhood. All her childhood holidays and weekends were spent in a small port city called Veere in the Dutch province of Zeeland, where there were forests, lakes, churches, and her father loved to grow flowers, and their family's garden was planted with many beautiful flowers.
There, she had very happy moments, and there were also very difficult moments. Her father passed on his passion for nature to her, reading for her, explaining trees, flowers, birds, and telling her many magical stories. But at the same time, he is also a person with violent tendencies. He was a former RAF pilot and retired from business. "My father wanted me to be strong, he raised me like a boy because he knew I was sensitive, vulnerable and always in pain. I had glasses, I had hearing aids, I had braces, I couldn't speak well, and sometimes my father would burst out, and I never knew why or when. You do the same thing, sometimes he finds it funny, sometimes he suddenly gives you a slap and you have no idea why. ”
Someone who gives you life and loves you will hurt you in this way, which creates a permanent wound in some corner of her heart. This wound is very powerful in her Medusa Mama — a once-hurt mother who wants to protect her little daughter as much as possible, in a way that she herself has not been protected, but maternal love ultimately means learning to let go.
During the difficult times of childhood, books gave her refuge. She read Lindgren, she read Miss Potter, she read The Secret Garden, and in these stories she learned to confront her fears, sorrows, and confusion. Like the little prince who "domesticated" the fox, she believed that reading was the best way to "domesticate" fear. "I'm more and more convinced that when a book makes you feel fear, it must not be the book itself, but something in your own heart that makes you feel afraid. Similarly, when you are judging others, you are actually judging yourself. ”
In addition to reading, she draws. Because she had a hearing impairment from an early age, she did not start speaking until she was 4 years old. Although modern hearing aids can help her hear sounds like ordinary people, once removed, she cannot distinguish any sound and its source. A child who cannot rely on hearing must interpret a person's signals through body language, posture, and expressions. The Lindgren Memorial Awards cite her as a "master of line and atmosphere" – her depiction of the character's facial expressions, postures, or atmospheres is extremely precise. Such as small changes in the body, raised eyebrows, and slight movements of fingers, the atmosphere of the whole scene changes. The reader can almost feel the breath and heartbeat of the image. This is clearly related to the power of observation she has developed since childhood in silence, a habit that gives her a distinctive gaze at the world and a special sympathy for human vulnerability.
The silent reading of childhood must have also deeply influenced her language, so that her works always have a silent poetry, a faint sadness, and a gentle sense of humor. Sadness is the essence of life, but when sadness becomes unbearable, it can only be resolved by laughter. Not to laugh at others, but to laugh at yourself, to laugh at the absurdity of existence itself. Therefore, her sadness never turns into despair, but always dies. It's like Anna jumping into the lake late at night, only to find that the three small islands in the lake turned out to be three young giants, who opened the way for her to get out of loneliness and towards love and companionship.
The same is true of "Root Child", an isolated woman who accidentally finds a child who looks like a tree root crying. She took him in, though he wasn't easy to get along with because she felt he had too many problems. She especially hated him for asking her, "Why are you always alone?" But gradually, his questions made her rethink the meaning of life. When Genbo finally left her, she decided to let go of loneliness and return to the crowd in search of a new life.
Klauser once said that her favorite themes are two, one is darkness and the other is magic. To depict darkness is to show the way out. "Without light, there would be no darkness. In the same way, without darkness, there would be no light. ”
Even though the world is covered with deep and dark tunnels, there is always light at the end of the tunnel, suggesting new twists and opportunities.
In fact, as the years passed, her books became brighter, more joyful and humorous, and more and more characters in the books. "When I was a kid I was scared of people because I didn't trust them. Then I started to grow up, met a lot of amazing adults, and growing up gradually became something to look forward to. ”
On the last page of Miss Potter's biography is Miss Potter—a peasant woman sitting under a tree, very old, but robust and rustic, like a Buddha. "I looked at her and thought that when I reached the end of my life, I would be like the old woman who sat down under the tree, thinking about how beautiful life was. That's my biggest goal in life. ”