Kids turn the page for fun and adventure
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, August 22, 2012
Liang Yulei is browsing through the Mo's Mischief book series to see whether he should get one for his nine-year-old son. The series features naughty student Ma Xiaotiao, whose name means hopping around.
As a bestselling series written by former teacher Yang Hongying, it is also one of the first and few Chinese children's books that have been translated and published abroad.
The page Liang is reading tells the story of how Ma and his friend talk about wearing skirts to avoid pain after having a circumcision.
"Circumcision? That's interesting. I didn't expect to see this kind of discussion in a book for primary school kids," he tells Shanghai Daily while shopping with his son at the annual Shanghai Book Fair, which ended yesterday.
The 37-year-old accountant grew up at a time when certain subjects, such as death or love, were not commonly discussed in books for children.
He was brought up with books like "To Young Readers," written by famous contemporary Chinese writer Bingxin (born Xie Wanying 1900-1999), who was most famous for her philosophical essays.
Xie, together with other famous contemporary writers, was called by the national writers' association to write for children and young adults. At the time, there were very few specialized children's writers.
In "To Young Readers," Xie wrote in the form of correspondence to describe her overseas trips in poetic language, urging youngsters to study hard and contribute to the further development of the country. It was one of the most beautifully written and widely-read children's literature for those born in the 1970s and 1980s.
Second golden era
"The 1950s was a golden era for children's literature, as the central government called for established authors, not just children's writers, to write for kids. We are now in the second golden era," says Jin Bo, a famous children's writer.
"Now there are many more specialized children's writers and there is more variety in children's books in terms of genres and content."
Children's books have become a fast growing category in publishing markets all around the world, and in China it was up 11.6 percent in 2011 from the previous year, far more than the 6 percent average for all books, according to sales monitoring service from OpenBook, a Chinese publishing industry information and consulting company.
"Children's books, unlike the market for adults, always come in series, so the best-selling rank is rather focused. If one book becomes popular, the publisher will push the authors to write more in the series very quickly," says Yang Wei, marketing director at OpenBook.
"Some imported contemporary foreign series and republished world classics have also become popular among kids."
Shanghai 99 Readers, a publishing house specializing in imported books, has greatly expanded its children's section in the past two to three years. They have bought the copyrights of contemporary children's books from all over the world such as French series "Le Grand Livre d'Olga," which tells the story from the perspective of little girl Olga.
"We have realized that practical books, or books that make children smart, are the most popular among parents," says Shang Fei, 99 Readers' senior editor in the children's section.
"Books that tell stories from a child's perspective are welcome by kids."
More than 30 publishers specialize in children's books while more than 520, out of around 580 publishing houses in China, are involved in printing kids' books. Two best-selling children's writers, Yang Hongying and Zheng Yuanjie, are in the top three of a ranking of wealthiest authors in China.
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