Bookworm International Literary Festival 2011: Yang Hongying
In addition to satisfying my own cultural appetite at the Bookworm's Literary Festival this year, I was hoping Myles and Brigid would have an opportunity to attend at least one of the many children's events as well. Many quickly sold out, but last week I noticed on the website that one event for this week had not yet. Popular Chinese children's book author Yang Hongying would be giving a talk in Chinese with English translation provided. Even though we did not own any books by this author, I believed it would be a good introduction for us to Chinese contemporary popular children's literature. I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for our Changping friends as well. The Bookworm does not publicize their events in neighborhoods like mine, so they, of course, had not heard of it. On Monday I was able to buy tickets, so Thursday morning we all drove down to Sanlitun.
The kids, of course, had no problem finding the children's books. Over-sized, colorful, photo-filled science books were immediately opened and shared. Conversations about the animals changed quickly and often between Chinese and English. I know Myles was speaking Chinese at the moment I took this picture because of the way he is gesturing with his hands. He still doesn't speak well, and tries to make up for the gaps with his hands.
Just before 10, the kids put the books away and took their seats and waited for Yang Hongying to start. Also in attendance were a few other foreign and Chinese kids, as well as an entire kindergarten from one of the international schools, many of whom spoke Chinese as well.
Yang Hongying took the stage with a wonderful translator, Alice from Paper Republic. Yang talked about how she came to write books for children, first as a primary school teacher when she was only eighteen years old and then continuing as a mother to a young daughter. It was obvious she loved what she does.
Having written several series for different age groups, she focused first on Diary of a Smiling Cat. There are thirteen books in this very popular series. Once available only in Chinese, they have recently been translated into German. Yang was very successful in drawing the children in, asking questions about the Smiling Cat, often answered in unison by the Chinese and Mandarin-speaking foreign children even before Alice could translate it. The Smiling Cat has many characteristic smiles, depending on the situation he faces. He has a contented smile, a friendly smile, a smile of determination when facing adversity (I couldn't remember the Chinese name for it), and a crazy smile when he needs to scare an adversary. She invited children to come up in turns to demonstrate the various smiles. Needless to say, Myles was more than happy to demonstrate the crazy smile as it involved clenched teeth and a ferocious growl.
As she was describing the Smiling Cat and another supporting character in the book, I couldn't help but wonder if she would have been aided by showing the actual illustrations, either using the books (of which apparently none were on hand) or, better yet, poster-sized copies of some of the books' illustrations. Even though many of the children were familiar with The Smiling Cat, I think having the pictures to show along with what she was describing would have been even better for the kids to connect with what she was saying and what is in her books.
She also read from her first book, one she originally wrote as a young school teacher before she was twenty years old. She was not happy with some of the books they were using in the school, and started to write stories that were also about science. Americans have no shortage of these types of books (Magic School Bus, Let's Read and Find Out, to name two), but in China thirty years ago these were mostly unheard of. In the story she read, a fish discovers a ball floating in the pond and it turns out to be a lotus seed. The fish and the seed talk for a while, and then later the fish returns and finds the flowering plant in its place. The plant explains to the fish that it was the seed from before, except it had lost all the air from its jacket and sunk to the bottom of the pond. It was now a beautiful lotus.
Afterwards she signed books and graciously sat for many, many pictures. The Bookworm did have this book on sale, the English translation of Mo's Mischief. I bought it for Myles, though I am interested to read it for myself.
After two years of living in Beijing, I was pleased that we could at last attend two events at the Bookworm's literary festival. We definitely do not take that for granted.
Arriving I was curious about my friends' impression of the Bookworm. I feel as though many in the international community down in Beijing take its existence for granted, but for the rest of Beijing (like the majority of the population) it is very unique. Changping town has a few small bookstores and one decent-sized Xinhua (about the size of a typical Waldenbooks, when they once were in every mall in the US), but nothing like the Bookworm, for customers of any nationality. I was relieved our friends liked it, and later we talked about ways we can create our own personal Bookworm experience among ourselves up here in Changping.
The kids, of course, had no problem finding the children's books. Over-sized, colorful, photo-filled science books were immediately opened and shared. Conversations about the animals changed quickly and often between Chinese and English. I know Myles was speaking Chinese at the moment I took this picture because of the way he is gesturing with his hands. He still doesn't speak well, and tries to make up for the gaps with his hands.
Just before 10, the kids put the books away and took their seats and waited for Yang Hongying to start. Also in attendance were a few other foreign and Chinese kids, as well as an entire kindergarten from one of the international schools, many of whom spoke Chinese as well.
Yang Hongying took the stage with a wonderful translator, Alice from Paper Republic. Yang talked about how she came to write books for children, first as a primary school teacher when she was only eighteen years old and then continuing as a mother to a young daughter. It was obvious she loved what she does.
Having written several series for different age groups, she focused first on Diary of a Smiling Cat. There are thirteen books in this very popular series. Once available only in Chinese, they have recently been translated into German. Yang was very successful in drawing the children in, asking questions about the Smiling Cat, often answered in unison by the Chinese and Mandarin-speaking foreign children even before Alice could translate it. The Smiling Cat has many characteristic smiles, depending on the situation he faces. He has a contented smile, a friendly smile, a smile of determination when facing adversity (I couldn't remember the Chinese name for it), and a crazy smile when he needs to scare an adversary. She invited children to come up in turns to demonstrate the various smiles. Needless to say, Myles was more than happy to demonstrate the crazy smile as it involved clenched teeth and a ferocious growl.
As she was describing the Smiling Cat and another supporting character in the book, I couldn't help but wonder if she would have been aided by showing the actual illustrations, either using the books (of which apparently none were on hand) or, better yet, poster-sized copies of some of the books' illustrations. Even though many of the children were familiar with The Smiling Cat, I think having the pictures to show along with what she was describing would have been even better for the kids to connect with what she was saying and what is in her books.
She also read from her first book, one she originally wrote as a young school teacher before she was twenty years old. She was not happy with some of the books they were using in the school, and started to write stories that were also about science. Americans have no shortage of these types of books (Magic School Bus, Let's Read and Find Out, to name two), but in China thirty years ago these were mostly unheard of. In the story she read, a fish discovers a ball floating in the pond and it turns out to be a lotus seed. The fish and the seed talk for a while, and then later the fish returns and finds the flowering plant in its place. The plant explains to the fish that it was the seed from before, except it had lost all the air from its jacket and sunk to the bottom of the pond. It was now a beautiful lotus.
Afterwards she signed books and graciously sat for many, many pictures. The Bookworm did have this book on sale, the English translation of Mo's Mischief. I bought it for Myles, though I am interested to read it for myself.
After two years of living in Beijing, I was pleased that we could at last attend two events at the Bookworm's literary festival. We definitely do not take that for granted.
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