Chapter 22 one article per person

For engineers who are human souls, it seems that there is no need to emphasize the importance of writing for children.The question is how do we start, how do we promote the "writing for children and young people" movement. We often say with regret and humility: "The development of our literature, until today, is still far behind the development of many other aspects of our country." , we are especially astonishingly behind! In our own positions, our enthusiasm and creativity in the work of building a socialist society are far beyond our reach compared with the broad masses of workers and peasants!

The care and concern for the cultural life of children in our country is increasing day by day.Children's Palaces, Children's Homes, Children's Science Stations, Children's Libraries, Children's Reading Rooms, Children's Cultural Centers, Children's Bookstores, Children's Publishing Houses... have sprung up in every corner of the country.But in these many "beautiful" buildings, there are 120 million teenagers and children who are hungry and thirsty, and they anxiously stretch out their hands to ask the writer for spiritual food. This situation cannot be tolerated any longer.The children's throats have been yelled, and some of them have poured out of these buildings to "drink poison to quench their thirst"!

Listen to the criticisms and accusations against us in the society: "Most Chinese writers don't pay attention to children, so they don't pay attention to children's literature", "Why do some writers feel that it is wrong to write for our children? A glorious thing, is a worthless thing”? How can we explain these words?What defense can there be?It's all true.We can only face up to these problems, and use our creations to prove what kind of team our team of "engineers of human souls" is "worthy of the name" in future practical work. Many writer friends talk about the difficulties of writing for children, always emphasizing:

"We don't have a life!" "We are not familiar with children's language!" "Children's literature can only be written by very good writers!" " or "proud", is it "modest" or "guilty". My words may be a little too strong, but the above reasons for "not writing for children" are all untenable. Where are children not found in our surroundings?We are literally everywhere swimming in a sea of ​​children.We have no children in our own family, and there are children in the neighbor's family; there are no children in the neighbor's family, but there are children on the road.If we go to the nursery school, primary school, or youth home, can we still count the children there?

The reality is: we don't love them, we don't want to be in touch with them. So, the question is: Are we going to "experience" this "life"? As for saying "unfamiliar with children's language", that is also "specious", even "absurd".We did not learn to speak children's language first before becoming parents, nor did we first learn to speak children's language before we became teachers, nor did we first learn to speak children's language before we talked to children.It can be seen that the language problem in creation is not an unsolvable difficulty.

And—this is not a joke—we are all "born" of children, and we are all "familiar" and "used" to children's language before we "familiarize" with adults' language. As for saying "Children's literature can only be written by a very good writer", I am afraid that is too polite!Who is really a "good writer"?As long as you pick up the pen, imagine that sitting in front of you is one or several children with red faces, short hair, round eager eyes, and excited smiles on their mouths. Then what you write, whether it is novels, poems, scripts, essays... may become very good children's literature.

If in your imaginary fantasy, you still feel that there is a fat forearm hugging your neck, and the short fluffy hair is brushing your face, you can smell the sun on the soft and rough skin. Fragrance, what comes out of your pen may become a very good children's literature! Let's all try it out. We should learn from the working class and have a "labor competition". Among those of us, whether we write novels, poems, plays, essays, reviews... those who are engaged in creation or translation... we were all before 1956, everyone Write an article, as the writers of New China, a "New Year's gift" to the 120 million children in New China.Before June 1, 1956, write another article as our "Children's Day Gift" to children.If each of our professional writers and amateur writers writes one article, then I think these thousands of long and short children's literature works can also make our young readers who are "waiting to see through their eyes" smile.

This requirement is not very high.A nursery rhyme, a travelogue, a folktale, a translated foreign fairy tale, a fable, or a novel, a short play, a biography of a historical figure... In short, no matter what form it takes, choose No matter what the subject matter is, as long as it is seriously "written for children", it will undoubtedly contribute to the development and prosperity of the entire children's literature. When our vast number of professional and amateur writers wave their pens, there must be tens of thousands of parents, teachers, counselors... hearing the news, excitedly and enthusiastically joining our glorious and happy labor of.

I seem to have heard the thunderous cheers of our 120 million young readers! September 22, 1955, Beijing.