Chapter 22 Provide spiritual food for the next generation——Read the reissued "Children's Literature"

The question of children's books has been on my mind in recent years.It seems that the older we get, the more we cherish the places we've lived, worked, and traveled in our lives—our societies, our countries, and even the world.How did I grow up in these decades when I recalled myself from my childhood?What kind of road have you traveled?What is there to support and encourage us to move forward on this long road?At this time, I can't help but think about the exquisite spiritual food that maintains our physical and mental health, and I can't help but think about our future masters of the country-our future generations.What kind of spiritual food should we prepare for them, so that they can grow up healthily, take on the great cause we have never done, and complete the arduous and glorious task of the four modernizations we want to achieve.

Now, let me introduce one of the spiritual foods we have prepared for children - "Children's Literature". Teachers, parents and children are invited to taste it and give us suggestions for improvement. "Children's Literature" was founded in 1963. It was born under the guidance of Mao Zedong's literary thought. It is jointly sponsored by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League and the Chinese Writers Association. It is a children's publication for the whole country.Through literary works of various themes and styles that children love, it educates the revolutionary generations with communist ideology, and at the same time unites children's literature workers.Trained many newcomers.Comrade Mao Dun, an old writer, once published an article "Reading "Children's Literature"" in the "People's Daily" on May 20, 1964. As a parent, he was full of enthusiasm for the authors of children's literature. They expressed their thanks and made requests.He sincerely hopes that newcomers who write for children will continue to appear, and more and more will come out, so as to provide more and more exquisite spiritual food for the 200 million children in the motherland.This article of his has greatly encouraged children's literature workers.

However, just over two years later, "Children's Literature" had only published ten issues, and it was killed by Lin Biao and the "Gang of Four".They wielded the axe of the "black-line dictatorship of literature and art" theory, and chopped down in the garden of literature and art. Even the tender seedling "Children's Literature" was not spared!The publication was framed as a poisonous weed, and many authors were attacked and persecuted. The activities of cultivating young authors were accused of conspiracy to release poison.The publication was forced to suspend publication for ten years!It wasn't until the "Gang of Four" was smashed that "Children's Literature" was able to meet the 200 million children who were hungry for spiritual food again.From the second half of this year, it will be officially changed to a monthly magazine, realizing our wish for many years.This is really a happy event for the children.

Recently, I carefully read several issues of "Children's Literature" that were reissued ten years later with a feeling of cherishing and gratifying.My spring tide-like feelings are endless!I have seen authors who wrote for children ten years ago continue to write for children with greater enthusiasm and deeper understanding.What is even more gratifying is the emergence of a group of new writers who created children's literature. These new writers have been suffering, thinking and discovering in this decade.The works of these newcomers trained during the rampant period of the "four pests" are beyond our imagination ten years ago.Let them cook spiritual food for 200 million children. To me, I am satisfied and relieved!

There are always hundreds of works in these issues of "Children's Literature", and I cannot introduce them in detail.Now I will only mention some that still leave a deep impression on my mind after I finish reading the cover book, and I will talk to you about it. The author who has long been famous, writes more profoundly and more concisely after ten years! Works such as Wang Yuanjian's "Footprints of a Great Warrior" (first issue) and Bai Hua's "The Stream Runs to the Sea" (seventh issue) are the most prominent among the works reflecting the great deeds of the older generation of revolutionaries.The theme is clear, and the characters are written well. The advantage is that it is profound, tortuous and fluent. After reading it, it makes people admire and hesitate, and can't control themselves!Hooch's "Old Corn" is also very well written.The old corn child is an extremely cute image, he seems to be one of the children around me.Another advantage of this story is that it is short.Children nowadays are very busy, and short articles can help them see the needles, and they can afford it and put it down.At the same time, I think short essays are more difficult to write than long essays, and it takes a lot of "ingenuity" to cut and refine.I also like Ke Yan's poem "Letter from Uncle Chen Jingrun" (No. 5).It looks plausible, reads smoothly, and has a strong ending.I have always loved reading Ke Yan's poems, especially her children's poems, which are lively and energetic.

Among the works of new writers, Liu Xinwu's "Glass Shining" (Phase 1) is worth reading. The work writes about the changes in the relationship between classmates before and after the smashing of the "Gang of Four". Through the glass, the child's mind is shining brightly, and he sees a bright future twenty-three years later.Han Jingting's "Descendants of the General Snake Catcher" (Phase 2) gives us new knowledge.Intellectual fairy tales should be written so interestingly and movingly.Li Fengjie is also a new author. His "Honesty" (7th issue) also tells the story of the rampant period of the "Gang of Four", how an honest child bravely defended their teacher who was loyal to the party's educational cause.The story and writing are very moving.Then there is Gu Ying's "A Zhuo's Knife" (Volume 5). There is a story inside this story, which seems to be very novel.A child who was poisoned by the "Gang of Four" and did bad things and wanted to change his ways but dared not admit it. Hearing the story of the original owner of the knife he stole, a Tibetan child, Ah Zhuo, who was killed by the enemy for covering the Red Army, he was finally moved to admit it. mistake.The development of the story is narrated in several letters from the children, and the effect is not bad.

Finally, I would like to mention several old writers, like Ye Junjian, Jin Jin, He Yi, Liu Houming... They all wrote fairy tales and novels for "Children's Literature". They don't need me to introduce them.Their spirit of writing for children, working tirelessly for decades, deserves our respect and learning. Speaking of fairy tales, there are ten in the fifth issue, and the children's response is very good.There are seven foreign children's literature in the fourth issue.These short stories are very suitable for the needs of children. From the stories, they know about the political systems and people's living habits of other countries.From the Argentine story "A Dictionary," they would feel sorry for the strange plot of a poor boy who did a good deed and dared not let his father know about it.There is also "Robot Freeday" written by a British author, which is a science fiction novel.Children are most interested in this kind of stories.There are three essays and travel notes in the sixth issue: "Roaming in Xisha" by Zhang Ming, "Wolf Hunting in the Prairie" by Kaihua, and "The Story of Capturing a Bison" by Yang Mingyuan.These works will also interest and excite young readers.

What children love to read, adults will also love to read, and they will talk about their evaluation and hope for this book.We sincerely hope that adults will also read "Children's Literature", discuss and discuss with children, and give us their opinions.We have resumed publishing soon, and there is still a lot of work that should be done but has not been done. Readers' comments on us are a huge driving force to push "Children's Literature" forward!