Chapter 26 The Tasks of Children's Literature Workers and the Characteristics of Children's Literature

I wanted to study medicine in my early years, but I didn't think of writing, let alone children's literature.I wanted to study medicine with all my heart, and my scores in mathematics, physics and chemistry were also good.In addition, I don't like Chinese very much.Because the Chinese class in middle school cannot meet my needs. Then the May Fourth Movement broke out.I was nineteen years old that year, and I worked as a propaganda worker for the Federation of Women's Scholars and participated in this great movement. As a result, I missed a lot of science homework, especially laboratory homework.At the same time, I became interested in writing, so I wrote several short stories about the social problems I saw and heard during the May 4th Movement.

published on. After graduating from university in 1923, I went to the United States to study. At that time, the Beijing Morning Post opened a column called "Children's World". They asked me to write articles for children while I was in the United States. This is how I wrote "Send to Young Readers" . When I am at home, I am among the children all day long. I am the eldest sister at home, and I have three younger brothers. They also have many friends. Groups of them come to my house to play, sometimes as many as ten or twenty. I like them very much. I am proud of " "Send to Young Readers" written by "Children's World" is for them.

After I traveled across the ocean to the United States, I fell ill again and was admitted to the hospital.When I was lonely and free, I was homesick, my motherland, my relatives, and my young friends, and I even wanted to write for the children.This hospital has a children's branch, and I also had the opportunity to contact them, understand them, and write about them.After being discharged from the hospital, I was almost cut off from the children and had no life, so I had to write something to express my feelings. After writing, I felt that it was unsuccessful, so I didn't continue.

"Resend to Little Readers" was written during the Great Leap Forward in 1958, when a meeting was held at the Writers Association.The writers challenged each other, some said they would write several plays in a year, some said they would write several novels, a friend said to me: "You should come to "Resend Little Readers"!" He fully agreed. Around 1958, I had a lot of missions abroad, so I felt that I should write some stories about foreign countries for the children to increase their knowledge and understanding of foreign countries.Therefore, most of the contents of "Send to Little Readers" reflect the friendly exchanges with the people of other countries and foreign landscape figures, and some of them also reflect the new social outlook of our motherland and my own new feelings.

"Three Letters to Little Readers" was written after the "Gang of Four" was smashed, and the meaning of my writing for children has become more and more clear. When the "Gang of Four" was rampant, I couldn't write, and I didn't dare to write, let alone have any interest in writing.Now it is different. Under the situation of bringing order out of chaos and rule of people and mind, our 900 million people are advancing towards the goals of the four modernizations, and the 200 million children in our country today are the new force and masters in 2000. These children have just been released from the prison of darkness, evil, and ignorance created by the "Gang of Four", and come to be exposed to the fresh, dazzling air and sunshine of democracy and science, the light, goodness, and wisdom!We must carefully cherish and cultivate these buds, while cleaning up the residual poison, while strengthening nourishment, this extremely difficult task has historically fallen on our generation of children's literature writers, which has never been done before. , the great cause of promoting world peace and human progress.We must seize this critical moment and shoulder this most honorable responsibility with courage and joy.My abilities and years are limited, but looking forward to the future, I feel that I must devote all my strength to the creation of children's literature!

To engage in children's literature, you must not be afraid of others' ridicule and discussion.Some people treat children's literature as "pediatrics" and "scrap", which is wrong.In fact, "Pediatrics" is the most difficult department in the hospital, because the patient will not tell you how he feels. Therefore, children's literature is also the most difficult to write.Some writers regard children's literature as a stepping stone, and after some successful writing, they jump to adult literature.I feel sorry for these people!I have always found it a joy to write to children.Some middle-aged and young people said to me: "I read what you wrote when I was a child." Some people even recited to me some words and sentences in the articles I wrote.

I'm always happy to hear it.Because although I didn't write well, they didn't forget what I didn't write well! To create for children means to communicate with children, love them, respect them, and be equal to them.If you don't like children and force yourself to write, you won't be able to write things that can move children.The burden of children's literature workers is really heavy! Someone jokingly asked me: "You are so old, why do you still have a childlike innocence?" Some people also called me an "expert in maternal love".In this regard, I also think that some people regard "childlike innocence", "maternal love" and "human nature" as forbidden areas for children's literature.What is "childlike innocence", what is "maternal love", "human nature", I can't tell.But I think that those who engage in children's literature must have a heart that loves children, a motherly heart, human feelings, and a human character.This shouldn't be off limits at all. "Mother's Love", write about your own mother's love for you.Of course it is possible to write. It is a pity that there are not many people who write such articles.Let's not avoid "maternal love", but don't take it as a philosophy of life like I used to.I used to mistakenly think that all mothers in the world love children in the world, but it is not true, love has a class nature.Once, I saw a mother who loves her child beat a little maid, and I realized that love has a class nature.

To describe a child, one must understand the child, be close to the child, and respect the child.The characteristics of children are both common and individual.Even if born to the same parents, they do not necessarily have the same personality.For example, in a family, grandparents love the oldest child, while parents love the youngest.The ones in the middle are often very well-behaved. If they are not, it is not easy to adapt to the environment.So, to understand children's psychology, you must get in touch with children, be familiar with children, respect them, understand their self-esteem, treat them as a person, not a toy, and don't make meaningless jokes with children .Only in this way will they be willing to approach you, be your friend, talk to you, and ask you various questions.

Some comrades asked me to talk about how to refine the theme and organize the plot, so I will talk about it casually.Since liberation, the most strenuous article I have encountered in writing is "I Stand in Front of the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall". I have revised the draft seven or eight times. Saw him in the conference hall, heard him speak. I have read all "Selected Works of Mao Zedong". The great achievements he has made to the Chinese people are too great and too many.I don't know where to start!So I had to look at it from a long distance and think about which sentence of Chairman Mao was the most touching.I deeply feel that in China, only Chairman Mao treated the people as human beings for the first time.I often quote Chairman Mao's words in my inscriptions to foreign friends: "The people, and only the people, are the driving force for creating world history." Be the strong backing of the Party Central Committee!This proves that Chairman Mao's evaluation of the people is an eternal truth.

When it comes to overcoming the generalization of short stories, I think it is still necessary to go deep into life.Only go deep into life and find the characters and themes you describe from life.In a word, everything starts from life and will not be generalized.The same two children, because of different family environments and conditions, and because of the different personalities of the writers, will not write the same works.Why there is generalization, in one sentence: still no life. When creating children's literature, we must also adhere to revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism.Children are the most imaginative, so when we write things, we must write the beautiful fantasies in children's hearts.Only in this way, children will enjoy watching.It is not difficult to do this, the key is to get in touch with children, understand children, and love children.I will not make a report, and the above is to answer a few questions raised by you.Comrades, please correct me if I am wrong.

first edition. )