Chapter 63 Postscript of the library

It has only been three years since the booklet was published, but a lot has happened in that time, which has really delighted me and surprised me at the same time.When I started writing the story about my favorite Mr. Principal and I will never forget Ba Xueyuan, I absolutely did not expect this book to be such a bestseller.The book has sold 4.5 million copies within a year of its publication, and nearly 6 million copies to date. Someone said to me, "This is the first time this has happened in the Japanese publishing industry," but I haven't felt it personally.But every day I receive countless letters from all over the world. When I read these letters, I really feel "so many people are really reading my book".The readers who wrote to me ranged from five-year-old children to 103-year-olds, and every letter was so touching.

Among the letters from readers, I was surprised to find that there are so many letters from elementary school students.When I wrote this book, I didn't expect children in the lower grades of elementary school to read it, but just to be cautious, I still marked the pronunciation on the more difficult Chinese characters.Even so, in this era known as being far away from Chinese characters, children who are only in the lower grades of elementary school actually read my book while looking up the dictionary.When I learned of this situation, I couldn't help but feel sincerely happy. A girl in the second grade of primary school wrote to me that she saw a disabled child on the road, and thought it was "Tai Ming" or "a child from Ba Xueyuan", so she rushed forward to say hello and said: Hello", so the child replied "Hello" too, and the girl was very happy.Ba Xueyuan existed forty years ago. Children are really interesting! Many children wrote to me and said that when they read the last part of "Ba Xueyuan was burned down", they felt "war It's bad," and writing this book would have been worth it if it was just for children to realize that.

After writing this book, I once hoped that school teachers and young mothers would say after reading it: "Ah, so there is such an educator who truly loves and trusts children and is full of enthusiasm!" However, I also imagined that teachers in the field of real education might retort: "In such a competitive society, even if you know about this kind of dreamy thing, there is no way to really do it!" However, after the publication of this book, it immediately received a positive response from the teachers.Many primary school teachers wrote to say, "I take this book and read a paragraph to the children every day during the school's unified meal time"; there are also primary school art teachers who said, "When I was in art class, I took the book from Xiaodou. Many passages are read to the children, allowing them to use their imagination and draw pictures based on the story”; another middle school teacher wrote, “I am disappointed with the current school education and once considered changing my job. But now I am willing to With Mr. Kobayashi’s mood, try again.” Such gratifying letters came one after another, which moved me to tears, because “there are so many teachers who can understand Mr. Lin”.In addition, this book has been used in school textbooks in various forms. Last year, "Teacher "Dry Field"" was selected as the Chinese textbook for the third grade of elementary school, and "Broken School" was selected as the moral textbook for the fourth grade.

But there were also sad letters.A female high school student wrote in a letter from the juvenile correctional center: "If I had a mother like Xiaodoudou's mother, or met a teacher like Principal Kobayashi, maybe I would not come to this place..." "Why did it become such a best-selling book?" The media raised this question, and it turned out to be a social topic. The Asahi Shimbun published a series of reports about the book, "Adzuki Bean Syndrome," investigating the book's influence in various ways.Also, what is surprising is that another publishing house that has nothing to do with the publication of "Xiao Doudou" has released a book "Xiao Doudou's Best Selling Story", which comprehensively analyzes the question of "why it sells well" from various angles.

In any case, at a time when there are many problems in Japanese education and everyone is thinking about "what measures should be taken", this book has attracted attention as an "education book" as soon as it was published, although it is not written by me. original intention.Maybe that's why it's such a bestseller.Moreover, people of different ages read this book in different ways, which seems to be one of the reasons why it is so popular. However, some say it was the first best-selling book written by a woman.Generally speaking, when it comes to bestsellers, people think that because male readers like to buy them, they will sell well.As for this book, it seems that men are taking a rather negative attitude.

"The cover is too feminine", "it's a book written by a celebrity", "it's a bestseller", just because of the above reasons, many men are reluctant to touch this book.Of the men who wrote reviews for this book, many wrote: "...For those reasons, I didn't read it, but my family desperately recommended it..." However, the men who started reading this book because of family recommendations gave me high marks in the reviews.I am very grateful to those who have highly recommended my book to their families, thank you. Before the publication of this book, I decided to use its royalties to set up the first professional theater troupe for the deaf in Japan.In order to allow the troupe to continue to exist when I am old and frail and unable to hold activities together, or after my death, I applied to the government to define the troupe as a "social welfare legal person".

Although there are many difficulties in approving my application because there is no precedent.But the government recognized the various social welfare activities I participated in over the past 25 years, and finally approved my application.Thus, the "Social Welfare Corporation Xiaodoudou Fund" was established.Then, the book unexpectedly became a bestseller.Then, our "Japanese Deaf Theater Troupe" began to hold activities.In the rehearsal field of the Xiaodoudou Foundation, more than 20 deaf-mute actors are rehearsing. In addition, we have also opened sign language classes.

Last July, we prepared the Kyogen program and participated in the long-awaited theater festival of the World Congress of the Deaf.In Palermo, Italy, we performed brilliantly from our rehearsals in front of audiences from forty-five countries.This is the first time that Japanese deaf actors have performed in a play abroad, and this is possible only because of the support of readers.Thank you all. In the spring two years ago, when His Majesty the Emperor held a garden party, I was invited to participate because of the establishment of the Xiaodoudou Foundation and the best-selling book. At the same time, Mr. Fukui Kenichi, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was also invited. .His Majesty the Emperor said to me: "It's really good that the book can sell so well." This is really a compliment that surprised me.In the same year, December 9, 1982 (in Japan, this day is designated as Disabled Persons Day), I was honored by Prime Minister Suzuki because it was the International Year of Persons with Disabilities.Moreover, he also won the "Yamamoto Yusan Roadside Stone Literary Award" and many other awards.

In addition, there are countless invitations to make this book into a movie, a TV series, an animation, a stage, and music... But I thought, thanks to the beautiful illustrations by Ms. Chihiro Iwasaki , every reader has created his own pictures in his mind based on his own imagination, and it is extremely difficult to make a film that can surpass them, so I declined. However, I only agreed to one offer, and that was a proposal by the Nova Japan Symphony Orchestra to produce a symphony based on this book, and I am in favor of that.Because music can give free rein to imagination.Mr. Akihiro Komori's composition moves us more than words.The concert performed by the New Star Japan Symphony Orchestra with me as the broadcast commentary is still being performed all over the country and has been made into a tape.

In 1982, the year after Xiaodoudou was published, an excellent English translation by Dorothy Plimpton came out.Composer and poet Dorothy's translation has the same rhythm and feel as my own, and I laughed and cried as I profaned the English translation.The English version of Xiaodoudou has sold 400,000 copies in Japan, setting a record for an English bestseller. At the same time, the English version was also published in the United States, so I was able to appear on the number one talk show in the United States, Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.In the show, my words made the audience laugh several times, so from the next day, many American talk shows, news shows, etc. invited me to participate.Moreover, the "New York Times", which is the most important in the United States, also published the longest book review article in the history of this column for "Xiao Doudou" in the book review column on Sunday.The attention of the American media is not limited to this book. They believe that it is very rare for a Japanese majesty to be active on TV.In the Japanese special edition of "The Times", an entire page of space was used to publish an exclusive interview with me.

In China and Korea, "Xiao Doudou" has been translated and published.Now, publishers in Poland and Finland have also decided to translate the book and are currently in the process of translating it.Preparations for publication are also ongoing in the Czech Republic.In addition, several European publishers have sent offers to publish the book.In short, if this book can help people from other countries understand Japan, that would be great.Some readers sent airmail letters from the United States to express their feelings.A boy in elementary school said: "Xiao Doudou, are you a beautiful girl? If so, please come to my house as a guest." A line was added at the end of the letter, saying that this was a boy who grew up in a poor black family.This was added by the boy's female teacher, who read the book to the children. Another point worth mentioning is that in Japan, many of the letters from girls in junior high school and high school wrote "I didn't expect it to be so gentle". What does "gentleness" refer to? I think every girl may have different referents.However, it is true that young people are pursuing "gentleness". While I was writing this epilogue, I was awarded the title of "Goodwill Ambassador" by UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund). Being able to be commended by UNICEF, which is active all over the world and has won the Nobel Peace Prize, is still "Xiao Doudou" who has played a bridge role for me.The Director of the UNICEF Affairs Bureau in New York (the highest official of the United Nations Children's Fund) read the English version of "Doudou" sent by a friend and was very moved. He thought that UNICEF's ideas were very consistent with mine.Moreover, UNICEF has long considered choosing a goodwill ambassador in Asia, so I am honored to be selected.Before this, there were already three famous goodwill ambassadors, namely actors Danny Kay (USA), Peter Ustinov (UK), and Liv Ullman (Norway), and I became the world's first Four Goodwill Ambassadors. At present, 40,000 children in the world die every day, and 15 million children die every year from hunger and diseases caused by hunger.It's my job to investigate these situations and report this information to people around the world.This summer, I'm going to Africa to do investigative work.Moreover, we also plan to go to Asian countries to investigate the situation of children in the near future. If Mr. Kobayashi is alive, he will be very pleased. "You are all the same, no matter what you do, you are all the same." Because Mr. Kobayashi always said such a sentence to us.