Chinese Literature

not so very uncommon, was far too fond of wasting time and playing about, so that he was always at the bottom of the class. We read how his schoolmates put their heads together and did their best to help him, how he gradually learnt to overcome his shortcomings and was finally accepted as a member of the Young Pioneers. It is a simple, original and vivid story. In a very short time, Lo Wen-ying has become a character familiar to millions of Chinese children.

Our Mother Harth, by Kao Shih-chi, was also a prize winner. Kao is a scientist who, while carrying out research on bacteria, became paralyzed as a result of an accidental infection of his higher nervous centre. But he did not abandon the work he dearly loved. He now writes short and simple stories about science in a language that children easily understand. The children of New China love Kao Shih-chi and his books.

Lu Hsun and His Boyhood Friends, by Feng Hsueh-feng, an outstanding literary critic, is a story dealing with the childhood of our great writer Lu Hsun and the close touch he kept with the working people of China.

The Travels of the Little Swallows by Chin Chao-yang, a young writer, is a book which, telling of the travels of two little swallows all over China, sings the praises of our beautiful motherland and teaches children to be dauntless in overcoming difficulties. Commander Yang’s Young Pioneers, by Kuo Hsu, is a story dealing with a group of young orphans in the forests of Northeast China who helped the guerrilla fighters against the Japanese invaders during the occupation. This book takes children back into the

past and enables them, while reading an-

exciting tale, to realize that the happiness they enjoy today has not been easily won. .

All these books were first-prize winners in a nation-wide contest for the best works of literature and art -for children, as a result of which 46 works of literature, art and music were chosen from over 420 entries,

Throughout the long history of China, children’s needs were never properly catered for. of the rich were made to recite poems and prose which were above their heads, while children of working people had to sweat for a living from a tender age. China’s new children’s literature goes back only about thirty years. In 19292, Yeh Sheng-tao in his story, The Scarecrow, described the hardships of village life as seen through the eyes of a straw man standing beside the fields. It was the first children’s book which not only told a good tale but also conveyed worthwhile lessons. Following in his footsteps, writers Ping Hsin, Lao Sheh, Pa Chin, Mao Tun and Chang Tien-yi all started writing books specially for children. But in the old society no proper attention was paid to these works. The old, mystic, weird and often cruel stories continued to hold the field. It was only after the liberation that the situation changed completely. The government attached great importance to books for children and encouraged writers to devote their talents to writing for the younger generation. According to available statistics, between 1950 to 1952 alone more than 2,300 children’s books with a total print of 41,600,000 appeared.

One-act Plays

Last year the monthly magazine, Drama, run jointly by the Playwrights’ Union and the Ministry of Culture, ran a competition for new one-act plays. It was highly successful, No less than 667 entries were submitted, nine out of every ten of them by amateurs,

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Why this sudden demand for one-act plays? Why the extraordinary interest?

The Chinese drama, with its rich heritage, Was given new life after liberation. More than one hundred thousand amateur dramatic troupes have been organized among the workers and peasants

In the old days, children

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