Being a Kid in Mao's Country

A quick browse through the virtual pages of the Juvenile and Children's Publishing House 少年儿童出版社 website gives one a vivid sense of the radical changes in literary publications that have transpired since the end of the Mao era. Two of the more popular titles being pushed on the main page for children ages 7-9 include: (1) the Internet Witch 飞翔在网络里的女巫, and (2) The Treasure Seekers 寻宝记. The stories are echoes of popular international juvenile genres dealing with witches and sleuths. They also integrate the importance of modern science and technology into their entertaining plots. The abstract of the Internet Witch asks children to log onto a new kind of magical web. With any luck, when surfing at home alone, a cackling internet witch might pop out to play!

A short temporal shift to view children's literature of the 60s and 70s provides a revealing contrast to the type of lives children were expected to live in a Maoist China. The abstract to the 1978 edition of Er Wazi 二娃子 offsets the tone of modern literature quite nicely (or grotesquely):

"Er Wazi grew up in a rural village. Originally, he enjoyed life with his father, mother, grandma and baby sister. But the Nationalist Reactionaries and a wicked Landlord struck at his home, scattering and killing his family... Er Wazi's father was made to march for the Nationalist Army, his sister was forced to marry the Landlord. His mother, sick with worry drowned herself in a nearby river. Er Wazi was forced to work for the Landlord, fetching water and working the pestle. But he never got a square meal. In fact, he was often beat and cursed. It felt like he'd been tossed into a fire pit. He'd had about all he could take."

The picture painted for children is very clear: non-Communists, conservatives and capitalists
are enemies and out to hurt and kill you and your family. Fear isn't the ultimate message of this popular kind of children's story of the era, though. Ultimately, Er Wazi triumphs and gets his revenge. He rebels and combines forces with upright and empathetic (even teary-eyed) Red soldiers to turn in his oppressors and free the community from repression.

Er Wazi's tale sets the tone for our study of three other popular children's stories of the era: Catching Enemies on Our Island 海岛捉敌, Grandpa Wang Luogu 王洛古爷爷 and The Children's Brigade of the Grasslands 草原儿童团. The beautiful art and captivating tales of these books all emphasize two important characteristics expected of patriotic children: (1) vigilance to spot national enemies (especially those closest to you), and (2) the courage and strength to confront and dispense of them. Being a child in Mao's China was serious business. Finding buried treasure and following witches on the web would never have been deemed appropriate activities for future heroes of the People's Republic. Children were set upon the path of espionage and hard-fought socialist glory from a tender age.

This section will help us to gain insight into the kinds of ideological, psychological and physical pressures laid upon the shoulders of children of the time.

Texts:
*Er Wazi (1977)
*Grandpa Wang Luogu (1966)
*Catching Enemies on Our Island (1975)
*The Children's Brigade of the Grasslands (1964)

Questions:
(1) How is shame displayed in the text and inculcated in its readers?
(2) What kind of dangers are children expected to place themselves into in these tales?
(3) What rewards and incentives await children who perform their duties?
(4) What kind of psychological effects do you perceive these tales having on their young readership?