Children's Literature in China From Lu Xun to Mao Zedong

The first history of the vast, yet neglected, field of modern Chinese children's literature, this book introduces the major works and debates in children's literature within the framework of China's revolution and modernization. This literature was born out of the May Fourth period cultural renaissance in the early twentieth century; its rationale was the political importance of children as the nation's future at a time of war and revolutionary change. Lu Xun and his brother, Zhou Zhuren, were the founding fathers of this new literature which swept major urban centers in the twenties and thirties. It began as an anti-Confucian attack on tradition, using social Darwinism as the framework for national survival and its application to education. Darwinism gave way to Marxism in the post-war period and children's literature subsequently adopted revolutionary approaches first formulated by Mao Zedong. It became the subject of major debates and political campaigns, particularly around the nature of fairytales.