Portrayals of the Chinese in fiction for children, 1925-1991

The purposes of this study are: (1) to determine how Chinese people are portrayed in U.S. children's fiction published from 1925 to 1991; (2) to observe whether or not the portrayals of the Chinese in children's literature change with significant historical events, such as World War II and the Civil Rights Movement; (3) to evaluate the accuracy and authenticity of information regarding Chinese culture, history, geography, etc. presented in children's fiction; and (4) to further determine if there is a trend towards presenting more accurate and sophisticated information about China and the Chinese in contemporary children's fiction as opposed to decades ago.; The method of content analysis was selected to examine thirty-four works of contemporary realistic and historical fiction (including the ones in picture-book format), set in China and portraying Chinese people, published in the United States from 1925 to 1991. These books are appropriate for young people from preschool through ninth grade. The data collected were coded and analyzed under three groups of categories: (1) demographic categories--chronological settings, geographical regions, staple food, ethnic groups, occupations, economic status, dialects, and names of the characters; (2) cultural categories--religious beliefs, domestic ritual activities, festivals, gender issues, and values; and (3) evaluative category--inaccuracies.; The image of the Chinese that American readers might obtain from reading these fictional representations is of China in the early twentieth century, particularly from the 1920s to the 1940s. They offer a portrait of Mandarin-speaking, economically poor, Han farmers with two-syllable names, living mainly on rice and wheat. In general, the thirty-four fictional books indicate that the portrayal of the Chinese in twentieth-century American children's fiction is positive. Particularly, books published between the 1970s and 1991 contain mostly accurate and authentic cultural information and rich details. Given the history of Chinese-American relations in the twentieth century, during which the Chinese were seen as the real villains in the Korean War, and America maintained a strong anti-Communist bias, this is a surprisingly welcome finding.