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Childhood with multitudes: The dynamic platforms in the picture books of Hong Kong
Author(s)
Date Issued
2021
Citation
Chan, Chi Ying (2021 Nov 20). Childhood with multitudes: The dynamic platforms in the picture books of Hong Kong. Modernity, Memory, and Asian Childhood International Conference, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan.
Type
Conference Paper
Abstract
In Hong Kong, skyscrapers and commercial buildings are located side by side with old flats and traditional constructions. Imageries of these architectural presences are often become the backdrop of Hong Kong children’s literature. At the same time, the city is comprised of the multitudes of cultures, customs, habits, and materials. People will have to constantly embrace historical legacy while they are adapting modern development. The signs of modernity and the past coexist, and they are consistently and mutually traversing. Nonetheless, it is only through these dynamics resulted from multiple coexistences that people formulate their presence. Hong Kong children’s literature is closely related to these interactive platforms. Though some may find it hard to stay in an ever-changing milieu, stories of families, friends, and the neighbourhood emerge and progress in such a congested city. It is particularly interesting that many of the children’s stories are related to “relationship” and “connections”. People are neither adhering only to memory nor forgoing the past for modern development. Indeed, they are configuring a distinctive order and stability via the traverses between multitudes. It is often found in children’s picture books that the residents of Hong Kong are creating their felicity through the aforementioned dynamics. By examining three picture books published in recent years: Kinchoi Lam and Ching-Wa Lau’s Little Big Tram (2019), Adeline Ko’s Happy Birthday (2020) and Maoshan’s The Lion in Wong Tai Sin (2020), this presentation will take a look at how picture books are trying to present childhood with the transitionality across the multiple platforms of time and space in this international city.
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