Abstract
This article explores a narrative approach adopted by three Taiwanese children’s books that feature old trees as storytellers and memory-keepers to address aspects of emotional and psychological adaptation when facing drastic life changes. Although these stories are told from the perspective of old trees, the nostalgic tone serves a specific purpose: to present a private and intimate connection between trees and humans, which sets them apart from sapient trees in mythology or talking trees in fantasy stories. The nostalgic form of storytelling addresses aspects of pain and transformation when handling uncontrollable changes. Drawing on research from the psychology of nostalgia and the social–cultural relationship between trees and people, the three books are analysed for their underlying meanings of intimate and nostalgic connection. It is proposed that the connection is a medium for the characters to seek meanings from life changes; the memories of the past are materialized in these old trees, and through them the characters look back to retrieve memories and make sense of changes. These stories to a certain extent also reflect political and social changes in Taiwan. Young readers are given an ‘old’ perspective to see the comfort and strength embodied in old trees that stand steadfastly throughout time and change.
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Notes
The texts from the three children’s books quoted in this paper are all translated by the researcher.
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Dr. Hui-Ling Huang is an associate professor at Yunlin University of Science and Technology in Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. in Education from Claremont Graduate University in California, the USA. In 2006, she did a post-doc research with Deakin University in Australia. In 2012, she won a fellowship funded by the Foreign Ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany to conduct a 3-month research with the International Youth Library in Munich. Her research centers on the representation of multiculturalism in children’s picture books.
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Huang, HL. Old Trees as Memory-Keepers in Taiwanese Children’s Books: Nostalgia as a Search for the Meanings of Change. Child Lit Educ 51, 207–227 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-018-9370-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-018-9370-x