Shen of the Sea: Seeing China

I read two stories out of Shen and the Sea. The first one was “Ah Tcha the Sleeper” and the other was “As Hai Low Kept House.” Arthur Bowie Chrisman won the Newbery Medal in 1925 for distinguished children's literature in the United States. This book is an artifact of its time, preserving early 20th century attitudes; a fossil in print. As folk tales, the stories depend on archetypes to teach a lesson or to send a message. Unfortunately, archetypes portray people as one-dimensional, such as Hardworking and Industrious or Silly and Ridiculous. The name Chrisman gives to the character "Hai Low" pokes fun at how Chinese names sound to Western ears and shows the reader that Hai Low is ridiculous in the author's eyes. Today, no book publisher would dare accept stories that make fun of another ethnic group. In 1925 when the book was published, attitudes were different. Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the leader of China had died. China was engulfed in civil war, forcing the US to send six warships to China to protect Western interests. Yet these stories show nothing of the Chinese struggle to become a modern nation. Instead, the Chinese are presented as people who wear traditional dress, have funny-sounding names, and live in a place that is out of step with modern times. It's hard to reconcile this image of China with images from the Beijing Olympics.