Introduction (2022)

Introduction David Russell, Karin Westman, and Naomi Wood In this issue of The Lion and Unicorn, we explore representations of nation, national identity, and what it means to be human in literature for young readers. Sonia Sabnis' article, "Chinese Immigrants and the Changing Terms of Exclusion in Beverly Cleary's Emily's Runaway Imagination and Fifteen," enriches our understanding of the historical context of Chinese immigrants to the western United States in the twentieth century. By carefully attending to seemingly minor episodes and characters, Sabnis explores Cleary's treatment of Chinese people both as objects of curiosity and as irreducibly other, unassimilable into the American communities she describes. Sabnis links Asian immigration policy, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, what is known of the life of Quong Hop, a Chinese man who lived in Cleary's childhood community, and the use Cleary makes of Chinese presence in the American west. As Sabnis points out, Cleary's choice to focalize the action through naive young white means that certain questions are never asked, such as "what happened to all the Chinese who used to live in Oregon," or "why are white Americans understood to be permanent settlers, while Chinese Americans are temporary?" Despite these omissions and repetitions of stereotypes rightly rejected in children's books today, Sabnis demonstrates "that Cleary's characterization leaves room both for sympathetic identification and for informed questioning and judgment of the limited views of her protagonists." Deborah De Rosa's "Bridges to Self: Material Culture and Emotional Transnationalism in Grace Lin's Picture Books," argues that Lin's picture books strive to "reconnect young Chinese-American readers to China's traditions, history, and culture." Lin, De Rosa argues, uses the picture book's combination of visual and textual features to help young readers grapple with their bicultural identity, to confront their "otherness," as opposed to ignoring their heritage and traditions. In her examination of Lin's picture books, De Rosa begins with Lin's The Red Thread: An Adoption [End Page v] Fairy Tale, a trans-racial adoption narrative, laying the groundwork for an examination of Lin's succeeding picture books. De Rosa demonstrates how Lin provides a path for young Chinese-American readers to celebrate their heritage and to confront their history of "otherness." She examines the "Pacy" books, beginning with The Ugly Vegetables and including Dim Sum for Everyone!, focusing on a Chinese-American family participating in a traditional eating custom from China. And, in Fortune Cookie Fortunes, we seem the same family grappling with the complicated history of the fortune cookie (which has been claimed by China, Japan, and the United States). The fortune cookie's story, with its ambiguity and complexity, mirrors the tangled identity of young Chinese-Americans, at once trying to accept their parents' adopted home without forsaking the time-honored traditions of their cultural heritage. Lin's Kite Flying, Bringing in the New Year, and Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, all demonstrate adults helping preserve their cultural heritage and passing it along to the children as a source of pride. Maya Socolovsky's essay, "Borderland Ethics, Migrant Personhood and the Critique of State Sovereignty in Jairo Buitrago's Two White Rabbits and José Manuel Matéo's Migrant: The Journey of a Mexican Worker," provides an insightful analysis of the texts and illustrations of two picture books that, on the surface, appear to have very little in common. Socolovsky skillfully demonstrates, through her close examination, how the powerful illustrative and storytelling features of both books convey profound insights into one of the great social crises of our day—the conflict between the legal and ethical distinctions that govern our immigration policies. Buitrago's and Matéo's deceptively simple works present us with images of the plight of modern-day migrants from Central America, and in both cases, the images are profound and, at times, painfully accurate. Socolovsky's thoughtful and detailed analysis reveals how graphic illustrations, through their symbolism, can enrich—and embolden—what would first appear to be simple, straightforward texts. She describes how the symbolism provided by graphic illustration can convey psychologically and sociologically powerful messages—messages that emphasize the peril implicit...