[Repost] Seed Storytellers Training Public Welfare Lecture: Don’t Let Bad Books Ruin Your Children (September 15)

Hong­ni­ba & Shoutu Seed Sto­ry­teller Train­ing Pub­lic Wel­fare Lec­ture, inter­est­ed friends are wel­come to attend.Orig­i­nal address:Seed Sto­ry­tellers Train­ing Pub­lic Wel­fare Lec­ture: Don’t Let Bad Books Ruin Your Chil­dren (Sep­tem­ber 15)author:Hong­ni­ba Vil­lage   
Time: 9:30–11:30 a.m., Sep­tem­ber 15, 2013 (Sun­day)
   
Loca­tion: Audio­vi­su­al Mate­ri­als Room, 1st Floor, Cap­i­tal Library (south­east cor­ner of War­wick Bridge)
   
Tar­get audi­ence: Stu­dents in the Seed Sto­ry­teller train­ing pro­gram of Shoutu. Par­ents and teach­ers who are inter­est­ed in pic­ture books are wel­come to attend as observers.

【Speaker】Lao Ji (Ji Zhao­hua)
   
I’m an artist, writer, and art pro­mot­er. For fif­teen years, I’ve illus­trat­ed chil­dren’s books and taught chil­dren’s art class­es. My comics have been pub­lished, exhib­it­ed, and won awards in many coun­tries. I cre­at­ed the exlib­ris “Years in Books” for Duku mag­a­zine and pub­lished a pic­ture book in the Unit­ed States, “Oh My God! Wrong!” I’ve also giv­en lec­tures on art appre­ci­a­tion and pic­ture book read­ing at places like the Han­fen­lou Book­store in Wang­fu­jing and the Nation­al Muse­um of Chi­na.

【Lec­ture Intro­duc­tion】
   
Pic­ture books are com­mon in all eco­nom­i­cal­ly devel­oped coun­tries and regions, and they are the pri­ma­ry source of read­ing for young chil­dren in these regions. Why are pic­ture books so impor­tant? They con­sist of a few thin pages of illus­tra­tions and few words. There are even many “word­less” books that don’t even require any text. These books are com­plete­ly use­less for learn­ing to read. So, what use are they to chil­dren?

    
A thin pic­ture book can eas­i­ly cost dozens of yuan, while chil­dren’s books com­mon­ly found in super­mar­kets, book­stores, and news­stands are often at least a hun­dred pages long and only cost a dozen yuan. The price-per­for­mance ratio seems quite high, so would­n’t it be a good idea to let chil­dren read these books? They help chil­dren learn to read, save mon­ey, and are thick­er, allow­ing them to read for longer. So why do so many peo­ple choose thin, expen­sive pic­ture books?

   
I often hear peo­ple say that pic­ture books are a form of art. Art is so pro­found that even adults can’t under­stand it, so how can chil­dren under­stand it? And what good are these things for chil­dren?
   
The secret lies with­in the pages of a book. This lec­ture, com­par­ing and ana­lyz­ing out­stand­ing pic­ture books with com­mon chil­dren’s books from the per­spec­tive of a sea­soned pro­fes­sion­al, reveals the inner work­ings of chil­dren’s book pro­duc­tion and the dire con­se­quences it can have on chil­dren. The drug cyanamide, once ram­pant in the food indus­try, per­sists in chil­dren’s read­ing and edu­ca­tion, even more sub­tly, and its harm is incal­cu­la­ble. We adults hold far too many mis­un­der­stand­ings about chil­dren. To ensure the healthy and hap­py growth of chil­dren, we must change many of our beliefs.

   
Emper­ors and art, Leonar­do da Vin­ci and Fox­conn, the Three Lit­tle Pigs and rat exper­i­ments, Shang­hai Expo posters and pic­ture books… What’s the con­nec­tion between them? What’s the mag­ic that makes peo­ple for­get the old adage of thrifti­ness and choose thin, expen­sive pic­ture books instead?

    This lec­ture will tell you.