The gradually shrinking yellow box (memory) and the everlasting black box (family affection)

——Review of the orig­i­nal pic­ture book “Big Bear’s Box”

“Big Bear’s Box,” a heart­warm­ing fairy tale col­lab­o­ra­tion between author Long Xiang­mei and illus­tra­tor Li Haiyan, explores a cru­cial top­ic in our aging soci­ety: the grad­ual loss of mem­o­ry in the elder­ly, while under­stand­ing, care, and fam­i­ly affec­tion endure. In the sto­ry, Big Bear, a grand­fa­ther, sees his yel­low box of mem­o­ries grad­u­al­ly shrink, but his bond with his chil­dren remains as unbreak­able as a black box. The con­cise yet poet­ic text, com­bined with the del­i­cate and vivid nar­ra­tive images, weaves togeth­er this deeply res­o­nant sto­ry, immers­ing the read­er in the char­ac­ters’ inner worlds and allow­ing them to expe­ri­ence the endur­ing fam­i­ly love hid­den behind mem­o­ries.

The bear in the book reminds me of Li Haiyan’s illus­tra­tions for Peng Yi’s sto­ry, “The Bear Guardian.” Her illus­tra­tions often oscil­late between real­i­ty and fan­ta­sy, seam­less­ly inte­grat­ing them through metic­u­lous back­ground details and vivid char­ac­ter expres­sions, mak­ing the sto­ries visu­al­ly cap­ti­vat­ing. In “The Bear’s Box,” she focus­es on the char­ac­ters’ emo­tion­al expres­sions, result­ing in even more vivid and detailed char­ac­ter designs. This is espe­cial­ly true when depict­ing the bear’s frus­tra­tion and pain as he grad­u­al­ly los­es his mem­o­ry. Through his eyes and ges­tures, read­ers can sense a warm yet poignant flow of emo­tion.

Her graph­ic nar­ra­tive tech­nique is also more sophis­ti­cat­ed. Start­ing with the title page, the illus­tra­tions qui­et­ly reveal the sto­ry’s clues: Big Bear bids farewell to his son and his fam­i­ly. The trunk, over­flow­ing with gifts from his father, is filled with heart­felt gifts, and the var­i­ous hats he has giv­en his fam­i­ly become cru­cial sym­bols of mem­o­ry. In the fol­low­ing scenes, the illus­tra­tor skill­ful­ly depicts Big Bear’s grad­ual loss of mem­o­ry through the shift­ing col­ors and ele­ments. Big Bear’s reunions with friends and fish­ing trips grad­u­al­ly reveal his for­get­ful­ness. The recur­ring yel­low box, a sym­bol of mem­o­ry, with its con­tents float­ing in mid-air, sym­bol­izes the inevitable dis­si­pa­tion of mem­o­ry. Big Bear attempts to hold onto these pre­cious mem­o­ries by sort­ing through the box, but the process is dif­fi­cult and heart­break­ing.

In the scene depict­ing the reunion between Big Bear and his son, Abu, Li Haiyan employs strik­ing con­trasts of col­or to con­vey the shift­ing emo­tions. Ini­tial­ly, Abu returns home, but his father no longer rec­og­nizes him. This sequence is dom­i­nat­ed by a monot­o­nous yel­low, con­vey­ing a sense of lone­li­ness and help­less­ness. Lat­er, Abu decides to take his father to the sea, and the col­ors along the way become increas­ing­ly vibrant, con­vey­ing the relax­ation and nour­ish­ment they find in nature, and the redis­cov­ery of the warmth and con­nec­tion of fam­i­ly. When Big Bear final­ly rec­og­nizes Abu, the shift in the image is both sub­tle and imme­di­ate. Against a com­plete­ly blank back­ground, their col­ors return to their most orig­i­nal and vibrant col­ors, cre­at­ing a pow­er­ful emo­tion­al impact. This con­trast not only cap­tures Big Bear’s emo­tion­al ups and downs, but also allows the view­er to clear­ly sense the con­trast between mem­o­ry loss and the rekin­dling of fam­i­ly bonds.

The book also employs numer­ous sym­bol­ic sym­bols, clev­er­ly echo­ing the text. The most icon­ic is, of course, the yel­low mem­o­ry box. It appears through­out the book, its grad­ual shrink­age sym­bol­iz­ing the loss of mem­o­ry. On the back end­pa­pers, the yel­low box is nei­ther com­plete­ly closed nor ful­ly open, per­haps sug­gest­ing that some mem­o­ries stub­born­ly per­sist, even as the major­i­ty inevitably dis­si­pates.

The recur­ring pres­ence of hat-wear­ing mag­pies adds a touch of humor and light­heart­ed­ness to the sto­ry, bring­ing a touch of joy to the some­what weighty sub­ject mat­ter and bal­anc­ing the emo­tion­al depth with the play­ful­ness of the sto­ry. These mag­pies also car­ry clear sym­bol­ic mean­ing, as they sym­bol­ize good for­tune in Chi­nese cul­ture and also sug­gest com­pan­ion­ship and hope. These mag­pies appear repeat­ed­ly through­out the sto­ry, often help­ing Big Bear straight­en out his mem­o­ries. They accom­pa­ny Big Bear, fly­ing around in hats like­ly woven by him, as if help­ing him retrieve lost mem­o­ries.

Fur­ther­more, ele­ments such as fish­ing scenes, hats, lines, food, and forests fre­quent­ly appear in the sto­ry, sym­bol­iz­ing var­i­ous frag­ments of life in mem­o­ry. Water imagery also per­me­ates the sto­ry, espe­cial­ly in the final jour­ney to the sea. Although Big Bear and Abu may not actu­al­ly reach the sea, the imagery of lakes and rivers also sym­bol­izes the flow and dis­si­pa­tion of mem­o­ry.

“Big Bear’s Box,” pre­sent­ed as a fairy tale, eas­i­ly evokes mem­o­ries of con­di­tions like Alzheimer’s. Big Bear’s grad­ual mem­o­ry loss close­ly resem­bles the symp­toms of real-life Alzheimer’s patients—they grad­u­al­ly for­get their clos­est rel­a­tives and even the small­est details of dai­ly life. Long Xiang­mei skill­ful­ly con­veys the plight and emo­tion­al upheaval of mem­o­ry loss in old age through her fairy tale, while Li Haiyan’s mas­ter­ful visu­al sto­ry­telling makes this all more tan­gi­ble and mov­ing.

Notably, the author does­n’t direct­ly men­tion Alzheimer’s dis­ease, but instead gen­tly presents the symp­toms of this type of mem­o­ry loss to young read­ers, allow­ing them to gain a deep­er under­stand­ing of mem­o­ry and fam­i­ly bonds through the sto­ry. This grad­ual loss of mem­o­ry can also be caused by brain dam­age, the nor­mal aging process, or oth­er con­di­tions such as Alzheimer’s. There­fore, this work isn’t lim­it­ed to Alzheimer’s dis­ease, but rather encom­pass­es a wide range of mem­o­ry dete­ri­o­ra­tion sce­nar­ios, evok­ing spe­cial care and under­stand­ing for the elder­ly.

For young read­ers, this touch­ing pic­ture book may leave a last­ing and beau­ti­ful image: the yel­low box of mem­o­ry is grad­u­al­ly shrink­ing, but the black box of fam­i­ly affec­tion is always there, and you always have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to open it in the right way.

Cher­ish the present and remem­ber to store more trea­sures in the black box!

Ajia writ­ten in Bei­jing on Sep­tem­ber 13, 2024