Welcome to listen:Himalaya’s “Ajia Storytelling” Episode 4 — “Farewell, Huanhe Valley”
I’ve been wanting to write something about this book I translated two years ago, but I feel like there’s so much to say and I don’t know where to start…
“Goodbye, Huan River Valley” is a blockbuster picture book. Artist Barbara Cooney’s “Flower Granny” is a familiar work. Writer Jane Yolen’s “Watching Owls Under the Moon” is also a Caldecott Medal winner (though that award primarily goes to illustrators). “The Princess’ Kite,” a collaboration with Yang Zhicheng, also won a Caldecott Medal. Jane Yolen is highly prolific, having won numerous awards in the science fiction world and has been hailed as the “American Hans Christian Andersen.” This book is a blockbuster picture book primarily because it covers a wide range of topics and provides a comprehensive historical record: the story of how Huan River Valley became the Kuobin Reservoir.
In the fourth episode of “Ajia Storytelling: Private Lessons in Parent-Child Reading,” I focused on the story itself, as well as its relevance to parent-child reading and collective memory. I didn’t have time to cover the more complex historical details there (and I was afraid the audience would fall asleep), so I’ll just give a brief overview of what I understand.
Where is Huan River Valley or Kuobin Reservoir?
The English name of Huanhe Valley is Swift River
Valley is located approximately 140 kilometers west of Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Take a look at the map:
Please pay special attention to the fact that there is an Amherst to the west of Cobin Reservoir, which I will mention many times below.
In the original Huan River Valley (the area flooded by the current Kuobin Reservoir))There were once four towns in the area, mentioned in “Farewell, Happy Valley”: Dana, Enfield, Prescott, and Greenwich.
The screenshots below give you a rough idea of how the town of Enfield has evolved:
The Taiwanese version of this book is named after the original title Letting Swift River
Go is literally translated as “Let the turbulent river flow”, which is probably to take into account the words that the mother said to Sally Jane in the book: “You have to let them
go” (You have to let them go). But I think the meaning is too tortuous after being translated into Chinese, and this book is not about the story of a river (including its tributaries), but the story of a large river valley, so I suggest changing it to “Goodbye, Happy Valley”.
Is “Sally Jane” Jane Yolen?
No! I’ve already covered this in detail on the show, so I won’t repeat it here. Jane Yolen is describing a collective memory, and she herself was actually an observer, a researcher, and a recorder of it.
Regarding Jane Yolen’s personal history, around 1966, her husband, David Stambaugh, secured a position at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Computer Center, so they moved there. They likely lived primarily west to Conway. That year, they had a daughter, Heidi Elizabeth. The rights to “The Princess’ Kite” were also sold that year, published in 1967 and winning the Caldecott Medal in 1968. But that’s another story. In short, for Jane Yolen, that was the first time she lived in that area. The family seemed to have integrated seamlessly. The father and daughter in Jane Yolen’s “Watching Owls Under the Moon” are David and Heidi!
However, it wasn’t until long after she settled there that Jane Yolen began to care about Huanhe Valley or the Cobbin Reservoir. It was during a trip she read in a newspaper about the past and present of the Cobbin Reservoir that a strong interest suddenly emerged. She began collecting information and conducting in-depth research, and the story of “Farewell, Huanhe Valley” gradually took shape.
Jane Yolen tells the story in the first person, from the voice of a six-year-old girl named Sally Jane. Judging from the environment, it is probably from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, but judging from the timeline, it is actually in the 1920s because of the establishment of the relevant bill (Swift
River
The construction of the reservoir on the site began in 1927, relocation efforts began in 1936, the reservoir began filling in 1939, and it was finally filled and opened to the public in 1945. Jane Yolen, through Sally Jane’s perspective, effectively condenses roughly half a century of change—a kind of artistic treatment.
Who were the earliest inhabitants of Huanhe Valley?
Indians.Huanhe Valley is a valley left behind when the glaciers retreated during the last ice age. Indians lived here around 4000 BC. There was abundant prey and fertile land here. The Indians hunted, fished, picked, and planted, and they lived a good life.
In the section of “Farewell, Happy Valley” where the cemetery was relocated, traces of Indians appeared:
Dad said they let the Indians stay
The place where he was originally lying.
No one wanted to disturb their remains.
But I think this is right,
They should have stayed on this holy land.
I think this passage carries some apology from Jane Yolen, because in fact the Native Americans here were driven away, killed, or died of disease when white immigrants arrived.
For example, the Amherst mentioned above is named after a British lord, Lord Geoffrey Amherst.
Jeffrey
Amherst, who was not only a general with great military achievements, but also left his name in history for suggesting that blankets infected with smallpox be used to “exterminate” the Indians.
Today, Amherst is a bustling university town. Besides the University of Massachusetts, it’s home to Amherst College, a renowned liberal arts college. The grandfather of poet Emily Dickinson was one of the founders of this college, and the Dickinson House now stands adjacent to Amherst College. Picture book enthusiasts should also know that Amherst is also home to the renowned Eric Carle Picture Book Museum!
For more information about Amherst’s art museums, please refer to the blog post:A Summer Tour of American Children’s Literature
However, every time I think about the fact that such a beautiful place might have been taken away from the Indians in such a way, I feel a little uncomfortable.
The pioneering life of white immigrants
In 1673, Boston’s population reached 18,000.
In 1744, the first church was built on Greenwich Plain in the Hampstead Valley.
In The Power of Childhood, I detailed the pioneering experiences of the Ingalls family in the “Little House” series, which took place in the second half of the 19th century. However, the pioneering process for white immigrants in the United States was quite similar: they usually first applied for land, gathered a certain population, built a church, and then gradually established public halls, governments, and schools.
There is a double-page spread in “Farewell, Happy Valley” that specifically depicts the distinctive winter work of the New England pioneers:
On the left side of the picture, people are cutting ice blocks, which are usually used to store food for themselves or sell to people in the city. In the era without refrigerators, this is a very effective way. There is a similar illustration in the book “Farm Boy” in the “Little House” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder:
On the right side of the picture is collecting maple syrup, which is similar to the illustration in the “Little House in the Big Woods” series:
Although such a life is hard, it also has its joys, especially since people are so close to nature! It is actually quite enjoyable for children to grow up in such an environment. To be honest, some of the childhood game scenes in “Farewell, Happy Valley” are quite enviable:
They can spend the night under the trees on summer nights, and during the day, a few good friends will go to the cemetery to hang out, spread out on the black stone coffin and have a picnic! Their cemetery is usually next to the church, in a way, like a park!
Later, to build the reservoir, the first difficulty they encountered was relocating cemeteries. Over 7,500 graves were relocated, compared to the total number of residents who had been relocated, which was only about 2,500!
The Rise and Fall of Huanhe Valley
In the second half of the 19th century, the development of Huanhe Valley reached its peak. At that time, the four towns were prosperous agricultural towns and attracted many tourists in the summer. There was a railway line crossing the valley called “Rabbit
The “Rabbit Line” is a line that stops at many stations (probably like a rabbit hopping) and takes three and a half hours to travel a total of fifty miles. In “Farewell, Happy Valley”, it is mentioned that children sleeping under the trees on summer nights can occasionally hear the train stop at the “Rabbit Line”.
Run” station, and then set off again. This is roughly the story, but for fun, I changed the “Rabbit
Run” translates to “Rabbit Slope Station.”
However, even at the peak of Huanhe Valley’s history, the combined population of the four towns was only over 2,700 people.
After the 20th century, the Huanhe Valley gradually declined. This was partly due to the continued westward migration of people to explore the wilderness, and partly due to the rapid development of industrialization, which gradually eroded the agricultural towns. Borrowing the perspective of Yuval Noah Harari’s “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” the changes in the Huanhe Valley epitomize the human evolution from a gathering and hunting civilization (Indians) to an agricultural civilization (early white pioneers) to an industrial civilization (represented by major cities like Boston).
In 1920, when the combined population of the four towns was about 2,000, Boston already had a population of nearly 750,000. The emerging metropolis was “devastated by thirst for water,” and the declining Huanhe Valley happened to have a source of clean water.
The story goes: “People in Boston voted to flood our town so that people in the big cities could have drinking water.” — This should be referring to the Happy Valley Act passed in 1927. After this, there were a lot of discussions, protests,
Negotiations and compromises were made, but the situation was essentially settled. In fact, by 1935, when preparations were made for clearing and relocation, the actual population of the four towns had fallen to no more than 1,200.
The completion of the Kuobin Reservoir
What’s particularly rare is that “Farewell, Huanhe Valley” also documents in considerable detail the process of relocation, clearing, damming, and irrigation. As the author notes in the preface, the entire process lasted nearly 20 years, from 1927 to 1946. This seems to be the only picture book that captures such a detailed process.
Please compare the double-page illustrations in the book with the real scene shots at that time
Illustration and actual photos of the house being moved by trailer
Perhaps the painter Barbara Cooney drew this picture based on photos left behind at that time!
The Kuobin Reservoir after filling in “Farewell, Huanhe Valley”
Real scene shooting of Kuobin Reservoir
Collection and preservation of history
The above information is mainly derived from theFriends of Kuobin Reservoir website”, a website maintained by educators, environmentalists, parents, hikers, and people who once lived in the four towns, aims to preserve that historical record for future generations. What is particularly impressive is that they are constantly compiling “oral histories” and publish a new magazine almost every quarter.
There is also a “Huanhegu Memorial Hall website”, this memorial is located in New Salem, Massachusetts. Next time you visit the Eric Carle Museum of Art, you might want to stop by Cobbin Reservoir and this memorial.
As stated on the “Friends of Kuobin Reservoir Website”: Huan River Valley has become silent, but it should not be forgotten!
In fact, stories like the one in Huanhe Valley are happening all over the world, and China is no exception. Perhaps we should not forget them.
Argentine Primera División compiled on December 29, 2016
More “Ajia Storytelling” programs:
First issue:The Cat Who Lived a Million Times——Life Experience;Reading Walk;
Second issue:“Christmas Special” — Looking at Christmas from the perspective of children’s cognitive psychology; the role of Christmas in the history of children’s book development;
Third issue:“The Laughing Old Woman Who Lost Her Rice Ball” — Folk tale; Heart connection; Tips for reading stories;
Fourth issue:Farewell, Huanhe Valley—Collective Memory; Oral Memories
