If our world were a snowglobe, then I could correctly assume that someone was picking it up and giving it a good shake just to see everything fly about in the water.
This is Read Across America week, which honors/recognizes the birthday of Theodore Seuss Geisel and his contribution to children learning to read. The foundation that continues his legacy pulled 5 of his 60+ books from publication because of content in his illustrations that would now be considered offensive.
One of those six books is one I was introduced to in Kindergarten.
According to WRAL, the problem with this book is the illustration that depicts and Asian man with slanted eyes. I had to go and pull out my copy of the book, and there I saw the real offense. Asian art often depicts themselves with very small eyes or slanted eyes, so I was puzzled why they thought that would be offensive. I quickly spotted the real problem -what Americans call the Chinese pigtail.
During the Qing dynasty, the Manchu clan ruled China. Most current Chinese associate themselves with the Han people group, though there are 55 ethnic groups in the country. One of the emperors in the Qing dynasty required all the men to shave their heads except for the braid in the back. They said this way they could tell who was friend or foe of the emperor. This was a violation of Confucius teachings, and thousands of Chinese chose death over the haircut. Those who did endure the "humiliation" saw the requirement as symbolic of slavery, as they were not free to do as they pleased with their own bodies. Most Chinese today, especially the Han, view that hairstyle as symbolic of slavery.
Ironically, in the late 1800's, San Franciso passed a hair ordinance requiring the Chinese immigrants, many of whom were Manchu/Qing dynasty supporters, to cut the braid, which created a lot of racial tension in the city.
Since there is nothing in the words in the book itself that would be offensive, I don't understand why the foundation doesn't separate Geisel's illustrations from his writing and publish the book with a new illustrator. That could solve the whole problem.
I'm not familiar with the other books they are pulling, so I don't really have an opinion about those. But I'm thankful I own a copy of this book, with its character who uses his overactive imagination to create an interesting story to overcome a boring answer, but in the end sticks with the simple and boring truth.
Comments