英闻天下——478 Difficult to Select Children's Books in Chinese Market

 　　One parent in a bookstore in Tianjian municipality says she always keeps her son away from the cartoon book shelf, because most books there focus on war, violence and the darker side of life.

 

　　Another parent says she often finds inappropriate content in children's books such as pornography and violence. She adds children's book should be meaningful and educational.

 

　　"No sermon¹ or lectures, through children's books. Children should be taught how to give love to other people, and how to be a real person. That's something more important I think."

 

　　Han Yinghong, a department head at Tianjin Normal University says children's book should be based on the age of the children as well as their understanding capability². He said adults should combine what we want children to know in these books and unconsciously influence them through the stories.

 

　　Apart from inappropriate content, some parents also complain about the repeated themes in the books

 

　　"Some children's books are simply randomly⁴ compiled⁵ with similar stories; for example, in the 365 night stories, you can find so many versions of the same stories."

 

　　"When we are at the bookstores with our child, we usually won't spend much time selecting books. As long as the kid likes any book, we'll buy it and bring it home. However, after we brought the books home, we found 90 percent of the stories in the books are similar."

 

　　These books have similar stories as well as similar titles; the only difference is their publishing house. Those stories not only cost parents more money for repeated content, but also make children less interested in reading. Therefore, many parents turn to best sellers from abroad, although they wish to provide children with more stories about Chinese figures. Here is another parent.

 

　　"I want to buy some stories, which were popular in our childhood, for example, stories about heroic figures such as Ma Liang and the Magic Pen. Through these stories, children will get to know more about kindness and braveness and the precious spirit that we should pass on to our next generation. However, it's hard nowadays to get such stories in the market."

 

　　Industry insider Bai Bing, who is a chief editor of a publishing house, says domestic⁶ publishing houses think more about their revenues⁷, therefore, they prefer imported books, which have proved to be successful and popular overseas. So there is less risk compared to original Chinese books.

 

　　When asked how to provide children with more meaningful and helpful books, Bai says China should learn from the industrial practices abroad.

 

　　"In Europe and the US, books are graded on 26 levels and children's reading capabilities⁸ are also defined⁹ on 26 levels. So children with different reading capability can select appropriate books to read. However, in China, grading books is still something new."

 

　　For CRI, I am Zhang Wan³.

1 sermon   

n.布道，讲道，说教，冗长的讲话

参考例句：

• The minister preaches a sermon now and then.牧师不时地讲道。
• Don't preach me a sermon,please.请不要对我讲大道理。

2 capability   

n.能力；才能；(pl)可发展的能力或特性等

参考例句：

• She has the capability to become a very fine actress.她有潜力成为杰出演员。
• Organizing a whole department is beyond his capability.组织整个部门是他能力以外的事。

3 wan   

(wide area network)广域网

参考例句：

• The shared connection can be an Ethernet,wireless LAN,or wireless WAN connection.提供共享的网络连接可以是以太网、无线局域网或无线广域网。

4 randomly   

adv.随便地，未加计划地

参考例句：

• Within the hot gas chamber, molecules are moving randomly in all directions. 在灼热的气体燃烧室内，分子在各个方向上作无规运动。 来自辞典例句
• Transformed cells are loosely attached, rounded and randomly oriented. 转化细胞则不大贴壁、圆缩并呈杂乱分布。 来自辞典例句

5 compiled   

v.收集( compile的过去式和过去分词 )；编辑；编制；编译

参考例句：

• They have compiled a collection of Elementary Readings on the Natural Scieces to help young people in their studies. 为了便于青少年学习，他们编了一套《自然科学小丛书》。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Bibliographies are lists of books and are compiled in many different forms. 书目是以许多不同形式编制的图书目录。 来自辞典例句

6 domestic   

adj.家里的，国内的，本国的；n.家仆，佣人

参考例句：

• This is domestic news.这是国内新闻。
• She does the domestic affairs every day.她每天都忙家务。

7 revenues   

收入( revenue的名词复数 )； [复数]总收入； 收入来源； 税务局

参考例句：

• Revenues from oil are the biggest single component part in the country's income. 来自石油的收益是这个国家收入中最高的一项。
• Under the cash basis of accounting most receipts of money are revenues and most expenditures of money are expenses. 按现金收付制规定，企业收到的现金大都作为收入处理，付出的现金大都作为费用处理。

8 capabilities   

n.能力( capability的名词复数 )；可能；容量；[复数]潜在能力

参考例句：

• He was somewhat pompous and had a high opinion of his own capabilities. 他有点自大，自视甚高。 来自辞典例句
• Some programmers use tabs to break complex product capabilities into smaller chunks. 一些程序员认为，标签可以将复杂的功能分为每个窗格一组简单的功能。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

9 defined   

adj 定义的; 清晰的

参考例句：

• These categories are not well defined. 这些类别划分得不太明确。
• The powers of a judge are defined by law. 法官的权限是由法律规定的。