Reading | Zhang Shengzhen: Tribute to the youth actionism

"Memory Teaching People"

[美] Royl Lauri

Zheng Rongzhen translation

Hebei Education Press Publishing

"Memory Turtlers" (or translated as "Giver") (The Giver) is a youth literary work I read in the United States. This work was originally a family arranged by the daughter's school. When I read my homework, I couldn't bear to release the scroll and finished the story in one breath. The novel attracts me not only the ups and downs of the plot settings, but also amazing that the young protagonist's courage to resist authority, and the brave choice made by the choice of life, youths have become an important force to change the world.

"Memory Putter" put forward the anti -Utopia view of future society. The novel depicts a Utopia imagine the world. In the community where the protagonist Jones is located, everyone lives comfortably, without trouble and pain, and no need to endure the pain caused by the disease. However, people's memory is blocked, and collective memory and individual memory are in a state of lack. Roy Lauri pointed out in the award -winning speech of the Newberry Children's Literature Award: "If I learned from the long river middle school of memory, it is the world we cannot live in a wall, and all of us are the same. The only thing that feels like is us, only in the current world. This is true, then we sacrifice too much. "

In "Memory Teaching", power is concentrated in the hands of a few people. They even controlled the climate for their own interests. In the process of receiving memory, the protagonist Qiao Nest learned about climate control. "There is sunlight before climate control." In order to prevent the extreme weather such as tornado or blizzard, the community has controlled the climate. However, because the community carefully controlled the climate, neither Jonati and other children in the community knew the existence of sunlight, wind, snow, rain, or hail. Just like the climate is controlled, people's lives are completely controlled, without differences and diversity. This seemingly utopian world breaks the laws of nature. If the memory is taught to the death, the entire community will fall into disaster because people cannot accept any changes or differences.

"Memory Teachinger" proposes the value of differences and diversity, opposes the single nature and homogeneity, and also opposes the total authority. In the 1990s, American outsourcing was very arrogant, especially the rejection of other races, hatred for foreign immigrants. The populism rises, and people feel that the "foreign population" is impacting the lives of traditional culture and the lives of the people of the country, and even many media believe that diversity is "naive and stupid". In this context, Lauri began to think about the importance of cultural diversity. The protagonist became a "teaching person" who carried past memory. He understood the wonderful difference and felt his pain.

Children in the fourth part of "Memory Teaching" are all actionists. The protagonist in "Memory Teaching", Jonati, the protagonist Jira in "Melancholy Gathering", the protagonist Marty in "The Merchant", and the protagonist in "Son", all assume the responsibility of saving the community and society. Jonat represents a teenager who is eager to choose and loves the multi -world. These teenagers/children's protagonists are curious about everything, dare to break the routine and are willing to use their own actions to change society. This image is similar to American teenagers in the 1990s. They have their own sub -culture and play an important role in society, affecting the development of politics, culture and economy.

Adolescent/children should be responsible for being leading humans to get out of crisis and guide people to find answers to solve problems. Children are not only performers, but also cureists. Faced with unfairness, crazy, and cruel worlds, children do their best, but also the world with order and harmony and healing the destroyed world. As Wests Was said, "children are the father of human beings", the adolescents/children in these stories change the world through joint efforts.

(The author is a professor at Beijing Language University, the president of the Foreign Children's Literature Research Association of Chinese and Foreign Languages ​​Culture)

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Author: Zhang Shengzhen

Edit: Kim Jiuchao

Editor in charge: Zhu Zilong

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