The Evolution Of Children's Image In Textbook Illustrations In The Late Qing Dynasty And Early Republic Of China

How to illustrate children is a crucial concern in the field of education.In the current curriculum reform,students' perspective and position have always been the focus of educators,but the children's perspective in textbooks is missing and misplaced.What kind of children's image should be created in the textbook illustrations and how to portray the image of children?These problems are still waiting to be solved.In the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China,The Commercial Press has carried on the exploration of the early modern children's image in textbook illustrations under the requirement of educational system reform.In particular,the textbooks published in the period of 1902 to 1923 which are required by the reforms of the educational system reflect the alternation of the children's image in the modernization of Chinese education.The process and results are worth discussing.This paper will study the image of children in the textbook illustrations of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China,and further exploration on how to portray the image of children in education reform will be made.The suggestions to these problems will not only help textbook writers who need to implement the concept of children-oriented but also provide the historical experience of how to identify children for the future curriculum reform.In order to explore children's image and its evolution in textbook illustrations from the late Qing Dynasty to early Republic of China,the paper select the textbooks of The Commercial Press published in 1902 to 1923.The three generations of Chinese elementary school textbooks are The New Junior Chinese Textbooks published in 1904,The New Chinese Textbooks of the Republic published in 1912,The New Schooling System of Chinese Textbooks published in 1923.As they corresponded with the Renyin Guimao educational system reform,Renzi educational system reform and Renxu educational system reform.This study will use the perspective and method of image research,five dimensions of children's visage,body,games,roles and model are used as the analytic framework.It is found that the images of children in the textbook illustrations of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China reflect the demands of the educational reforms.Specifically,the image of filial piety and filial piety is the epitome of traditional moral precepts in The New Junior Chinese Textbooks.Democratic Republic thought has created state and national consciousness in The New Chinese Textbooks of the Republic.The New Schooling System of Chinese Textbooks'illustrations of images of children presents a new look.The children get rid of the shackles of the traditional laws and constraints,the pure nature has been liberated.'The influence of western culture trend brings the "children oriented" concept of education,promote the China education modernization.Such factors,including the transition from traditional to modern education,education places transferred from households to school,teaching from the words and deeds for school uniform teaching,all have profound impacts on the children's image in the textbook illustrations.The final task is to put forward suggestions for current textbooks from the experience of the children's image in the textbook illustrations of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.From the above conclusion,it can be found that the image of children in the textbook illustrations are carriers of educational ideas and educational objectives.Therefore,the main suggestions of this study are as follows.The children's image in the textbook illustrations can be regarded as a kind of hidden curriculum which bears the educational value.In addition,we can put The New Schooling System of Chinese Textbooks as the reference object and conclude that understanding and close to children's daily life is the basis of implementing the concept of children-oriented.In short,the textbook should be based on children;it is necessary to build the world based on children's daily life;the scene should be based on the growth of children's lives;activities should be based on the observation and understanding of children.Finally,from the experience of The Commercial Press,we can see that the images of children in the illustrations should conform to the characteristics of the times as much as possible,and combine the advanced educational thoughts in order to embody the latest educational purpose.