Constructing the “Scientific” Child in Late Qing Periodicals

The influence of classic Confucian texts such as The Twenty-four Exemplars of Filial Piety on Chinese childhoods has been well-documented. However, non-canonical texts published for Chinese children in the late Qing dynasty, particularly children’s periodicals, have received less critical attention. This talk explores the construction of Chinese childhood in Xiaohai yuebao (The Child’s Paper, 1875–1915) and Mengxue bao (The Children’s Educator, ca 1897–1906). The former was a monthly produced by Protestant missionaries that included not only Bible stories but also articles on natural history, astronomy, and physiology. The latter was the first Chinese-run children’s magazine started by Chinese reformers which also published columns on nineteenth-century science. This seminar will consider how the two periodicals constructed the image of the ‘scientific’ child. Produced in an environment fraught with anxieties about China’s future, the two magazines mobilized the figure of the child to argue for the need to empower the younger generation by equipping them with scientific knowledge.

About the Speaker

Shih-Wen Sue Chen is an Associate Professor in Writing and Literature at Deakin University. She is the author of Children’s Literature and Transnational Knowledge in Modern China: Education, Religion, and Childhood (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) and Representations of China in British Children’s Fiction, 1851–1911 (Routledge, 2013) and the co-editor of Representations of Children and Success in Asia: Dream Chasers (Routledge, 2022). Her current research project focuses on science in nineteenth-century English and Chinese children’s literature.

The ANU China Seminar Series is supported by the Australian Centre on China in the World at ANU College of Asia and the Pacific.