Critical Analysis of the Interwoven Ideologies Embedded in American Picture Books about Taiwanese Children

Abstract

As children’s worldview is shaped through books, the ideologies embedded in readings influence young readers’ values and beliefs. There are very limited representations of Taiwanese protagonists and their culture in the mainstream book market of the United States. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to examine the portrayal of Taiwanese children and culture in five picture books published in the US: Livia Blackburne’s I Dream of Popo (2021), Alan Woo’s Maggie’s Chopsticks (2015), Belle Yang’s Hannah is My Name (2008), Grace Lin’s The Ugly Vegetables (1999), and Yi Ling Hsu’s Typhoon Holidays (2015). To deeply analyse the textual and non-textual content of these picture books, the paper employs the theoretical framework of ideology and Orientalism, which is detailed in such patterns as characters, relationships, interactions, conflicts, and problem solutions in the stories. The authors of the study argue that the interwoven ideologies of gender roles, capitalism, and patriarchy implicitly exercise power over the young protagonists of the works examined. Moreover, the child characters are treated as ‘obedient others’ by the adults and dominant Western culture.