Topic: Juvenile Biographies

Juvenile biographies are enthusiastically received from time to time and sometimes even become popular works. From Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Dutch Jewish girl Anne Frank, a story about how she avoided German clutches, to Memories of Peking: South Side Stories by Taiwanese author Li Hai Yin, of memories of her childhood in Beijing, these juvenile biographies are still in vogue despite having been published for over half a century, and have even evolved into teaching materials in many schools.

The world is unique through the works of teenagers since they are uncomplicated, direct and straightforward; even in the tumult of warfare their biographies reveal hope and wishes. This issue of Books & the City covers several juvenile biographies. Some were written in the early years of the authors while others were written for their childhood as grownups. They not only reflect their personal life bit by bit, but also the context and background of the societies they are set in.

The youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner, Malala Yousafzai has never been headstrong even in her youth. This biography describes how she, as the eldest daughter in her family, studied perseveringly in Pakistan. She wrote a blog to record the panic of her classmates under the Taliban occupation, and conveyed the oppression in society to the foreign press. The ending of this autobiography presents a new chapter of her life: she was shot by the Taliban before being sent to a hospital in the U.K. for treatment and reunion with her family.

The most prominent role in this autobiography is assumed by Malala’s father. He insisted on running school under Taliban threats for years and spoke out in favour of education for girls. He was initially allowed to accompany Malala during her treatment but was determined to stay in his homeland to take care of his wife and children. Only with the selfless contribution of this father could Malala obtain her globally-acclaimed achievements. The description of the relationship between father and daughter in the book is the most soul-stirring part.

Last year, on Malala’s 18th birthday, she opened a girl’s school near the Lebanese border in the name of her foundation, offering Syrian refugees the opportunity for education. By reading her autobiography, readers are able to understand the cultivation of her generosity. This book also features a teen version that reviews Malala’s past with simpler words and more concentrated plot.

Iranian female illustrator Marjane Satrapi published her autobiographical animation Persepolis in France, in which she depicts the history of the Islamic Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War with the story of her growth. She studied in a French language school in Tehran, the capital of Iran, where she learnt critical thinking. She witnessed the decline of Iran’s national power and was sent to study in Austria by her parents. Although she returned to Iran and stayed there for a decade due to homesickness, she eventually moved to France where she studied Illustration Art. 

The book unreservedly depicts the recklessness of adolescents: she was once brainwashed by school and idolized dictators before being nurtured by her civilised parents with appropriate values. In pursuit of her peers’ recognition, she squandered money in Iran in the pursuit of Western pop culture. She went astray when she was studying in Austria and began to take drugs with gangs in nightclubs. Through this truthful account, readers are able to understand the struggles and mentality of a rebellious girl who grew up in a dictatorship. 

Published in four volumes with simple black and white images, the book mirrors a heart-warming Bildungsroman that lively depicts the history of Iran in the recent century. The book received a great acclaim when it was published in France and won ‘Best Comics Award’ in the 2004 Frankfurt Book Fair. It has been translated into more than ten languages.

Jiang Ji-li, an immigrant to the U.S., recounts her memory of the Cultural Revolution in English. She was only 12 at the time when the world turned upside down all of a sudden. Her grandfather came from a wealthy family, therefore her father was publicly denounced and her grandmother was forced to clean the streets. Red Guards broke into the house and pulled things apart all the time. Not only was she boycotted by her schoolmates and witnessed her neighbour beaten to death, but also threatened to cut off relations with her father.

This memoir portrays the author’s impetuosity during her adolescence. Owing to her family background, she was not eligible to enrol in the Central Liberation Army Arts Academy; because of that, she was mad at her father, and extended this fury to her mother since she was excluded by her schoolmates due to her parents’ background. Although she pretended not to care about her classmates, deep down in her heart she wanted to overthrow the ‘four olds’ (Old Customs, Old Culture, Old Habits, and Old Ideas) with the Red Guards. She also envied those who had the opportunity to take a glimpse of Mao Zedong, Chairman of the PRC. 

In the postscript, the author recalls the memories that she enjoyed liberty only after moving to the U.S.. In hindsight of her childhood when humanity was distorted, she does not have resentment at the masterminds of the Cultural Revolution; instead, she affirms her patriotism even more and is determined to promote Sino-U.S. cultural exchanges so that foreigners are able to understand the real China.

Japanese theatre actress Tae Hitoto has a subtle relationship with Taiwan, since her father came from a renowned and prominent family in Taiwan. Her mother is a just the girl next door from Japan. Box My Child is a memoir about her childhood when she travelled between Taiwan and Japan. She spoke Japanese at home but recited the multiplication table in Mandarin at school. Her Japanese classmates brought delicate rice balls to school but her mother made her a plain-looking Chinese-style lunchbox. She often received parcels from overseas.

It is unbearable for the author to recall her childhood, since her parents ceased conversation in the event of an argument. She became the messenger in the family since she was small. She did not understand the reason for this quarrel until the death of her parents. She found a box at home, and sorted out her childhood from the letters in the box. Adults sometimes think children are not able to understand domestic affairs; however, the hostility between parents can leave an indelible trauma on a child.

The preciousness of this book lies not only in the author's childhood memories but also the reproduction of the close relationship between Taiwan and Japan from half a century ago. Even the author has to read many family letters to understand how the people from two places would be willing to offer timely assistance to each other in the midst of natural disasters.

// Tae Hitoto costumava viajar entre o Japão e Taiwan durante o seu tempo no ensino primário e secundário (fotografia disponibilizada por Tae Hitoto).

// Nascida em Taibei, Tae Hitoto é actualmente uma actriz de teatro e escritora no Japão (fotografia disponibilizada por Tae Hitoto).

Born in Macao and growing up in Hong Kong, Ho Zi is a writer of children's literature. He wrote about his childhood memories in a newspaper column, which were then collected to compile this book. The first piece was a memory aged 3: he fled to Hong Kong with his parents from Macao to avoid war but Hong Kong was invaded on Christmas Eve. His father was killed by Japanese soldiers, he had lived with his mother since small, which enabled him to witness the suffering of the people.

This book fully reflects the optimistic nature of this young man. Amid the fall of Hong Kong, he learned vulgar language in Japanese; the school closed because of the war and the campus became the students’ paradise of treasure hunting. Even water restriction measures are depicted in a lively and interesting way in this book. He acted recklessly in the name of fighting for justice, as a result of which he was arrested by police. He caused trouble on a tram with classmates, but made good friends with an old gardener. 

Like an old storybook of Hong Kong, the book features the crowd in difficulty at the old train station. Lockhart Road was already a paradise of nightlife, while ‘Bing Tou Hua Yuan’ - now known as Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens - was once a hot spot for street kids. The book also illustrates those who gathered in Hong Kong from all over the world. In the era with no Internet, although everyone was just a passer-by, he/she stays in the mind forever.