Taiwanese Picturebooks and the Changing Images of the Family in the Age of Globalisation

Abstract

Children’s literature has long served as a crucial instrument for shaping and challenging social ideas and cultural norms with respect to the working of family and childhood. This chapter examines a selection of Taiwanese picturebooks spanning three decades—Let’s Get Mung Beans, Momma! (1988), On My Way to Buy Eggs (2001), The Best Christmas Ever (2003), Papa Bear Works in Another City (2010), Mino and His Bag (2012), and Emma, Momma (2018). It is argued that the rise of globalisation from the late 1980s through the new millennium, marked by accelerated economic growth and cultural exchange, has led to a redefinition and reconsideration of family structures and relationships in contemporary Taiwan. The traditional image of a family, where the father is the provider, the mother is a homemaker, and the children are dependent, is no longer the sole ideal but instead faces significant challenges and reconstructions. This transformation includes the recognition of alternative family practices, such as single parenthood, transnational and migrational families, and ethnically blended families. Nevertheless, the romantic idealisation of family as a source of happiness remains intact and valued, while the child protagonists are often positioned as mobile subjects innovatively negotiating between the past and the present.

Part of this chapter was presented in the keynote speech entitled “City and Childhood Space in Contemporary Taiwanese Picturebooks” (in Chinese) in Children’s Literature Seminar: Children’s Literature, Language, and the City, hosted by the Department of English Language and Literature, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, November 5, 2022. The current study is a result of a research grant from the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC 112-2410-H-006-121).