VietNamNet Bridge – Children continue to prefer stories written by foreign rather than Vietnamese authors. And comics from Japan and other countries are still their choice ahead of domestic works.

Children at the Kim Dong bookstore on Ba Trieu Street in Ha Noi.

Many children read either Japanese comics or foreign children’s stories that had been translated into Vietnamese.

“Vietnamese stories always talk about what we should and should not do, while in foreign children’s stories we find our dreams and our wishes realised,” says seventh-grade student at Ha Noi’s Nguyen Du Secondary School Nguyen Thuy Linh.

Need for new blood

Although the reasons for their preference seem simple, responding is proving difficult for domestic authors, especially when only a few want to write stories for children.

Publisher Kim Dong’s statistics show that Vietnamese authors write just 20 per cent of children’s books each year.

Most are reprints of books written by such famous authors such as To Hoai, Vo Quang and Tran Hoai Duong.

Among 357 books chosen for consolation prizes from more than 26,000 books published in 2007, only two were for children when judges decided the Vietnamese Book Contest in October.

Viet Nam Publishers Association president Nguyen Kiem says: “We wanted to nominate many prizes for children’s books but in the final round, we were unable to find many with attractive content.”

The publishing house’s editorial director, Tran Thi Ha, explains there is a lack of authors writing and artists drawing.

“Most artists think of creating children’s comics as a sideline.”

The Children’s Literature Section of the Viet Nam Authors Association lists only seven members and all are more than 50-years-old.

Kim Dong Publishing House lists 11 authors who have written books for children but about half are dead and the rest more than 50.

All the Nha Nam Communication Company’s 50 newly-published books for children are translations of foreign works.

Bigger profits

Publishing houses are keener to publish foreign rather than domestic stories for children because they are more profitable, says Phan Thi Publishing Company director Phan Thi My Hanh.

“If children love the book, the publisher can make 20 times, or even more of the cost of its publication.

“But we hardly make a profit with Vietnamese children’s stories, if sales do not exceed 20,000 copies.”

Viet Nam Authors Association Children’s Literature Section representative Le Phuong Lien says the use of imagination is the difference between foreign and domestic works. “Foreign books help children satisfy their imagination and curiosity while Vietnamese books focus on teaching them morality,” she says.

“Vietnamese books are now more suitable for rural children who lack books to read.”

Writer To Hoai, whose numerous children’s stories include the famous “Diary of a Cricket,” suggests that a prize of VND1 billion (US$60,000) for children’s writers would generate many attractive books.

Is money the issue?

Young well-known author Phan Hon Nhien concedes writing for children is difficult.

“Children love stories that are close to their lives,” she says.

“Writing them stories that are both attractive and provide moral lessons is a challenge for authors.”

Author of the “Elephant and Sparrow,” Vu Phuong Nghi, says she reads many books before she begins writing.

“I found out it is quite difficult to write a book that will be popular with children,” she says.

Winner of the Peter Pan Prize 2008 for his children’s story Vua nham mat vua mo cua so (Closing Eyes, Opening the Window), Nguyen Ngoc Thuan, does not intend to write any more books for children.

The Viet Nam Authors Association, has formed the writing group Tropical to promote literate for the young.

Its 46 young and enthusiastic members are now collecting the best work of its members for next year’s Mid Autumn Festival the largest for children in Viet Nam.

(Source: Viet Nam News)