Author's Introduction

Lao She (1899-1966), originally named Shu Qingchun, with the courtesy name She Yu, was born in Beijing. After graduating from Beijing Normal School in 1918, he served as a primary school principal and middle school teacher. Later, he went to England to give lectures and began literary creation, attracting attention with his humorous style. After returning to China, he became a university professor. In 1946, he went to the United States to give lectures. Shortly after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he was summoned back to China and served as Vice Chairman of the Chinese Federation of Literary and Art Circles and Vice Chairman of the Chinese Writers Association. Representative works include the novels "Rickshaw Boy" and "Four Generations Under One Roof", the novella "Crescent Moon", the short story "Weishen", and the scripts "Dragon Beard Gully" and "Teahouse".

Preface

Mr. Lao She loves children and values their healthy growth. He is willing to write for children and has indeed written a lot. It is not a problem to compile a collection of children's literature works created by him. It should be easy and effortless.
This book, edited and published by the Children's Department of Tongxin Publishing House, happened to be released on the occasion of his 110th birthday. It can be said that it is a very commemorative and enlightening event.
His first debut work is called "Xiaoling'er", which is a short story written by him at the age of 22. The protagonist is a child.
His last work is called "Under the Red Flag", which he wrote at the age of 63 but unfortunately was not completed. It is an autobiographical novel with himself as the protagonist. After writing eleven chapters and 80000 words, it was forced to be interrupted. Just now, he wrote about the protagonist's life from birth to one year old, with children as the "core".
Starting with children and ending with children may seem accidental, but in reality, it illustrates the importance of children in the author's heart.
Among them, four works by Lao She are particularly noteworthy and can truly be defined as major works of children's literature:
Xiaopo's Birthday "is a long fairy tale novel written between 1929 and 1930;
The Little Woodhead Man "is a novella written in 1943;
Frog Rider ", a children's opera written in 1960;
Treasure Ship "is a children's play with three acts and five performances, written in 1961.
Mr. Lao She also has an interesting novel called "The Story of Niu Tianci", written in 1934. Although it is not specifically for children, it revolves around a child as the "nucleus" and specifically criticizes the education system of the old society and the constraints of traditional families on children. On the surface, it is light hearted and humorous, but in reality, it is serious and profound.
It seems that children's literature works do indeed account for a very important proportion in Lao She's entire literary creation. In this sense, Mr. Lao She is also a genuine and accomplished children's writer. Like some literary masters, writing for children seems to be their duty.
Mr. Lao She himself is quite proud of this. In his article "How I Write 'Xiaopo's Birthday'," he wrote, "Writing such a book makes me feel young and happy; I would like to be the 'child leader' forever." "I am still most satisfied with this little book, not because of anything else, but because I myself have not completely lost my childlike heart - I was already in my thirties at that time
In 1956, the Chinese Writers Association decided to establish a secretariat, with Mr. Mao Dun as the first secretary. Mr. Lao She is a member of the Secretariat. Lao She proposed that the Chinese Writers Association should call on writers to write for children, and for this purpose, the Chinese Writers Association made a special resolution advocating that every writer should write at least one article for children. Lao She took the lead in creating the children's opera "Frog Rider" (1960) and the children's play "Treasure Boat" (1961).
Publishing this special collection is not only to showcase the extraordinary achievements of Lao She's children's literature works and provide good spiritual food for children, but perhaps more importantly, to inspire today's Chinese writers to pay attention to children's literature, remind everyone to think of children, love children, strive to write for them, and actively engage in the great cause of prospering children's literature.

A child, leaving their mother's body, comes into the world. The world he sees is a fairy tale world. Fairy tales are a child's first good friends when they come into this world. Children cannot do without fairy tales. Where children are, there must be fairy tales.
Ge Cuilin was born in Leting, Hebei in February 1930. She graduated from the Department of Sociology at Yanjing University and began publishing works in 1949. In the century long development of modern children's literature in China, Ge Cuilin is an outstanding and influential female writer. Her magnificent and colorful works have enriched the artistic treasure trove of Chinese children's literature. Her children's literature creation is rooted in the soil of ethnic literature and art, seeking the clever combination of poetry and stories to give children more warmth, innocence, and beauty.
This book is his collection of fairy tale works.