Chinese / People's Republic of China
Dian xian gan qu na er le?
(Where has the power pole gone?)
Li, Han
(text/illus.)
Chengdu: Si chuan shao nian er tong chu ban she (Sichuan Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House), 2024. – [34] p.
(Series: Xin yi tu hua shu jiang xi lie)
ISBN 978-7-5728-1451-8
Power pole | Social change | Urbanisation | Picture book
Reading age: 3+
White Ravens issue: 2024
Narrated through the eyes and voice of a power pole, this picture book provides a vivid record of the process of urbanisation and social change that many villages in China have experienced in the last half century. A remote village receives electricity after the first power pole is erected. Birds perch and sing on it, people gather to chat under it, the village becomes livelier than ever. Gradually, the pole is reinforced to hold more wires, as more buildings for new residents are constructed. When one day it becomes so overloaded that it catches fire, workers dismantle it and lay all the entangled wires underground. The power pole becomes history. Through the unique perspective in both the text and the illustration, a phase of history is memorialized forever. As the pole says, »I disappear, but I remember everything that once was«. Chongqing-based illustrator Li Han got her MA from the University for the Creative Arts. »Dian xian gan qu na er le?« won the first prize of the 14th Hsin-yi Picture Book Award. [FW, ZX]