Chinese / People's Republic of China
Du jiao shou xian shen de chun tian
(The spring when unicorns appear)
Tongzi
(text)
Jin, Zhaoxin
(illus.)
Jinan: Ming tian chu ban she (Tomorrow Publishing House), 2025. – 158 p.
ISBN 978-7-5708-2549-3
Imagination | Language | Poetry | Play
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2026
This collection features nearly eighty children’s poems by Tongzi. They are marked by wild innocence, boundless imagination, playful surprises, and profound philosophical undercurrents. Composed in free form and flowing in rhythm, they delightfully alternate between the quotidian and a world of wonder, suggesting no dissociation between real life and fairy tales, everyday words and poetry. »Halfway through the dream / I suddenly forgot who I was...« »I once threw a lion up into the sky / and it hasn’t come down yet...«. Tongzi’s generation of authors has expanded the artistic expression and aesthetic scope of Chinese children’s poetry, while their seemingly aimless whimsy and ostensibly casual free verse also sparked debate. Should poetry for children be like this? Tongzi’s poetry collections include »Chi zu tiao lai tiao qu« (Jumping about barefoot) and »Wo zhi dao suo you wen ti de da an le« (I know the answers to all the questions), the latter won the National Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature. (Age: 8+) [FW, ZX]