A Contrapuntal Reading of Child-Focused Discourses in Chinese and Western Children's Literature Theory

This article conducts a contrapuntal reading, based on Edward Said's method for analysing postcolonial literature, of child-focused discourses in Chinese and Western children's literature theory. It undertakes a cross-examination of the Chinese ‘ er tong ben wei’ (‘child-oriented approach’), a key tenet and foundation of a uniquely Chinese critical discourse on children's literature, and the vigorous strand of child-centred research ranging from Peter Hunt's early childist criticism to more recent advocates for children's rights and visibility within predominantly aetonormative research and theoretical imagination. Such comparative analysis echoes the transnational turn in current children's literature studies by resisting a Eurocentric lens of engaging with theory, shedding light on how theory happens through processes of transnational knowledge production and exchange, with the potential to interact across national borders. The article concludes by pondering the prospect of creating transnational research paradigms for child-focused research – ones that acknowledge the glocal interdependence of theory within a shared research community.