ABSTRACT

As might be expected, given the size of its population, China boasts a huge canon of nursery rhymes and children’s songs. While translations of the great Chinese classical poems are many and eminent, translations of the rhymes are relatively few and little known outside China. Apart from the publications of Headland (1900) and Johnson (1971) we are not aware of any significant anthologies in English translation. New rhymes come and go, reflecting changes in society, and the old rhymes linger, passed on by parents, grandparents, carers and teachers. The new rhymes come on a wave of political and social change, and are abandoned on the next wave of change. Reflecting politics, life and language over the centuries, the rhymes are the bedrock of children’s literature. The hundreds, perhaps thousands, of rhymes in the Chinese canon are an Aladdin’s cave of literary treasure, deserving of a wider audience and updated translation.