ABSTRACT
Animal images have always been common in children's literature. As research on animals deepens, and animal novels become rich and detailed, the realistic approach to animals in children's books has evolved as a popular genre. Chang Xingang was best known in the 1980s for his teenage novels, but turned to animal stories in recent years. Chang's novels are animal autobiographies, a genre which originated in Western children's literature in the second half of the nineteenth century. When a writer recognizes that animal stories are dominated by anthropocentrism - the assumption that the world can only be perceived from a human perspective - it becomes possible to write against anthropocentrism and make it untenable. Since animals' actions and behaviors constitute the main plot of the Heihe's animal novels, the animal characters are well rounded, while the human characters are usually two-dimensional.
