Engaging Child Readers with Cultural Heritage - Yu Rong’s Postmodern Reinterpretation of Chinese Traditional Culture in Picturebooks

Aug 28, 2026

Chinese-British illustrator Yu Rong was among the first to introduce postmodern techniques into Chinese picturebooks. Three featured titles—focusing on folktales, scroll painting, Chinese characters, paper-cutting, and jingzhezhuang bookbinding—use multiple narratives, illustration pastiche, and unconventional design to rework traditional motifs. The study shows how Yu Rong visually innovates cultural presentation, questions outdated values, and empowers children to co-construct meaning. Integrating postmodern aesthetics with tradition expands picturebooks’ expressive potential and adds an Asian voice to global postmodern picturebooks.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time29 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Postmodernism and children’s cultural engagement

Yu Rong’s background and artistic approach

Children's Literature in Education [https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-025-09621-2](https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-025-09621-2) ORIGINAL PAPER Engaging Child Readers with Cultural Heritage: Yu Rong’s Postmodern Reinterpretation of Chinese Traditional Culture in Picturebooks Fuling Deng1 · Xinyue Hu2 Accepted: 15 April 2025 © The Author(s) 2025 Abstract Chinese-British illustrator Yu Rong was among the first to introduce postmodern techniques into Chinese picturebooks. Three of her picturebooks examined in this study-IAm Hua Mulan (Qin and Yu, 2017), The Child Who Wants to be Lost (Jin and Yu, 2021), and Have You Seen the Magpie? (Dai and Yu, 2022) feature Chinese traditional cultural elements, including folktales, famous scroll paintings, Chinese characters, paper-cutting, and jingzhezhuang bookbinding. These books employ a range of postmodern narrative techniques such as multiple narratives, a pastiche of illustration styles, and unconventional design and layout. In the three books, Yu Rong innovates the way to present Chinese traditional culture visually in picturebooks, challenges out-of-date values, and empowers readers to participate in the meaning construction. All of these make child readers’ interaction with culture more participatory and relatable. The findings also suggest that integrating postmodern aesthetics with traditional culture extends Chinese picturebooks’ expressive potential and contributes an Asian voice to global postmodern picturebooks. Keywords Chinese picturebooks · Postmodern picturebooks · Traditional culture · Yu Rong · Transnational artists 􀀍 Fuling Deng [fulingdeng0130@gmail.com](fulingdeng0130@gmail.com) Xinyue Hu [hxy19981017@gmail.com](hxy19981017@gmail.com) 1 School of Education, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G3 6 NH, UK 2 School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK 1 3 Introduction Western picturebooks were introduced to China in the late 1990s and experienceda publishing boom in the Chinese market in the 2000s (Fang, 2012) . With imported picturebooks far exceeding domestic ones in number, and gaining wider recognition for their quality and popularity, concerns grew over the impact of the Western values carried with these books on Chinese children’s cultural identity (Tan, F., 2015, p. 144) . In response, since 2005, publishers, authors, and illustrators in China have dedicated themselves to producing Chinese-style picturebooks that draw on traditional Chinese artistic styles and techniques while exploring themes and narratives reflecting Chinese culture (ibid.) . Many of these picturebooks seek to preserve andrevitalise traditional culture, foster a sense of national pride, and offer international child readers a window into China (Liu and Wang, Z., 2020, p. 72; Yu and Baharom, 2024, p. 927) . However, some Chinese picturebooks elevate traditional cultural elements, presenting them with solemnity, a sense of grandeur, and nostalgia (Tan, F., 2012, p. 150; Wang, S., 2023, p. 28) . These books often present cultural heritage as something sacred and authoritative, with the use of grand visual styles, heroic characterisation, and serious narrative tones. Although such narrative choices stress the historical value and influence of Chinese traditional culture, the aesthetic and emotional needs of young readers, such as relatability, playfulness, and personal engagement, are sometimes overlooked (Tan, F., 2012, p. 150). These picturebooks position culture as something to be passively admired. Postmodernism, with its pursuit of multiculturalism and openness, helps prevent the homogenisation of themes and techniques in picturebooks, as well as the pitfalls of insular nationalism (Tan, F., 2012, p.152) . Additionally, postmodernism encourages questioning, subverting, and critiquing stances when ‘revisiting’ the past (Lyotard, 1984), which can provide new approaches to reinterpreting traditional culture

FAQs

Which Yu Rong picturebooks are analyzed in the study?

The research examines three titles: IAm Hua Mulan, The Child Who Wants to be Lost, and Have You Seen the Magpie?.

What kinds of Chinese traditional cultural elements appear in these picturebooks?

They include folktales, famous scroll paintings, Chinese characters, paper-cutting, and jingzhezhuang bookbinding.

How do postmodern techniques change the way children engage with traditional culture?

Multiple narratives, illustration pastiche, and unconventional layout invite children to participate in meaning-making rather than passively admire cultural heritage.

Aug 28, 2026

Upload by Taylor Morgan