Chinese Poetry Collection for Children?

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Hello,
I have been a member for quite a while, but up to now I never posted projects of my own, I'd like the community's input on this.

I am a cultural mediator for China, and I work a lot with schools. Recently  teachers keep asking me about Chinese classical poetry: info on authors, translation of poems, suggestions and materials for using Chinese poetry in class.

And that set me thinking, since as far as I know there aren't any collections of translated Chinese poetry aimed at children over here.

I keep visualizing a book like this:

Front matter: an introduction to the Chinese poetry of the 'golden age' (definitely Tang, possibly with something about the Song too), a pronunciation table and a short bio for each of the included poets (all in a 'register' that could be good both for teachers / parents and for older kids, keeping things simple never hurts).

The poems: first in a 'one page per line' format. with the original Chinese, a transcription  and the translation, like this (the transcription will have the tones marked):

危樓高百尺﹐

wei lou gao bai chi
A tower of one hundred feet

With an illustration portraying the image in the line, then the whole poem on a single page.

I have most of the materials for the front matter already and I'll need just to select the poems and translate them (some I have already because of previous projects).

At the start I thought about doing an ebook in Italian, but a version in English wouldn't be that much more work (again, much of the front matter I have in both languages) and offering both an ebook and a paper edition would be a dream.

I wonder wheter crowdfunding could be a viable option, for starters I'll need an editor for the English version and an illustrator (I'd love something in watercolor, not aping classical Chinese paintings but with a bit of that flavour), and hopefully enough to cover a trial print run.
Perks could be : a copy of the e-book, a copy of the paper book (if we make enough), the possibility to sponsor a specific illustration and have the patron's name listed in the credit, or that plus a print of the sponsored illustration,...

At the moment, though what I'll need most would be an interested editor, illustrator and, maybe, publisher/printer to have an idea of the sum needed.

Opinions, please?

Crossposted to my own journal

Comments

[zeeth_kyrah]

I think the first thing you'll need to do now that you've got this amazing and compelling idea (and I really am amazed and compelled by it!), is to write out a budget and find out what it would likely cost to produce this.

Sometimes just funding separate stages of the project will give you an idea of its viability: Getting the first few pages out, so you have something to show an editor or a publisher; getting several poems together, perhaps releasing a small chapbook as a more public demonstration of how this would work; building and marketing the final product.

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Yes, funding separate stages could indeed be a good option, I hadn't considered it, thank you!

Also thanks for the enthusiastic response, I am amazed at the kind of positive reactions this is getting.

SQUEE!!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>Front matter: an introduction to the Chinese poetry of the 'golden age' (definitely Tang, possibly with something about the Song too), a pronunciation table and a short bio for each of the included poets (all in a 'register' that could be good both for teachers / parents and for older kids, keeping things simple never hurts).<<

DO IT! Poetry is a wonderful thing, and bilingual poetry is a great way to teach languages and cultures. Plus, in my experience, people relate far more strongly to things written by people like them, about experiences they can relate to. When I was designing coursework for prison classes, I got the guys hooked on Langston Hughes and Lorna Dee Cervantes. It works. Then on the flip side, the same kind of book is great for people studying the source culture from some other angle.

>>At the start I thought about doing an ebook in Italian, but a version in English wouldn't be that much more work (again, much of the front matter I have in both languages) and offering both an ebook and a paper edition would be a dream.<<

Having an edition in English/Chinese and Italian/Chinese would broaden the potential market. All three of those are major languages. Since you speak all three languages, you wouldn't have the problem of doubling your interpretation costs as would someone hiring it done -- though you'd have to account for the extra time you spend on it. If it were me, I suspect it would take less time the second round because I'd already be familiar with the material; YMMV.

>>I wonder wheter crowdfunding could be a viable option, for starters<<

I think so. It's a cool project. You know folks in the crowdfunding community here. More importantly, you also know Chinese-Italian folks, people from the schools are contacting you wanting stuff like this -- use those contacts.

>>I'll need an editor for the English version<<

I do freelance editing, and I've edited poetry before.

>> and an illustrator (I'd love something in watercolor, not aping classical Chinese paintings but with a bit of that flavour), and hopefully enough to cover a trial print run.<<

Some time ago, I saw a Chinese-American painter ... and that was his style. He took traditional Chinese artistic symbolism, a bit of which I recognized, and transmuted it using American birds and flowers and such. One of the most striking examples I remember was a cardinal bird with peonies. So if I were going to do a bilingual Chinese book, I would look for art like that, which blends Chinese motifs with British or American or Italian motifs. You have to know both artistic traditions to pull it off, but the results can be breathtaking.

>>Perks could be : a copy of the e-book, a copy of the paper book (if we make enough), the possibility to sponsor a specific illustration and have the patron's name listed in the credit, or that plus a print of the sponsored illustration,...<<

Ooo ... those sound good. Prints of the art would also make good perks. So would bookmarks with either the art, or calligraphed Chinese poetry.

>>At the moment, though what I'll need most would be an interested editor, illustrator and, maybe, publisher/printer to have an idea of the sum needed.<<

That's a good start, yes.

I must now go alert my audience in case anyone wants to join in.

Re: SQUEE!!

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

I went 'SQUEE' myself reading this. You make some great points and I hoped you'd be intrigued enough to offer yourself as an editor.

You caught exactly what I have in mind for the illustrations (I'll try googling 'cardinal and peony' and see what comes up, by the way). I already had an artist (who is also an educator) showing interest in the project on my LJ, she is familiar with chinese ink paintings and has studied them, so things look very promising (fingers crossed).

Re: SQUEE!!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

>>I went 'SQUEE' myself reading this. You make some great points and I hoped you'd be intrigued enough to offer yourself as an editor.<<

We seem to make a good team. Our interests overlap in a lot of areas.

I have a pricelist for some editorial services here:
http://penultimateproductions.weebly.com/hire-me.html
Consider that a general guide. I'll have to do some thinking about this project because it's different than the other piece-by-piece work I've done.

>>You caught exactly what I have in mind for the illustrations (I'll try googling 'cardinal and peony' and see what comes up, by the way).<<

Yay! Try asking the folks you know. I'd bet that somewhere, somebody is doing the same thing with Chinese styling and Italian flora/fauna.

>>I already had an artist (who is also an educator) showing interest in the project on my LJ, she is familiar with chinese ink paintings and has studied them, so things look very promising (fingers crossed).<<

I love the ink paintings. Some of the Zen calligraphy and illustrations, in Japanese or Chinese, are also very striking.

*ponder* Oh, and look up the seasonal tags. If I'm remembering right, Chinese art and poetry do the same thing as Japanese in terms of encoding seasonal references, but the associations aren't all the same. Try to avoid the big mistake of mixing the wrong seasonal cues. It seems to be the #1 complaint about blended art. You may also need to cross-reference what plants/animals are associated with which seasons in the Italian landscape too ... in which case, I'd love to see those notes.

Re: SQUEE!!

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Yes, seasonal cues are there in Chinese art, but even more, a lot of animals and plants have symbolic values even stronger than the seasonal associations (pine trees for longevity, for instance, mandarine ducks for happiness in marriage, the bat for prosperity) sometimes the symbolic values between Italy and China clash (for instance for us mums are the flowers of the dead while in Chinese art they are often associated whit a life of ease away from public offices). In general, though, I plan on letting the poems themselves set the visuals and work from that.

Re: SQUEE!!

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

*nod* I've seen some of the other symbolism, when I went looking for things for my paper mages to fold.

Mainly I was thinking two things:

1) Make sure that illustrating a poem does not cause a culture clash in the symbolism.

2) Look for opportunities to use symbolic motifs as a unifying factor in what could otherwise become a rather hectic collection of art.

An artist used to working across European and Chinese artistic fields should be able to do at least some of that intuitively.

Re: SQUEE!!

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Yes to all, definitely.
user philosophercat is working on some samples based on the poem I quoted, we seem to be on the same wavelenght. :)

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

That's an utterly beautiful idea, and I dearly hope you can get the people you need to make it happen. I'd certainly support it as a patron!

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm overwhelmed by the interest, enthusiasm and incredibly positive response I have had up to now, both here and on my LJ.
It looks like I'll °have° to find a way to make it work. :)