1980〜1990년대 중국조선족아동소설 연구 -『20세기중국조선족아동문학선집』에 수록된 작품들을 중심으로-

Abstract

his study aims to discuss ‘Diaspora’ children’s literature through research on main features of juvenile novels published in《The Anthology of Children’s Literature of Korean-Chinese in the 20th Century》. There have been so many social changes in China after Chinese economic reform. Chinese economic reform has resulted in a huge gap between the rich and the poor, chaos in traditional values, breakdown of communities,rage of gambling, and increase of broken homes due to economic problems. After the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Republic of Korea and People's Republic of China, many Chinese nationals have left for South Korea to make money. Of these people, many were Korean-Chinese, who were relatively free from linguistic and cultural barriers. However, the problem was that a great number of these Korean-Chinese people did not return to China, and it caused a mass-scale family breakdown in the Korean-Chinese community. To Korean-Chinese children, such reality came about as a huge shock and disappointment. An achievement of juvenile novels of Koreans in China in the 1980s and 1990s is that they successfully depict the dark side of Chinese economic reform. Of the problems arising from Chinese economic reform, a mass-scale family breakdown in the Korean-Chinese community due to a huge out-flux of Korean-Chinese was a problem characteristic to the Korean-Chinese community. The fact that there were these juvenile novels that offered consolation and encouragement to Korean-Chinese children who were the biggest victims of such phenomenon was the social role that these novels played under the situation of the time. Unfortunately, however, juvenile novels of Koreans in China in the 1980s and 1990s do not show much philosophical depth or humanistic introspection that may bring about a universal reaction. As they have dealt with subject matters (mostly the dark side of Chinese economic reform) that could bring about interests in the Chinese society, it could have been possible for some novels to establish themselves significantly at least in the history of Chinese Children's literature. And yet. it is deplorably sad that no such novel has been produced as they were all written in Korean only.