중국어 번역본 『朝鮮現代兒童故事集』(1936)의 가치와 작품에 나타난 식민지 어린이 형상

Abstract

The earliest works introduced in China as modern literature of Korea are the three pieces of ‘Joseon Legend’ written by Zhou Zuo Ren(周作人), which was published in Yu Si 28th edition on May25,1925. Since then, books such as Joseon Legend, Joseon Folk Story and Choseon Fairy Tales have been translated and introduced. Among them, Joseon Legend and Joseon Folk Story are translations of traditional folk tales, while the origin of Choseon Fairy Tales is unknown. The Joseon Contemporary Children’s Story is the collection of Korean fairy tales translated into Chinese, published in January 1936 and January 1941 by Zheng Zhong(正中) publishing houseof Shanghai, China. The translator, Shao Lin Sheng(邵霖生), was a Chinese who taught Chinese language at Shanghai Inseong School. This collection has total eight pieces of works including four from Eorini (Children), four from Byeolnara (Land of Stars), and two from unidentified source. The works whose sources were confirmed reflect the reality of Joseon in the 1930s. At that time, the Chinese intellectuals introduced the professional literature of Joseon actively, and this tendency came from the consciousness about the “small and weak nation”. In the ‘Joseon Contemporary Children’s Story’, children appeared to suffer from poverty, and the translator implied that this was caused by Japanese imperialism. The Joseon Contemporary Children’s Story shows the children of Shanghai Inseong School who lived overseas during the Japanese colonial period read Eorini (Children) and Byeolnara (Land of Stars) which were published in Korea. In addition, it is evident that the translator, one of the Chinese intellectuals tried to cultivate universal humanity for children of future generations through his works.