The document discusses the importance of cultural authenticity in children's picture books. It argues that accuracy alone is not enough, and that cultural values must be authentically portrayed. While early books often lacked representation or depicted Asian cultures through stereotypes, more recent analyses find portraits have become more positive and nuanced. However, authenticity requires reflecting a culture's accepted norms and values. For example, a 1939 book depicts an outdated practice. Overall, authentic adaptation considers both a culture's specific traditions and universally shared values.

1. Accuracy Is Not Enough: The Role of
Cultural Values in the Authenticity of
Picture Books
By: Weimin Mo and Wenju Shen

2.  Culture influences the way we view
ourselves, society, and human relations and
interactions.
 Because of the spontaneous nature of
cultural perception, it is not easy for us to
view reality from a cultural perspective that
differs from out own.
 Mistakesof inauthentic cultural depiction are
inevitable if only a few concepts are used as
cues to create picture books.

3. Progress in Cultural Authenticity:
Achievement Over a Half Century
• The mainstream culture in the U.S has
been strongly influenced by
Eurocentrism.
• Asian cultures and Asian-Americans were
once the least represented in pitcure
books

4. The practice of viewing the
world from a European
perspective and with an implied
belief, either consciously or
subconsciously, in the
preeminence of European
culture.

5. Progress in Cultural Authenticity:
Achievement Over a Half Century
• The mainstream culture in the U.S has
been strongly influenced by
Eurocentrism.
• Asian cultures and Asian-Americans were
once the least represented in pitcure
books
However….

6. However, Harada (1995) studied issues of ethnicity, authenticity, and quality
in Asian American picture books from 1983-1993 and the results indicated:
 Characters in more than 90% of the works are positive, non-stereotyped
portrayals
 Asian American characters assume a proactive role in resolving their own
problems and forging cross-cultural bonds in almost 80% of the stories
 Derogatory language and parodied speech are absent from all of the work
 Historical information, when present, is accurately presented in all of the titles.
 Cultural details, when included, are authentically described almost 70% of the
work.
 Asian-Americans are realistically depicted through illustrations and photographs
in almost 80% of the books
 (pp. 140-141)

7. "Authenticity is not just accuracy or the
avoidance of stereotyping but involves cultural
values and issues/ practices that are accepted as
norms of the social group" (SM pp. 200).
 Some cultural facts and practices may be
realistically reflected in the story but may not
be considered authentic because member of the
culture do not agree with each other on
interpretation of their values.
 This chapter mainly focuses on examining several
aspects of the connection between cultural
authenticity and issues of cultural values.

8.  Example: 1939 Caldecott winner Mei Li , written
and illustrated Thomas Handforth
 According to the authors this book has authentic
literary quality but lacks aesthetic authenticity
because he is not accurate in his judgment of
value authenticity. He depicts Mei Li's mother
with bound feet, a practice that was long
despised and rarely practiced when the book was
written.
 For these reasons we can conclude that Mei Li's
artwork is non-stereotyped but the book is not
authentic because it does not reflect the
cultural values of the time period.

9. The main character Mei Li refuses to
accept the inferior position the Confucian
ethical code designated for women and
has exciting adventures at the New Year
Fair.
The story reflects the dismissive Chinese
attitude toward oppressive and
discriminative attitude toward the
Confucian ideology.
However, Handforth’s aesthetic
authenticity is not as accurate, for
instance: the bound feet of Mei Li’s
mother. Long before this time the practice
of binding women’s feet had fallen out of
acceptance and style.

10.  Several studies indicate that folktales represent
an extremely high percentage of multicultural
books. They have become "one of the primary
tradition-bearers of the 20th Century"
 Authenticity is violated when the literary and
aesthetic principals do not reflect the culture of
origin.
 The values at the heart of a book must be part
of and reflect the chosen culture
 Cultural authenticity involves examining the
connections between a social practice and the
central code of a culture.

11.  Allcultures have overlapping areas of value
especially when it comes to the nature of
humanity.
 Those who endorse inhuman actions tend to have
trouble forcing people to follow or fail to control
the situation after a period of time.
 To deny the compatibility of cultural values is a
denial that values of different cultures in human
history have overlapped and converged.
 Authors and illustrators need to consider the
implications of the cultural values they
introduce in their stories (SM, pp. 206)

12.  The relationship between authenticity and intercultural
conflict also needs to be considered.
 Example: when a folktale is adapted from one culture to
another, the author or illustrator must consider the possible
value conflict between the two cultures.
 Adaptation is a process of cultural filtering
 This stems from oral story-telling when storytellers would
tailor their stories to the audiences taste.
 The values readers will accept is based on their historic,
social, economic, and material development of their
cultural group.
 Other cultures, for example, do not always appreciate
Americans’ enthusiasm for introducing American values.
 American’s are also usually unable to accept the values of
inequality and neglect of individuality.
 “Folktales are not born and nourished in isolation; they
grow from social experience and cultural tradition”
(Hearne 1993, p.33 [as quoted in SM. Pp. 208]).

13. A great number of picture books make a few
mistakes in cultural depiction, but it is unfair
to accuse them of being stereotyped because
the illustrator may not have had a fixed
pattern in their mind.
 Authors and illustrators CAN create works
even if they are not “insiders” to the culture
they are portraying however, as long as the
work is authentic.

14.  Cultural authenticity is a complex,
multidimensional issue.
 Authors of picture books need to carefully
select and adapt stories that authentically
reflect the culture of origin and at the same
time ensure that their value implications are
both universal and reflect the values of the
recipient culture.
 When authors and illustrators attend to these
issues, various aspects of culture including:
cultural values, customs, and objects will be
accurately and authentically depicted.