Besides Challenge, a number of prestigious local publishers, including those of the economic magazine Commonwealth, the investment advisor Money magazine, and the leading Yuan Liou Publishing Company, have also started planning to establish companies for publishing children's books. Competition in the market for kids' reading material is heating up.

Specialists say that this is the second golden age for children's publishing. The first was in the early years of the Republic, when the idea of books specially for youngsters was borrowed from the West. The dean of children's writers Lin Liang recalls that the big name in the 1950's was the Tung-fang Book Company. In the 1960's and 70's the publishing department at Mandarin Daily News published a 120-volume set of famous children's literature from around the world, and a collection of simplified Chinese classics.

Besides book series, there was the specialized paper for kids, Mandarin Daily News, started in 1948. Magazines included Tungfang Shaonien (Asian Youth), Hsuehyou Yuekan (Schoolmate Monthly), and others. These all accompanied countless children through childhoods when material wealth was by no means abundant.

If we turn our lens to today, we discover that the situation is quite different. With GNP over US$6,000, parents are not stingy about paying for their children's education. Publications for pre-schoolers have followed the rise of pre-school education, drawing contestants for the market pie even from Japan.

Challenge Editor in Chief Kao Ming-mei says that pre-school reading materials are an important medium in the socialization process. She felt upon seeing the impressive Challenge in Japan that kids in the ROC deserved to enjoy this kind of thing. Though ambiguous about transplanting Japanese culture to the ROC, she also hoped it would serve as a spur to domestic publishers.

Child magazine, published by the New Schoolmate Book Store, came out at the same time as Challenge. Like the latter, it includes a games book, a handbook for mothers, and a tape. Chief Editor Chen Shu-hui says, "We more stress local things." For example, the premiere issue had the importance of keeping the environment clean as a topic.

Although these two magazines feel the domestic market has potential, it is not easy to operate a children's magazine well. Ho Cheng-kuang, editor in chief of the provincial Department of Education's committee on publication of children's reading material, says that one reason is that there are too few specialists in the business, so magazine quality tends to be low. Also, most parents do not have the habit of subscribing to magazines for their children, which is disadvantageous for magazines because they must have stable subscribers to be able to maintain quality. What is true for monthlies is even more true for weeklies; even with the financial resources of the United Daily group behind it, Minsheng Children's Weekly lost more than NT$1 million in less than a year, and had to fold.

Newspapers, with a life span of but a day, make even more demands on their publishers. Mandarin Daily News is the "old familiar face." Only last year, with the lifting of the ban on new newspapers, did it finally face competition--from four new papers. Their competition caused MDN to add a color supplement on Sundays.

At first MDN faced a real threat, but after a time it was discovered that its market had not collapsed. It still maintained its 200,000 circulation figure. According to analysis by market persons, parents read MDN while growing up, and are hesitant to turn their backs on the old friend. The new papers have also not yet grasped the special nature of their audience.

Compared with periodicals, book series, without time limits and with long lives, get relatively more people enthusiastically involved. To speak fairly, in the past, the printing and contents of Chinese children's books could not be considered very exquisite. Moreover many were taken directly from Western children's tales. Many children are more familiar with Snow White than with the Cowherd and the Weaving Maid. Sing-ju Ho, Executive Director of the Hsin-yi Foundation is concerned: under these conditions, what kind of a view will children develop toward their own culture?

Although in the past there were stories like "The Twenty-Four Tales of Filial Piety," these were limited to moral lessons about filial reverence, and the contents were relatively serious. Several years ago the Echo Publishing Company came out with a set of Echo Chinese Children's Tales drawn from ancient myths, finally giving children's books a new look. Recently Yuan Liou established Yeh Chu Lin publishers to do children's books. The first set of 36 will be called "Children's Taiwan," focusing on Taiwan's unique flavors. Having enough national ambience is essential for international sales, which are necessary to keep publishers solvent given the small domestic market.

The publishing of children's books with a Chinese flavor is still just growing. The newest direction is adding a cassette tape with the book. The tape is mainly to let children who can't yet read quickly understand the contents of the book. Video tapes also aid understanding, such as introducing the plants and animals in their natural setting.

Of course more than a few parents have their "tape nanny" take the parents' place in telling stories to the children. Chen Shu-chi believes that for parents to take twenty or thirty minutes out of their busy day to tell the little ones a story is not a difficult thing, and a hug is good for both parent and child. "Parents can't be stingy," she says. The completion of a good book still requires concerned parents to help read and enjoy together.

Children only have one childhood, and their future characters or values are more than half formed when young. With good children's stories, it's not even necessary to "teach"--they'll still learn!

[Picture Caption]

Spend a little time every day and tell the children a story! This can make parent-child relationships even more intimate and cooperative.

Since newspapers and periodicals feel the limits imposed by time, the market for children's book series looks even better.

Attaching cassette or video tapes has already become the new tide in chi ldren's publications.

The production for children's reading materials is more careful than in the past. The vehicles for expression are more animated.

After the lifting of the ban on new newspapers, the choice of papers becomes much more diverse for children.