Skimming through this book immediately sells it as a fun read. One image that stands out is a drawing of a few white seagulls and a few black crows lined up in formation against each other: “White is beautiful!” “Black is beautiful!” “Gimme a break!” The latter is uttered by a grumpy, short black crow smoking what appears to be a cigarette (99). While this is a touchy subject, the birds are drawn in a manner that is both humorous and artistic, making the debate absurd and lighthearted. English and Chinese text versions make this book a good text for those learning either of these languages while familiar with the other, as the content is amusing and precise; learners of foreign languages also benefit from seeing images that depict texts, so this should also assist with language-acquisition. There are a lot of silly animals throughout. At one point, an anti-meat-eating perspective is presented as “Sacrificial Pigs” are presented in cooked form and also fearing death as they attempt to convince the “Minister of Sacrificial Ceremonies” to spare them (144). The drawings are polished and neatly executed, while also not being too polished or formulaic; they are original and unique, but are not sloppy because of this freedom. This should be a fun book for kids to read if they are interested in Asian culture, or enjoy artistically illustrated books with complex stories.
The cover advertises the artist, C. C. Tsai, as “one of Asia’s most popular cartoonists, and his editions of the Chinese classics have sold more than 40 million copies in over twenty languages. This volume presents Tsai’s delightful graphic adaptation of the profound and humorous Daoist writings of Zhuangzi…” Given the illustrations on racism and veganism that I noted earlier, it is difficult for me to gather what they have to do with Daoism and specifically with Zhuangzi, but perhaps the Chinese text presents the original writings of this classic author, while the English text is a series of cartoonish modern jokes… “Zhuangzi shows why returning to the spontaneity of nature is the only sane response to a world of conflict.” I guess the animals in the book are natural, but I doubt there are any crying pigs or intimidating racist birds in Daoist teachings… As I assumed, “Zhuangzi’s original Chinese text is artfully presented in narrow sidebars on each page, enriching the book for readers and students of Chinese without distracting from the self-contained English-language cartoons.” This means that those who want to learn Chinese or English cannot really check between this text and the cartoons, as each of these state entirely different things, which might have only vague inspirational connections. So, no, language students cannot use this as a textbook, as I had assumed. It is likely that other potential readers will make the same mistake I did in this regard, so I’m leaving my train of thought on this. This type of poking fun at Chinese classics is a common practice for C. C. Tsai, who has released similar comedic-release barely related-to-the-originals cartoons on Confucius, Sunzi, and Laozi.
To summarize, the pictures are well executed and amusing. The text next to these cartoons in English is humorous, and might be entertaining for K-6 readers in English. However, English-language readers who do not think too deeply into what this project represents might walk away with the impression they have read Zhuangzi in these cartoons, whereas they really have not read anything like Zhuangzi unless they can read Chinese and can read the text in the side panels. Meanwhile, kids who can read in Chinese, but not in English are seeing the complex philosophy of Zhuangzi, and some kind of silly pictures with text over them they can’t read, which appear to be making fun of Chinese cultural heritage. This structure makes me ponder if this is part of China’s continuing Cultural Revolution, wherein past religions (Buddhism) and historic scholars are downplayed, while current communist leaders are raised in value. Or perhaps the problem is a failure to communicate between the individuals who worked on distinct parts of this book. Or perhaps nobody has pointed out that this is cultural appropriation that might attempt to pass itself as a Cliff Notes on philosophy, misleading readers into a sense of having gathered a philosopher’s meaning in an easy-to-digest manner, whereas they are really reading modern pop cartoon philosophy. It’s a bit distressing to think about this, but it’s still a pretty good art book…