I'm so glad you share these experiences with me... and with your
permission I'd like to quote your experiences with the role of comics
reading in your language learning in my dissertation... and maybe some
papers I want to write and publish in Hong Kong...
Comics and catoon-watching constitute the main part of popular Cantonese
culture in Hong Kong, and also of course, you might have heard of the Kung Fu
movies... the action-packed (and with some sex, too) movies by famous
action movie stars like Jacky Chan (well, he's an idol in Japan, too!).
Japanese and Hong Kong cultures are very much mutually influencing,
especially among the youngsters. And Japanese comics are of very high
quality in terms of the graphics, the refined details of figures, the
highly imaginative and creative scenarios... and of course since we are
close in physical appearance and culture, Hong Kong children's idols are
those beautiful Japanese catoon figures... (and also Japanese pop song
singers).
Among the Japanese animated movie-makers, I like Miyazaki's the best: his
is very close to nature, with peace, love and protection of nature,
childhood memories... friendship as the main themes but without any
didactic or dogmatic flavour. His drawings are so beautiful that they
are more beautiful than the reality... I don't know the English
translations, but some of his best are: Castle in the Space, Valley of
Wind, Memories of Childhood, Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service...
Having said all these, I would not, however, celebrate ALL kinds of
comics with all my heart... there do exist some comics fully packed with
sexism (e.g., girls as sex objects), racism (e.g., foreigners as the bad
guys), violence as the key to success and status...
My heart is for pluralism... comics is not the problem at all (contrary
to what many of my fellow Hong Kong people think); what we need to do
is to EXPAND (to borrow Engestrom's notion) children's activity systems,
to add to their repertoire of linguistic, literary, literacy, narrative,
discourse, cultural resources. Right now, Cantonese popular culture is
THE culture of them... my tentative idea now is... it would be good to
help them have access to various kinds of resources, to be able to expand
their repertoire. (and of course with the socioeconomic importance of
English hanging over there... these children can't have a better living
in the future without English, like it or not...).
... well, wish me good luck in Hong Kong...
Angel