ANALYSIS ON BINARY OPPOSITIONS IN CHINESE CHILDREN LITERATURE “LITTLE MU KE” AND ITS VIEWS ON CHILDREN

Abstract

This study explores the duality of opposites presented in the first extensive fantasy series of picture books “Little Mu Ke” by the Chinese author of original picture books, Xiong Liang, using the theoretical underpinnings of the principle of binary opposition in structuralist critical theory as a research methodology. and examine its views on children. In "Little Mu Ke", there are three categories of rather evident binary oppositions, according to the analysis of this work. These oppositions are between farming civilization and marine civilization, between good and evil, and between childhood and adulthood. This study concludes that the work shows a combination of "children-centered view" and "children's education view" through the binary opposition analysis of these three categories. The deep structure focuses on fostering children's sociality, whereas the surface structure focuses on describing children's naturalness, which demonstrates the author respects children's inherent nature and acknowledges their existence as independent individuals, while at the same time encouraging them in a way that is kid-friendly to develop their social skills.