Southeast Asia Visions Collection

Susan Fernsebner

Tet Trung Thu festival, Vietnam [Photographs]

The photographs show children during the mid-Autumn Harvest Festival, or Tet Trung Thu in Vietnam, a children's festival associated with the full moon. Tet Trung Thu follows the harvest in the eighth lunar month, falling usually during September or October, and is associated with the ascendancy of the moon over the sun in winter, the bounty of life, and prayers for the return of the sun's warmth and light. According to some accounts, it is a time especially devoted to children after the work of farming and the busy harvest time. During the Tet Trung Thu holiday, children bang on drums and wear masks like a lion or tiger to frighten Ra Hu, the mythological creature responsible for the moon's phases and eclipses, to prevent him from gobbling up the full moon. Traditional Vietnamese handcrafted lanterns are an important part of the ceremony, as shown in the photograph of a shop displaying a wide variety of the toys. Traditional lantern shapes include: a five-star lantern to represent the sun, a frog-shape to represent the moon, and a spinning lantern to represent the earth's seasons. Another spinning lantern propelled by the heat of a candle burning inside is a symbol of the earth's seasonal revolution around the sun. The photograph from around 1900 shows a boy playing with a lantern in the shape of a rabbit. In recent years, commentators have been lamenting the fact that imported plastic toys from China are displacing the Vietnamese handicraft toys, threatening extinction of Vietnamese skills and design traditions.

The full moon appears reddish in color and larger when it rises in the fall, and this festival is also associated with folk tales about the moon. Among them is the story of Cá hóa Rông, a carp who strove hard to become a dragon and succeeded. Another story is about Trang Yi, The Lady in the Moon who took an immortality potion intended for her husband. She began to rise into the sky and became the Goddess of the Moon who appears in mid-Autumn to receive offerings. The celebration is believed to date back thousands of years to the beginning of settled agriculture in Southeast Asia, and is popular to the present day in Vietnam and among Vietnamese living overseas. Tet Trung Thu is associated with holiday foods. Moon cakes (pastries with nuts and bean paste) sometimes include egg yolk on the inside, which is meant to symbolize the full moon. The moon cakes are given to friends, neighbors, and business associates as gifts. Evening visits to pagodas and temples, with prayers, incense, and fruit and flower offerings, complete the celebrations.

"This shop features butterfly lanterns for Mid-Autumn, 1932 (Musée de l'Homme)," American Museum of Natural History, http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/vietnam/gallery/08_year.php?image=1&page=index; "Boy holding a rabbit lantern, early 1900s (Musée de l'Homme)", American Museum of Natural History, http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/vietnam/gallery/08_year.php?image=5&page=index (accessed November 24, 2009). Annotated by Susan Douglass.

Egyptian Ramadan Lanterns [Photographs]

The photograph at the top shows two children gazing into the soft light of a fanoos [fan-NOOS], or traditional Ramadan lantern. In the photograph below, Ramadan lanterns are hung outside a shop in a section of medieval Cairo. As far as is known, the tradition originated in Egypt, perhaps as long ago as pharaonic times, when it may have announced the Nile flood. The tradition in its current form may date to the Fatimid period (969-1171 CE). It isn’t clear when the custom became associated with the Islamic holiday of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, when Muslims keep the fast from dawn to sunset. Indeed, lanterns and lamps of various kinds, of many hues and degrees of brightness, and even both real and imaginary, have always been special to Egypt. For centuries before the coming of electricity, Cairo itself was noted for its spectacular use of lanterns to illuminate the city, especially during the holy month of Ramadan.

The tradition of the colorful lanterns is coupled with the song, which children sing as they process through the streets of Egyptian, and especially Cairene neighborhoods announcing the coming of Ramadan, and collecting coins and sweets. The words of the song that are not translated are obscure, perhaps referring to fire or light (wahawi, ya wahawi). "You have gone, O Sha'ban" refers to the lunar month before Ramadan, and "the daughter of the Sultan is wearing her caftan" means she is dressed in a loose, often embroidered garment worn when going out and on holidays. "Give us this season's gift" is a plea for the small presents children would receive from adults for going out in procession to announce the coming of Ramadan.

Children are typically very excited about the coming of Ramadan, because it is a festive time that lasts an entire month. Even though abstaining from food and drink daily from dawn to sunset is a hardship, many children are anxious to participate as much as they can, fasting part of the day or just a few days. Some manage to fast the whole month by the age of ten or so. After sunset each day, in contrast, special, abundant food, friends and family, and evening activities, including visits to the mosque (Arabic, masjid) take place. Ramadan culminates in the major festival called Eid al-Fitr at the end of the month. Children traditionally receive new shoes and clothing, money, sweets and toys as a reward for just trying, or accomplishing the fast.

Photographs by John Feeny, © Aramco Services Company; text: "Ramadan’s Lanterns," Saudi Aramco World, http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199202/ramadan.s.lanterns.htm (accessed November 20, 2009). Annotated by Susan Douglass.

Japanese Old Photographs in Bakumatsu-Meiji Period

Susan Fernsebner

September 2009

Max und Moritz. Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen [Children's Book Illustration]

Written and illustrated by German painter and poet, Wilhelm Busch, Max und Moritz (1865) is a children's story written in doggerel verse and illustrated in a comic-like style about two unscrupulous boys who taunt adults with their sadistic pranks.

In this illustration, Max and Morris have already tricked the widow into cooking chickens they are now trying to snag by lowering a fishing rod down the chimney. Hearing the commotion, her barking dog summons the widow from below. The story ends when the widow beats the dog she assumes has eaten the chickens that have vanished from her stove. At the end of the book, the boys get their comeuppance: they are ground into grain and devoured by ducks.

The gruesome ending is in keeping with the strict Prussian-era pedagogy that emphasized ethics, duty, discipline, and obedience. It also influenced Heinrich Hoffmann (1809-1894) in whose Der Struwwelpeter (1845) children were violently punished for their bad behavior. Both works also used "Knittelvers," rhymed couplets of irregular versification (eight or nine syllables often with four stresses per line). Knittelvers came into German literature most strongly in comedies of the 16th century. The comedic heritage and sing-song quality of Knittelvers made the rhyme scheme most appropriate for children's literature that was both humorous and didactic.

How do these mischievous boys compare with other pranksters elsewhere in the world? Why are they often young males? What have mischief-makers and their pranks meant to children? What purposes have they served to adults and society?

Wilhelm Busch, Max und Moritz; Eine Bubengeschichte in sieben Streichen. Munchen, Germany: Verlag von Braun und Schneider, 1906). Available online at The Project Gutenberg (accessed November 6, 2009). There have been other translations of Max & Moritz in English including: http://www.has.vcu.edu/for/mm/mmmenu.html (accessed November 6, 2009). Annotated by Miriam Forman-Brunell and Luke Springman.

Krishna and the Cremation of Putana [Miniature Painting]

Krishna is known in the stories of the Bhagavata-Purana as the 8th incarnation of the god Vishnu, destined to perform great deeds and remove the evils of the world. Shown in this Indian miniature watercolor painting as a child with grey-blue skin, he is a popular deity, a divine hero who personifies superhuman powers as well as human hopes and failings. Stories of Krishna's childhood with his loving foster-mother Yashoda in a village of cow-herds are much beloved and illustrated in paintings and sculpture.

The first demon to threaten the infant Krishna was the flying ogress Putana who abducted and killed infants and children by feeding them poison milk from her breasts. Putana, in the form of a beautiful woman, came to the house of Yashoda to kill Krishna. Yashoda did not recognize the danger, and allowed Putana to nurse the infant Krishna. Krishna, destroyer of wickedness, was immune to the poison. Holding fast to her breast, he sucked her milk and with it, sucked the life out of the ogre. Putana writhed with convulsions making the ground shake. As Krishna held her, she assumed her ugly form and fell to the ground, uprooting trees over a wide area. The villagers approached the corpse to find Krishna playing on top of her. As the painting shows, the villagers chopped Putana into pieces and prepared a cremation fire. The women and Yashoda bathed Krishna lovingly, rocking his body over a basin and gently pouring the water into a stream over a cow's tail.

The miniature painting belongs to the Pahari style of the Himalayan foothills, a courtly style of the Rajput kings that flourished from the 17th to the 19th century.

"Putana's Cremation," leaf from a Bhagavata Purana, ca. 1770, from the Punjab Hills, Guler or Kangra, opaque watercolor on paper, 22.5 x 30.5 cm, Rajput, Pahari, Guler or Kangra Set 40, Bharat Kala Bhavan III: Pahari Paintings, Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi (Banaras), Banaras Hindu University, Bharat Kala Bhavan, BKB #6701. Annotated by Susan Douglass.

Krishna Defeats the Whirlwind [Miniature Painting]

Krishna is known in the stories of the Bhagavata-Purana as the 8th incarnation of the god Vishnu, destined to perform great deeds and remove the evils of the world. Shown in this Indian miniature watercolor painting as a child with grey-blue skin, he is a popular deity, a divine hero who personifies superhuman powers as well as human hopes and failings. Stories of Krishna’s childhood with his loving foster-mother Yashoda in a village of cow-herds are much beloved and illustrated in paintings and sculpture.

This painting, which measures 22.5 x 30.5 centimeters, illustrates Krishna defeating a whirlwind. According to the Bhagavata Purana, when Krishna was five months old, he was attacked by Trinavart, the demon of storm and whirlwind. The demon took hold of the child Krishna and spun with him in the air. While Yashoda and others anxiously searched for the child, he gripped the demon with tenacious strength, causing it to fall to its death on a huge rock. Krishna landed safely, cushioned by the monster’s body. In awe of his feat, Yashoda picked up the child and hugged him to her bosom while the other women looked on with affection.

The miniature painting is dated to 1770 CE, and belongs to the Pahari style of the Himalayan foothills, a courtly style of the Rajput kings that flourished from the 17th to the 19th century. This painting shows little of the ordinary surroundings of the village, focusing instead on the supernatural whirlwind, ominous sky, bent trees, and blowing curtain. Krishna appears three times in the same panel, showing the dramatic sequence of events from right to left across a single panel, in a narrative technique sometimes used by comic book artists on splash pages today, in which all the action appears in one frame.

Rajput, Pahari, Guler or Kangra school, Set 40, Bharat Kala Bhavan III: Pahari Paintings Repository Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi (Banaras), Banaras Hindu University, Bharat Kala Bhavan, BKB #6854; Photo: © Asian Art Archives, University of Michigan Text source: Chandra, Suresh. Encyclopaedia of Hindu gods and goddesses. Sarup & Sons, 1998, p. 181–82. Annotated by Susan Douglass.

Krishna Tied to a Mortar for Stealing Butter [Miniature Painting]

Krishna is known in the stories of the Bhagavata-Purana as the 8th incarnation of the god Vishnu, destined to perform great deeds and remove the evils of the world. Shown in this Indian miniature watercolor painting as a child with grey-blue skin, he is a popular deity, a divine hero who personifies superhuman powers as well as human hopes and failings. Stories of Krishna's childhood with his loving foster-mother Yashoda in a village of cow-herds are much beloved and illustrated in paintings and sculptures.

This painting reflects Krishna's mischievous prank of entering houses and stealing cream, curds, and butter while the women are absorbed in household chores. To reach the pots hanging from the ceiling, he climbs on the back of another boy, stacks pots or grinding mortars on top of each other, or sometimes knocks holes in the pottery containers. He then feeds monkeys or his village playmates. As shown in the painting, Yashoda tried to restrain him by tying cords to a heavy grinding mortar. Hearing a loud crash, she found that he had dragged the mortar between two trees and felled them. In some versions, Krishna's action releases two men imprisoned in these trees. As always, Yashoda appears to scold him, but like the other village women, is disarmed by his charms.

The miniature painting measures 18.4 x 12.7 centimeters, and is dated to 1810 C.E. It belongs to the Pahari style of the Himalayan foothills, a courtly style of the Rajput kings that flourished from the 17th to the 19th century. The painting shows many details of village life, though more ornate and idealized than in reality. Attributes such as affection shown to children, implements and scenes of daily life and homes, and traditional dress are portrayed in the painted space.

"Krishna, the Butter Thief, is tied to an upturned mortar to prevent him from stealing more curds," Set 40, Bharat Kala Bhavan III: Pahari Paintings Repository: Uttar Pradesh, Varanasi (Banaras), Banaras Hindu University, Bharat Kala Bhavan, BKB #372, Rights Photo: © Asian Art Archives, University of Michigan. Annotated by Susan Douglass.

Little Eva, The Flower of the South [Children's Story]

Published around 1853, Little Eva, The Flower of the South is an anonymously written children's story based on Eva, the enormously popular character in Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). Aiming to thwart the spread of anti-slavery sentiments in Stowe's best-seller proponents of slavery published "Anti-Tom" or "plantation novels." Unlike other works in that literary genre, Little Eva sought to teach children. In this story, well-treated, child-like slaves (such as Sam) were gratefully content. (Note that the badly abused Topsy is conspicuously absent.)

Though there are many similarities, there are more differences between the two Evas. The one in this story is 9 years old, not 6, and she lives in Alabama, not New Orleans. It is a slave named Sam, not Tom, who rescues Little Eva from drowning. Moreover, the Eva in this children's story does not oppose slavery. In fact, the thought never crosses her mind as it haunted her angelic namesake. Then, instead of dying, this little girl blissfully celebrates her birthday, a recent cultural practice recognizing children's individuality.

Although this dutiful, sweet, pious, and caring Eva personified the ideals of southern white girlhood, does she lack the agency associated with that gender prescription? What evidence (in the plot and illustrations) is there that little girls of elite southern slaveholders might have engaged in spirited activities that tested the limits of slavery and patriarchy (e.g., teaching slaves to read)? How does this Little Eva contribute to historians recent understanding of the challenges that adolescent girls mounted against the late 19th and 20th century social order? In what ways were girls in the South more like those in the North who spent their days jumping and skipping?

Little Eva. The Flower of the South. Aunt Mary's Picture Book New York: Phil. J. Cozans, c. 1853. Available online: Uncle Tom's Cabin & American Culture archive, http://utc.iath.virginia.edu/childrn/cbcbambt.html (accessed November 8, 2009). Courtesy the John Hay Library, Brown University; all rights reserved.©2001 Stephen Railton & the University of Virginia. All rights reserved. Annotated by Miriam Forman-Brunell.

Hobby Horse [Painting]

This oil on canvas painting by an unknown American folk artist was painted around 1840. It depicts two siblings at play. While their mother is absent from the picture, she presided over the "private sphere" of the home as prescribed by the ideology of "separate spheres" that defined everyday life in 19th-century America. Charged with raising boys to be citizens (and girls to be wives and mothers of citizens), it was mothers' moral duty to oversee the development of their children's "good character." As a result, sons under the age of 6 inhabited the domestic sphere along with their sisters where they were dressed in the same loose-fitting pantaloons, dresses, and petticoats.

Although both girls and boys both donned silk, satin, and velvet dresses, there were differences in their apparel and activities. Young boys were distinguishable from girls by their hairstyle (boys were more likely to wear side parts) and hats. Boys also engaged in different play activities: it was considered indecent for girls to straddle a rocking horse. Rocking on the "hobby horse" enabled boys like this youngster to practice the balancing ability he would need in order to ride a real horse as he took his place in the "public sphere." Riding the rocking horse and brandishing a whip also provided boys with the opportunity to practice the skills and sensibilities of masculinity—independence, mastery, confidence, control, courage, and dominance. The boy's placement at the center of the painting and protectively above and in front of his older sister, also prescribed his position in the Victorian gender hierarchy where he would perform manliness through initiative, competition, forcefulness, and rationality.

Compare this work with images of children in other folk art paintings. How else are girls and boys represented?

The Hobby Horse c. 1840. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC, USA. Annotated by Miriam Forman-Brunell.