Abstract
Children’s books involve a large number of topics. Research on them has been paid much attention to by both scholars and practitioners. However, the existing achievements do not focus on China, which is the fastest growing market for children’s books in the world. Studies using quantitative analysis are low in number, especially on the intellectual structure, evolution patterns, and development trends of topics of children’s bestsellers in China. Dangdang.com, the biggest Chinese online bookstore, was chosen as a data source to obtain children’s bestsellers, and topic words in them were extracted from brief introductions. With the aid of co-occurrence theory and tools of social network analysis and visualization, the distribution, correlation structures, and evolution patterns of topics were revealed and visualized. This study shows that topics of Chinese children’s bestsellers are broad and relatively concentrated, but their distribution is unbalanced. There are four distinguished topic communities (Living, Animal, World, and Child) in terms of centrality and maturity, and they all establish their individual systems and tend to be mature. The evolution of these communities tends to be stable with powerful continuity.
Funding source: Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China
Award Identifier / Grant number: 18YJA870004
Research funding: This study is supported by MOE (Ministry of Education in China) Project of Humanities and Social Sciences (18YJA870004).
The books mentioned in this paper are listed below in the order in which they appear.
China Juvenile and Children’s Books Publishing House. I Wonder Why. 1st ed. Shanghai: China Juvenile and Children’s Books Publishing House, 1961.
Zhejiang Education Publishing House. Encyclopedia of Chinese Children and Adolescents. Hangzhou: Zhejiang Education Publishing House, 1991.
Hongying, Yang. Naughty Boy Ma Xiaotiao. Nanning: Jieli Publishing House, 2003.
Kuroyanagi, Tetsuko. The Little Girl at the Window. Haikou: Nanhai publishing house, 2003.
Wenxuan, Cao. Straw House. Beijing: Writers Publishing House, 2003.
Joanna Cole. The Magic School Bus. New York: Scholastic, 2014.
Jolibois, Christian, and Christian Heinrich. Les Petites Poules. Paris: Pocket Jeunesse, 2010.
Ladybird. 2017. Peppa Pig. Utah: Ladybird, 2017.
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Best Student Research Paper Award
- Translational Challenges in Cross-Cultural Digitization Ethics: The Case of Chinese Marriage Documents, 1909–1997
- Articles
- Research on the Factors Influencing the Reading Motivation of Social Media Users from the Perspective of Reading Promotion in China
- Harnessing Indigenous Knowledge through Community Involvement in Public Libraries in South Africa
- Mapping the Topics and Evolutions of Chinese Children’s Bestsellers
- Dimensions of E-Readiness in University Libraries: Identification and Prioritization Using AHP Technique
- We’ve been Offering It for Years, But Why Do They Come? The Reasons Why Adults Bring Young Children to Public Library Storytimes
- Beyond Providing Information: An Analysis on the Perceived Service Quality, Satisfaction, and Loyalty of Public Library Customers
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Best Student Research Paper Award
- Translational Challenges in Cross-Cultural Digitization Ethics: The Case of Chinese Marriage Documents, 1909–1997
- Articles
- Research on the Factors Influencing the Reading Motivation of Social Media Users from the Perspective of Reading Promotion in China
- Harnessing Indigenous Knowledge through Community Involvement in Public Libraries in South Africa
- Mapping the Topics and Evolutions of Chinese Children’s Bestsellers
- Dimensions of E-Readiness in University Libraries: Identification and Prioritization Using AHP Technique
- We’ve been Offering It for Years, But Why Do They Come? The Reasons Why Adults Bring Young Children to Public Library Storytimes
- Beyond Providing Information: An Analysis on the Perceived Service Quality, Satisfaction, and Loyalty of Public Library Customers