Sometime between seeing 2008 drummers pummeling 2008 drums and envisioning 2008 pairs of soiled Depends, I realized that all the apprehension of a “Chinese Olympics” had made me forget that they were taking place in the mythical land of China. Starting with the lineup of inventions during the opening ceremonies—Moveable type! Paper! Computer-generated fireworks!—the Olympics piqued my interest in China’s bold visual culture (although I will not say it piqued my interest in men’s long distance speedwalking). I realized it was my responsibility to learn more about this vibrant, graphic world.
Cue the brilliant illustrator Christoph Niemann. If you’ve been keeping up with Abstract City, his New York Times blog, you know that Niemann must be a pretty fantastic dad. His first column was an amazing illustrated tale about his boys’ obsession with the New York City subway, a love that is so fervent he tiled their bathroom in Berlin with an abstract subway map. Niemann’s first children’s book, The Police Cloud, was based on a bedtime story he used to tell Gustav and Arthur (he’s recently added to his brood with baby Fritz) and is full of his signature, yet never overly-kiddy wit—this is a man who cheekily lambasts current events on New Yorker covers and co-wrote the politically-charged 100% Evil with fellow illustrator Nicholas Blechman.
After a trip to Asia, Niemann became fascinated with Chinese characters. Being the good father and illustrator he is, he translated them into actual “characters” so children who don’t even know English yet can easily learn some basic Chinese with his new book The Pet Dragon. Here’s an example from one of my favorite spreads (prepare yourself for awesomeness):
Right? Couldn’t the English language add just a handful of words that make as much beautiful sense as the “tree, woods, forest” progression? As you read this to your two-year-old, you’ll start to wonder, could I learn the entire Chinese language, this poetic, intelligent language, this way? Would Niemann’s arm fall off in the process of teaching it to me? By the time I got to the spread below I was completely hooked and itching to learn more. I know what all these characters mean now, and that’s at least .00000342% of the Chinese language. Hopefully The Pet Dragon, Volumes 2-199 aren’t far behind.
