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FEATURE | EASTERN HORIZON 53

often prompt children to look at the of a plastic bag –entailing both attributes human traits to
world from the perspective of other intellectual and emotional animals and things, increased
living beings. responses – and valuing that object, children’s concern for parts of the
which otherwise might be seen as a environment, as did their emotional
Published by a major Buddhist piece of trash. investment in the stories. That is,
organization, the book “Record of Young readers are prompted to take certain types of books do seem to
the Wanderings of a Plastic Bag” the perspective of these nonhuman change children’s attitudes.
goes a step farther in presenting characters, changing how they As I found in my research, this is
other perspectives. think about the world and their something Buddhist organizations
own actions. This connects to the recognize as well and incorporate
A plastic bag starts out as plaything Buddhist teachings of karma and into their educational mission.
for a baby, then becomes a place reincarnation, which mean that Growing up Buddhist means
for the cat to nap. The family’s every intentional action has a growing into environmentalism and
grandfather claims it to collect consequence. global citizenship. EH
tomatoes, and when he is finished,
he washes the bag and hangs it to Equally important, although one Source: https://theconversation.
dry. A bit later, he uses it to carry couldn’t be reborn as a plastic bag, com/how-taiwan-uses-buddhist-
worn-out shoes to be repaired, at one could be reborn as an insect literature-for-environmental-
which point the bag blows away. or endangered animal. On another education-129970
level, taking the perspective of
It travels joyfully on the wind a plastic bag helps readers to
accompanied by a leaf and a candy understand how all elements of
wrapper, but is eventually swept the universe are interconnected,
up into a garbage bag. A dog rips a teaching that takes its most
open the garbage, and the bag blows sophisticated philosophical form
away again, only to be picked up by in Huayan Buddhism.
a child with a stick who treats it as
a toy. After it is abandoned by the Impact of children’s literature
child – very sadly for the bag – it is By showing children that they have
picked up, recycled and transformed responsibility in caring for the
into shopping bag. This is a happy environment, these books work
ending, reflected by the bag’s happy to produce what sociologist Bengt
smile. Larsson has called, in a 2012 paper,
“ecological selves.”
The author, Liu Rugui, writes that
she used the bag as a character in Although studies on the long-term
the hope of stimulating children’s effects of children’s literature are
compassion, leading them to limited, there’s some evidence
cherish the objects that they use. that this approach is effective in
“Cherishing,” according to Liu, fostering concern and care for
leads to a deeper understanding of environmental issues.
environmentalism.
For example, a study
There is connection between in Australia found that
being able to take the perspective anthropomorphism, which