Visual meanings in Vietnamese picture books: exploring Vietnamese artists’ perspectives on the Yin–Yang balancing

ABSTRACT

Picture books are reported as beneficial for children to develop cultural and intercultural awareness. However, little research has examined the ways in which Asian picture books can be interpreted with Asian philosophies. This paper aims to examine perceptions of contemporary Vietnamese artists towards the application of the Taoism Yin–Yang balancing principle, particularly the concepts of Yin, Yang, and Qi in their artworks. Findings from interviews with artists reveal that the Taoism Yin–Yang balancing principle is essential for Vietnamese artists to create visual meanings in their artworks. Our analysis also indicates that Taoism concepts of Yin, Yang, and Qi are applicable to interpret visual meanings of picture books about Vietnam. These findings are significant for teachers to explore visual meanings in Vietnamese picture books specifically and provide researchers with ideas to develop a framework that can account for non-Western meaning-making in images of picture books.

KEYWORDS:

• Picture books
• Asian philosophies
• Taoism
• Yin–Yang balancing
• visual meanings
• intercultural awareness

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ngoc Tai Huynh

Ngoc Tai Huynh was a PhD candidate working on a project on Australian Curriculum and Vietnamese culture at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He is currently working as a full-time lecturer at the School of Foreign Languages, Tra Vinh University, Vietnam. He has presented at international conferences, contributed to two book chapters published on IGI Global and Multilingual Matters. He has also published a number of journal articles in Australian Journal of Teacher Education, and Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education.

Angela Thomas

Angela Thomas is a senior lecturer of English in the Faculty of Education at the University of Tasmania. Her research and teaching focus on multimodal semiotics, digital literacies, critical literacies, and children’s literature. She has published three books and a number of book chapters and journal articles and has been a Chief Investigator on an ARC grant with linkage partner The Australian Children’s Television Foundation. Angela has won teaching and research awards and has been an invited keynote speaker in the UK, US, Singapore, and Australia. She is currently a co-recipient of a grant entitled “Literacy, Language, Teaching and Learning with Augmented Reality.”

Vinh Thi To

Vinh Thi To is a Lecturer in English Curriculum and Pedagogy in the College of Arts, Law and Education at the University of Tasmania, Australia. She has maintained broad research interests including Functional Grammar, Systemic Functional Linguistics, Applied and Educational Linguistics, English, literacy, TESOL, Vietnamese, languages, bilingual and cultural education. She has published a number of journal articles, book chapters, and presented her work at national and international conferences.