In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • A Symphony of Poems and PicturesHwa-Jen Ho's Nonfiction Picturebooks about Wild Birds in Taiwan
  • Yi-Ching Su (bio)

Immersing himself in birdwatching in Taiwan—a small island country that has the second highest bird species density in the world—for over thirty years, Hwa-Jen Ho dedicated his life to wild bird ecology and conservation. Using poetic words and pictures, Ho creates nonfiction picturebooks to illuminate wild bird ecology and to reveal the wonders of nature. This article focuses on Hwa-Jen Ho's life and his five nonfiction picturebooks about wild birds in Taiwan.

Inspired by Roger Tory Peterson, a twentieth century American ornithologist who published the first modern field guide to birds, Hwa-Jen Ho devoted his life to wild bird ecology and conservation. As a dedicated artist, writer, and ornithologist, Hwa-Jen Ho shares the wonders of birds with young readers through his words and artwork. Before creating nonfiction picturebooks about birds for children, Ho was an art editor for China Times. While he was working in the newspaper industry, Ho was invited to create a double-page spread illustration of the Swinhoe's pheasant for a publication. After seeing Ho's illustration of Swinhoe's pheasants wandering in a vast grassland, several bird experts expressed that they had never seen a Swinhoe's pheasant wandering recklessly in an open field, for it is shy and alert, and it is usually found in the mountains of central Taiwan. The experts' comment made Ho feel the urge to devote himself to studying Taiwan's endemic bird species (Ho, "Ho, Hwa-Jen: Wild Birds Observation, Woodcuts, Picturebooks").


Click for larger view
View full resolution

Ho resigned from China Times in 1986 and went to Liugui Forestry Research Center to study birds in southern Taiwan. There, Ho walked ten kilometers everyday on the same mountain path to document the birds' life for ten months. Using the data he collected in Liugui, Ho published 台灣野鳥圖誌 (Field Guide to the Wild Birds in Taiwan) (see Fig. 1), a bird-identification guide centering on the wild birds living in the medium altitude mountains in Taiwan. As a self-taught woodcut artist, Ho experimented with different wood blocks, lines, colors, and carving techniques to make the birds come alive on the pages in this field guide (Chen 20). Wanting to pass down his bird watching experience, Ho accepted a publisher's invitation to create nonfiction picture-books about birds in Taiwan for children.

鳥兒的家 (The Homes of the Birds) is about birds' homes in the Lanyang Plain, an ecologically diverse place in northeastern Taiwan. To engage young readers [End Page 84] in guessing where the birds' homes are, Ho uses the question-and-answer approach. The content also starts from introducing the birds children are familiar with, such as the striated swallows, to the ones that are less known, such as the little ringed plovers. The back endpaper presents the whole scene of the introduced birds and their homes in the Lanyang Plain (see Fig. 2). This book gives children a sense of place, and it naturally invites readers to go out and discover birds' homes.


Click for larger view
View full resolution

彩鷸奶爸 (Painted-Snipe Daddy) is written from a baby painted-snipe's point of view. Ho tells the everyday moments painted-snipe daddy spent with his babies in the Lanyang Plain in dialogue between father and children. Woodcut is used as the medium of the book illustration. The lines powerfully show the painted-snipe daddy spreading his wings to protect his babies (see Fig. 3). They also reveal the painted-snipe daddy's tenderness and patience while feeding his babies (see Fig. 4) and waiting for them to climb over a mound one by one (see Fig. 5). Through dialogues and woodcuts, Ho reveals the ecology of painted-snipes to young readers.

台灣鳥四季 (The Four Seasons of the Birds in Taiwan) is a book of haiku poems about Taiwan's endemic birds species in the four seasons. When introducing the Taiwan bush warbler, Ho writes,

Under the haiku poem, Ho provides further explanation: "In autumn, the giant knotweeds are like having wings and flying everywhere. The Taiwan bush warbler's song resembles...

pdf

Share