Tikki Tikki Tembo Podcast

Blog Post 5: Podcast Draft

Maren Scott

Professor Vivian Vasquez

EDU-319-001 Children’s Literature

Tuesday, October 5, 2011

Poscast Review: Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel

My name is Maren Scott. I am a senior at American University from Harlem, New York. In all my years of attending New York City public school the presence of the Asians and Asian Americans in our curricular materials was minimal. Even though I attended exceptional schools that fought to maintain a diverse and inclusive curriculum, the limited resources provided made it difficult. Asian Americans like African Americans are not foreigners but are often treated like so in our American historical narrative. They have been part of our nation’s history for centuries. As a result of this exclusion, many of the texts that have been produced have often been ignorant and or offensive. An example of this is one of my favorite childhood books growing up, Tikki Tikki Tembo by Arlene Mosel published in 1968.

Tikki Tikki Tembo is an award winning children’s book that is referred to as a Chinese folktale “retold” by the author. The purpose of the story is to explain why the Chinese have “little, short names instead of great long names”. Indeed the story is retold but is NOT a Chinese folktale. Nor does it have any legitimacy as to explain the origin or length of Chinese names. Even the New York Times refers to the book as a Chinese folktale retold by Arlene Mosel without any regard for the actual history or its impact on the Chinese and Chinese-American communities. This first problematic thing about the book is that, even if it were a Chinese folktale the author goes to no extent to explain where and when the story originated or took place. The second is that it reinforces the stereotype that Asian names all sound like gibberish.

Mosel heard the story as a child and decided to convert into a children’s book. In the 30s and 40s it was a popular bedtime story in the US. At the time when the book was published, the US was at war with Asia, open racism and stereotyping was widely accepted, and there were limited depictions of Asians in the media let alone in non-stereotypical roles. The combination of these conditions made it easy for the book and author to go unchallenged.

I did some research on the actual origins of the tale. No one has yet found a Chinese folktale resembling this one, but there is a Japanese folktale called Jugemu which it is most likely based off of. It is a rakugo story about a boy with a “great long name” that leads to his demise. The name “Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi Pip Peri Pembo” however, is completely fictional without any significance in Chinese or Japanese. To confirm, I asked a friend of mine who is a fluent speaker of both if the names meant what they say. Chang can be used as a family name and the characters can mean ruthless, reckless, long, often, trying and to hide. The actual translation for “little or nothing” is “jin”. Knowing that Tikki Tikki Tembo had no significance we looked up the purported meaning instead. The closest translation was “chuen xi je juui hao de” which meant “world’s best”. 

Blog Post 2: A Children's Book That Made A Difference

“Once in jungle, far far away a herd of zebras grazed each day. They pranced and played and had great fun, except one…his stripes were not black but of a brighter hue. Of yellows, greens, and reds, and blues!”

One children’s book that made a difference in my life was entitled The Rainbow Zebra, the basis for the title of this blog. The Rainbow Zebra was a story about a zebra exterior appearance was a source of ridicule and ostracizing. It was especially written and illustrated by a family friend for myself and my younger sister as children. It was always Daddy’s favorite book to read to us more so than our personal favorites (like Tikki Tikki Tembo and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom). Now as an adult and an educator I can see why. Its subject matter was socially and culturally inclusive of gender, race, sexuality, culture, and even personality. The fact that the main character was a rainbow colored animal allowed for less social/political signifiers that could potentially distract us from the morals. My sister and I could easily identify with the main character and learned that there are some differences that come without explanation. We learned that you shouldn’t be ashamed of who you are, and that once everyone gets past their initial differences we can “all play and have fun together”.

Blog Post 1: My First Recollection of A Children's Book

Although I can’t quite recall my very first children’s book, there are a number of memorable bedtime stories and other tales that my parents and particularly my father used to read to my sister and me. The two earliest and most memorable were I’m A Little Mouse and Tikki Tikki Tembo. It was so influential that when I read the books to my students well over a decade later I subconsciously used the exact same character voices that my father did as though the book could only be read one way. Reading with Daddy always made the stories that much more fun and memorable for that reason.

I’m A Little Mouse was a “touch and feel book” as Daddy put it about a baby mouse searching for his mother. The author used different materials to help its pre-school readers differentiate between the animals. In his squeaky voice the little mouse asked bears, fish, turtles, and even snakes, “I have fuzzy grey fur and a longgggg pink tail… I’m a little mouse! Are you a mouse too?” The turtle responded, “I have a lummmpy bummmpy shell, and I don’t move very fast. I’m not a mouse, I’m a turtle!” (in my best impression of Daddy’s slow deep turtle voice). To this day, I still remember the lines of all our favorite stories like clockwork.

Tikki Tikki Tembo was a Chinese folktale about two young brothers who were treated unequally by their mother. The older one was clearly more appreciated by his family and community for being the first-born. Even as an adult I sometimes reflect on the lessons I learned from this book when my sister and I are at odds about equal treatment from my parents.