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A COMPARISON OF AMUSINGNESS FOR JAPANESE CHILDREN AND SENIOR CITIZENS OF THE STORY OF LITTLE BLACK SAMBO IN THE TRADITIONAL VERSION AND A NONRACIST VERSION

2005; Scientific Journal Publishers Limited; Volume: 33; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2224/sbp.2005.33.5.455

1179-6391

Kazuo Mori,

Social and Cultural Studies

Japanese versions of The Story of Little Black Sambo (LBS) were perceived to have racist characterizations and were withdrawn from the Japanese market in 1988. A revised version of LBS was prepared that contained no words or pictures related to racism and was compared with a version of LBS published by Iwanami Publishing Co. in terms of amusingness. Fiftyfour kindergarteners, four to five years old, and 43 senior citizens, 78.9 years old on average, were read a picture book popular in Japan, followed by either the revised or the Iwanami version of LBS and then asked to judge which of the two stories was more amusing. The results showed equal levels of amusingness between the Iwanami and the revised versions of LBS in both age groups.