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International Perspectives on
Early Childhood Education and Development 32
Josephine Ng
Berenice Nyland Editors
Comparative
Perspectives
on Early Childhood
Education Reforms
in Australia and
China
International Perspectives on Early Childhood
Education and Development
Volume 32
Series Editors
Marilyn Fleer, Monash University, Frankston, Australia
Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson, Gothenburg University, Göteborg, Sweden
Editorial Board
Jane Bone, Monash University, Frankston, Australia
Anne Edwards, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Mariane Hedegaard, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
Eva Johansson, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
Rebeca Mejía Arauz, ITESO, Jalisco, Mexico
Cecilia Wallerstedt, Gothenburg University, Göteborg, Sweden
Liang Li, Monash University, Frankston, Australia
Early childhood education in many countries has been built upon a strong tradition
of a materially rich and active play-based pedagogy and environment. Yet what has
become visible within the profession, is essentially a Western view of childhood
preschool education and school education.
It is timely that a series of books be published which present a broader view of
early childhood education. This series seeks to provide an international perspective
on early childhood education. In particular, the books published in this series will:
• Examine how learning is organized across a range of cultures, particularly
Indigenous communities
• Make visible a range of ways in which early childhood pedagogy is framed and
enacted across countries, including the majority poor countries
• Critique how particular forms of knowledge are constructed in curriculum within
and across countries
• Explore policy imperatives which shape and have shaped how early childhood
education is enacted across countries
• Examine how early childhood education is researched locally and globally
• Examine the theoretical informants driving pedagogy and practice, and seek to
find alternative perspectives from those that dominate many Western heritage
countries
• Critique assessment practices and consider a broader set of ways of measuring
children’s learning
• Examine concept formation from within the context of country-specific peda-
gogy and learning outcomes
The series will cover theoretical works, evidence-based pedagogical research,
and international research studies. The series will also cover a broad range of
countries, including poor majority countries. Classical areas of interest, such as
play, the images of childhood, and family studies will also be examined. However
the focus will be critical and international (not Western-centric).
Please contact Astrid Noordermeer at Astrid.Noordermeer@springer.com to
submit a book proposal for the series.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7601

Josephine Ng • Berenice Nyland
Editors
Comparative Perspectives on
Early Childhood Education
Reforms in Australia and
China
Editors
Josephine Ng Berenice Nyland
School of Education School of Education
RMIT University RMIT University
Bundoora, VIC, Australia Bundoora, VIC, Australia
ISSN 2468-8746 ISSN 2468-8754 (electronic)

International Perspectives on Early Childhood Education and Development
ISBN 978-3-030-53474-5 ISBN 978-3-030-53475-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53475-2
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of
the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation,
broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information
storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Contents
Part 1 The Reform Agenda in Both Australia and China

1 Introduction: Early Childhood Education Policy Reforms
in Australia and China�� 3
Berenice Nyland
2 History, Theory and Practice: Early Childhood in Australia
and China�� 13
Berenice Nyland
3 A Comparative Study of Early Childhood Policy: Building
the Early Childhood Teacher Workforce in China and Australia �� 25
Tianzi Liu
Part 2 Comparative Curriculum and Its Role in Remodelling

Early Childhood Practice and Pedagogy
4 The Role of Formal Curriculum Documents in Early
Childhood Education Reform: China and Australia�� 43
Xin Fan and Berenice Nyland
5 Education and Care for Children Under Three in Australia
and China-Pedagogical Perspectives�� 61
Minyi Li, Kay Margetts, and Berenice Nyland
6 Education and Care for Children Three – Six Years in Australia
and China – Pedagogical Perspectives �� 77
Minyi Li, Kay Margetts, and Berenice Nyland
Part 3 Transnational Teacher Education: A Case Study

7 Transnational Education and an International Partnership:
A Case Study of a Collaborative Articulation Program (CAP) �� 99
Josephine Ng
v
vi Contents
8 Early Childhood Teacher Education: An International/Transnational

Experience �� 115
Josephine Ng and Berenice Nyland
9 Transnational Education: Perspectives of Academics�� 137
10 Student Choice and Experience in a Joint Program
at an Australian and a Chinese University�� 159
Part 4 Conclusion and Implications

11 Conclusion and Implications�� 181
Index�� 191
Contributors
Minyi Li is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal

University. She teaches comparative education and has researched in this area.
Professor Li has published with Springer and has received funding to carry out
national projects to develop resources for pre-service early childhood teachers, for
example, a series of MOOC lectures delivered by early childhood scholars from a
number of countries. Professor Li has been a visiting scholar at a number of univer-
sities including Monash and RMIT Universities.
Tianzi Liu has just completed a PhD at Beijing Normal University. He is interested
in funding models and staff remuneration as a measure of quality. In 2018–2019 he
was a visiting scholar at RMIT University, School of Education. Tianzi is currently
working at Peking University, China.
Kay Margetts is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne.

She is a prodigious writer producing both research articles and practical books for
early childhood practitioners. Her research has involved transition to school and
young children and participatory learning.
Xin Fan is an academic at Sun Yat Sen University in Guangzhou. She completed
her PhD at Monash University on Early Childhood Workforce Development in
China. Her recent research concentrates on policy issues, the development of under-
three programs in China, and the implications of policies around private and public
provision of services.
vii
About the Editors
Josephine Ng is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at RMIT University.

She completed her PhD on Early Childhood Education, practice and play, in a
Singapore early childhood setting. Josephine has an undergraduate degree in busi-
ness studies, and leadership in early childhood has become a main teaching focus.
As manager of early childhood programs, as well as the international partnership,
she has managed, taught, and researched in the area of comparative perspectives.
Josephine’s future research plan is to examine comparative early childhood educa-
tion reforms, student mobility and placement experience in Australia, China and
Singapore.
Berenice Nyland is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Education at RMIT. Her

PhD was on preverbal language in group settings. Her teaching and research have a
focus on languages of childhood including music and a book on child art. Berenice
is on the editorial committee of the Australasian Journal of Early Childhood. She
is presently completing a book on the adult’s role in children’s developing musical
cultures.
ix
List of Figures
Fig. 4.1 Interconnections of policy levels in China�� 49
xi
List of Tables
Table 2.1 Early childhood historical events in Australia and China

from 1900�� 20
Table 3.1 Policies for Early Childhood Teacher quality and training:
Australia and China�� 34
Table 3.2 Commonalities and differences in the building of an early
childhood teacher workforce in China and Australia�� 36
Table 5.1 The Australian and Chinese participants�� 68
Table 5.2 Question 1. What situations are characteristic of learning?�� 69
Table 5.3 Question 2. What circumstances are important for learning?�� 70
Table 5.4 Question 3: What are preconditions for learning?�� 71
Table 5.5 Question 4. How do you consider participation in relation
to children’s learning?�� 73
Table 6.1 Year of completion of qualification by numbers
and percentage of participants�� 82
Table 6.2 Years of work experience by numbers and percentage
of participants�� 83
Table 6.3 Situations in preschool that can be characterized as learning�� 84
Table 6.4 Significant relationships between situations in early education
institutions that characterise learning�� 85
Table 6.5 Activities that are important for children’s learning�� 86
Table 6.6 Correlation between activities that are important for learning�� 87
Table 6.7 Best conditions for children’s learning�� 88
Table 6.8 Correlation between best conditions for children’s learning�� 89
Table 6.9 Teachers’ understandings of participation�� 90
Table 6.10 Correlation between understanding of participation�� 91
Table 9.1 The Participants: academics from the Chinese and Australian
universities�� 141
Table 10.1 Chinese student participants�� 164
xiii
Part 1
The Reform Agenda in Both Australia and
China
Chapter 1
Introduction: Early Childhood Education
Policy Reforms in Australia and China
Berenice Nyland
1.1 Introduction
Across the world, the changing nature of higher education (HE), due to globalisa-
tion, has increased the mobility of academics and students and created an unprece-
dented number of international activities and collaborations across borders. In this
book Chinese and Australian early childhood academics have shared their experi-
ences and research to explore lessons that can be learnt during times of reform,
including shared understandings and challenges. History and theoretical approaches
are explored within context (Chap. 2) and the value of comparative studies as a way
of deepening educational practice is discussed. China has the largest education sys-
tem in the world and is moving towards universal access for three years of pre-
school. Faced with similar issues as Australia, in relation to access and quality of
provision, China has been keen to study the international experience while main-
taining Chinese characteristics. Australia is a country defined by diversity of lan-
guages, culture, experience, countries of birth and socio/economic status. The
different histories that have created education systems and given rise to particular
challenges for the respective governments in delivering quality early childhood ser-
vices are important when deciding which examples of research and practice contain
valuable exemplars. Differences in policy development and types of policies, espe-
cially implementation issues are useful to share. For Australia and China there have
been many initiatives between the two countries in the area of developing early
childhood education. A significant initiative has been the large numbers of interna-
tional students studying in Australia as well as shared research and opportunities to
examine educational practice in both countries.
B. Nyland (*)
School of Education, RMIT University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia
e-mail: berenice.nyland@rmit.edu.au
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 3

J. Ng, B. Nyland (eds.), Comparative Perspectives on Early Childhood
Education Reforms in Australia and China, International Perspectives on Early
Childhood Education and Development 32,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53475-2_1
4 B. Nyland
These opportunities can have many advantages as international exchanges can

bring significant benefits for HE institutions. International partnerships and project
collaboration have created opportunities for overseas deployment of academics for
teaching and research. Internationalisation of education has always enriched early
childhood education which has had a strong international flavour throughout its his-
tory (Chap. 2). Policy makers and leaders in universities have been faced with
unpredictable circumstances and challenges as the international education platform
continues to change and expand, while the value of early childhood education
increasingly becomes a focus of governments. There is widespread interest in inter-
national education and collaboration with China in Australia. China is a major trad-
ing partner of Australia, has seen economic development at unforeseen speed, even
though it is slowing and has the second largest economy in the world (Yang 2012).
This has given rise to considerable attention and opportunities for internationalisa-
tion with accompanying complications that may be practical, operational, political
or cultural (Turner and Robson 2008).
The complexity of internationalisation of HE arises from the advancement of
globalisation. This book offers a contribution to the story of internationalisation in
HE by reporting on three research projects that have examined real life situations in
early childhood education that are relevant to Australia and China. The major
themes developed are based largely on empirical research and contribute to the dis-
cussion about early childhood education in a global and local context. As interna-
tionalisation of educational policies increase, curriculum frameworks and teacher
training become part of the reform agendas of many countries. The three research
studies reported on in the chapters in this book examine issues of workforce devel-
opment, curriculum (Fan et al. 2016) and educators’ theories of how children learn
(Li et al. 2017) and an in-depth case study of an international joint program partner-
ship between an Australian and Chinese university conducted in 2014–2016 (Ng
and Nyland 2016).
The book is divided into four distinct but interconnecting sections. The first sec-
tion of the book is mainly contextual and provides background information and
examines the reform agenda in both Australia and China. Government policies for
early childhood education in both countries (Chap. 3) illustrate the significance of
an international agenda that includes early childhood education as a strategy for
economic growth. Since 2009, both countries have had significant policy develop-
ment in the areas of national curriculum implementation, teacher education reforms
and growing international partnerships. In the first chapter of the book we provide a
description of the context and a discussion on the importance of comparative
research (Rao et al. 2017). The second chapter describes theoretical underpinnings
of international and comparative perspectives of early childhood education, histori-
cal events that have influenced the development of early childhood education and a
statement by a Chinese academic analysing current reform trends. The third chapter
compares policy initiatives for early childhood workforce development across the
two countries.
The second part of the book explores curriculum and its role in early childhood
practice and pedagogy. China has had national curriculum for early childhood
1 Introduction: Early Childhood Education Policy Reforms in Australia and China 5
education in the past and these have reflected the historical thinking of the time.
Australia now has its first national curriculum document and in the light of globali-
sation and growing international partnerships it is interesting to be able to compare
the philosophical commitment to early childhood education and the policy direc-
tions of the two countries. The first chapter in this section (Chap. 4) outlines the role
of curriculum frameworks as policy documents, how they have been implemented
in the two contexts. The next two chapters provide evidence from comparative
research, conducted in both China and Australia, on early childhood educators’ per-
spectives on children’s learning. The first of these chapters (Chap. 5) reports on
results of a study of educators working with children birth – three. The second
(Chap. 6) examines the ideas of practitioners working with preschool children
three–six years-old.
The third section of the book presents an Australian/Chinese case study of a col-
laborative articulation program (CAP). Here the idea of the CAP model as a trans-
national relationship is unpacked and the voices of stakeholders involved in the
partnership have been shared. We hear from policy makers, academics and pre-
service teachers. Early childhood teacher training has become a focus for policy
makers as teachers are often seen as being strategically placed to implement reforms
and the quality of the workforce is therefore crucial for the reform process.
Educational partnerships have been designed across the world and these have taken
myriad forms. Some partnerships have been successful, some have been self-serving
while others have struggled with the challenges that such relationships encounter.
The fourth section of the book, the concluding chapter, summarises lessons that can
be learnt and implications arising from the research projects discussed here.
In this introductory chapter we touch on the value of comparative studies, the
rationale for choosing China and Australia and discuss early childhood education
development in the context of internationalisation and globalisation.
1.2 A Comparative Perspective
This book examines the differences and similar movements in early childhood edu-
cation in China and Australia. As both countries strive to reform the provision and
quality of early childhood education policy documents, like curriculum, are useful
indicators of differing traditions and shared discourses. A comparison of policies is
described in Chap. 3 and in Chap. 4 an in-depth discussion of the curriculum docu-
ments of each country is presented. Implementation in the Chinese context is sup-
ported by interviews with directors from across the country. This curriculum
discussion is taken as representative of a measure of a national view of childhood.
This theme is also a topic in Chap. 2 when children’s picture books are compared as
an indication of societal ideas about childhood. Woodhead (2005) warns of the “ten-
sion between universalistic theories and the pluralities of pathways” (p. 3). This is
always difficult when attempting comparative studies but by viewing children in
context then views of childhood and children’s learning and development is taken to
6 B. Nyland
be a social, cultural, historical and political process. We have therefore taken a

socio/cultural view of children and development (Vygotsky 1978) where bench-
marks are “extrinsic, historically-specific and negotiable” (Woodhead 2005, p. 13).
The same socio/cultural approach is used in Chaps. 5 and 6 where the surveys pre-
sented to the Chinese and Australian educators were based on their perspectives of
children’s learning within a participatory context.
The study of the transnational higher education (TNHE) initiative, the CAP pro-
gram, also focused on the perspective of participants. This project was a response to
internationalisation at the tertiary level. While pre-service early childhood teacher
education is usually regional, or national, with the advent of TNHE there has been
a necessity to adjust teaching, learning and content to suit local markets in more
than one setting. Did the research report on here lead to a deeper understanding of
the Chinese and Australian early childhood teacher education environments for the
participants? The study was qualitative, interpretive and explored the experiences of
the participants/stakeholders who found themselves acting in local, national and
global contexts.
Internationalisation of education policy, including curriculum documents, has
been widespread in recent years. In this research globalisation was the lever that
produced the CAP which was an example of TNHE. The participants experiences
have been explored through their role in the program. The students moved across
both contexts and reported on their early childhood teacher training and practical
experience in both China and Australia. The Chinese academics only taught the
cohort in China and shared their views on the program itself and how well the stu-
dents would be prepared for teaching if they returned to China. The Australian aca-
demics had experience teaching the cohort in both countries and were more likely
to comment on different teaching styles, student learning and content. The policy
makers were collaborating to plan and organise an initiative that was both a market-
ing exercise and a “global cultural-interactive process” (Walstrom et al. 2018,
p. 588). The comparisons we make in this study are on the perspectives of the par-
ticipants/stakeholders. We look to evaluate the social and cultural movements that
have occurred through the partnership.
1.3 Why China and Australia?
A comparative perspective of early childhood education between Australia and

China is timely because of the large numbers of international students that have
come to Australia in recent years and the numbers of Australian teachers who have
gone to China. Increasingly international students are returning to their homeland
after their overseas studies, so the training and education students receive in
Australia needs to be appropriate for the social and cultural expectations of early
childhood education in both the home country and the new setting. That this can be
achieved may be reflected in the history of early childhood education which has had
a strong international perspective. A knowledge of many early childhood education

theories and theorists are shared and include Dewey, Montessori, Piaget and
Vygotsky. The Reggio Emilia approach also has popularity in China and Australia.
The countries are different, diverse within their own borders, but there is an early
childhood language and philosophy that is international and can lead to respect and
beneficial exchange.
Globalisation has brought closer levels of economic interdependence and com-
petition. The nature of competition in education has changed over time. The compe-
tition for market share of international students is fiercely fought around the world
but there are also other forms of competition emerging. Musselin (2018) suggests
that competition has spread, not just between countries but within countries as qual-
ity becomes an aspect of provision that can give a competitive edge. She says that
as the framing of educational competitiveness becomes more nuanced and organ-
ised new aspects of competition emerge that combines competition and co-operation
and these can “intersect and combine” (p. 657). This is a concept worth pursuing
and in the three research projects reported on here two were collaborative research
conducted with Australian and Chinese partners. The third was an empirical study
conducted in China with secondary data added for the Australian section. In all
cases Chinese and Australian academics worked together.
International benchmarking has played a part in helping policy makers plan
appropriate reform initiatives to meet local needs and often with international sup-
port. PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) and TALIS (Teaching
and Learning International Survey) are international instruments used by the OECD
(Organisation for Economic and Co-operative Development) to assist countries to
make decisions about sharing expertise. An example that emerged from the PISA
results in 2012 was that Chinese children, in Shanghai, at 15 were three years ahead
in maths performance than their counterparts in the United Kingdom. This has led
to a teacher exchange program between the two countries (Yuan and Huang 2019).
There are many early childhood connections between China and Australia that
operate on a more local scale. Preschool relationships exist between individual ser-
vices (Deans and Brown 2008). Mandarin immersion programs are popular in many
childcare centres both in the private sector and the not-for-profit sector. Mandarin is
the second most spoken language in Australia. Many universities have given early
childhood students the opportunity to have a teaching placement in China. Research
partnerships between Chinese and Australian early childhood researchers abound
(eg. Li et al. 2017; Nyland et al. 2016). In this volume Chinese and Australian
researchers share projects that have explored policy reform, the enactment of cur-
riculum, issues with building the early childhood workforce in a time of expansion
and change and a study of a specific partnership.
The Australian government has also urged Australians to gain more knowledge
of the Asia-Pacific region through schemes like The New Colombo Plan which:
is a signature initiative of the Australian Government which aims to lift knowledge of the
Indo-Pacific in Australia by supporting Australian undergraduates to study and undertake
internships in the region (DFAT 2019).
8 B. Nyland
China is one of the 40 destinations that Australians are encouraged to apply to

visit. The early childhood education connections between China and Australia are
myriad and comparative studies like those carried out by Tobin, Wu and Davidson
(1989) and Tobin, Hsueh and Karasawa (2009) strengthen our knowledge of our
own ideologies and practices as well as our own relative place in the world.
1.4 arly Childhood Education Development in a Context

E
of Globalisation and Internationalisation
The context for this book is globalisation and internationalisation. These two simi-
lar concepts have been drivers in early childhood education reforms and have also
made possible an examination of local and global pressures that have prompted
change. It is within this context that countries borrow ideas and also critically reflect
on how these borrowed ideas appear from one place to another and which features
should be maintained to signify what is important to the local culture. In this volume
we have discussed globalisation in education as a contested term (Chap. 7). Drivers
for globalisation can be social, cultural, political economic or an intersection of all
these. Globalisation and internationalisation are intertwined but not the same enti-
ties. See Chap. 7 for definitions and discussions of these two notions. The relation-
ship between the two is often framed as globalisation causing a ‘‘convergence
around educational policies, practices, and values’’ (Jackson 2016, unpaged) while
at the same time ‘‘educational and cultural differences across social contexts
remain’’ (unpaged). The acceleration of globalisation, understood as the process by
which nations and communities become more closely integrated, has drawn
increased attention to the cross-cultural movement of ideas.
Many aims and problems in developing high quality early childhood education
systems are shared between China and Australia. See Chaps. 3 and 4 for a compari-
son of policy development in the two countries. Chapters 5 and 6 found many shared
beliefs about children’s learning between the Chinese and Australian practitioners
suggesting that much of the training the educators received had similar images of
children’s competence and the social nature of learning. This presents opportunities
to explore the possibility of direct exchange and discourse between the groups par-
ticipating in a more nuanced way that could build insights into both societies and
their aims for children. Although similar understandings about children’s learning
emerge differences were indicative of value systems that had different emphasises
when the chosen set of conditions for children’s learning were examined. If these
ideas are explored it might be possible to extrapolate how some of the ‘‘universal’’
ideas about early childhood education have been transformed by their use and appli-
cation in a different time and place. This is of interest when considering internation-
alisation of curriculum and other policies, in a global context.
The case study in Part 3 of the book is an example of globalisation and interna-
tionalisation. These partnerships are developed in a context of the global education
market as countries seek to gain advantage by studying practices in other countries.
Direct export or importation, of education follows and how the actual processes of
partnership are enacted depends on the success of internationalised activities. The
possibilities and challenges on economic, educational and social levels are dis-
cussed in Chaps. 7, 8, 9, and 10. Global concerns with early childhood education
include access to services, affordability, arguments about universal or targeted pro-
vision, funding models and quality debates about staff qualifications and ratios and
what is appropriate curriculum. It is within this frame that individual countries, or
local areas, seek what is best for them. The Chinese curriculum has content areas as
well as an emphasis on social and emotional development. This decision has been
maintained since 2001 and supported with newer policy documents on standards
and developmental guidelines. Australia has a very different statement in the cur-
riculum document (2009). Supporting documents are very similar. How these docu-
ments are interpreted in practice is another level of experience.
The interactions of global, international, national and local may be complex
within a society. Between societies meaning making and perspectives may be close
in some ways, for example international understandings of early childhood educa-
tion, while the development of local or national characteristics may be more com-
plex and more difficult to express. That differences may be nuanced in a global and
international environment can be seen in the cultural artefact, chosen in chapter two,
to give an indication of societal views of children in the two countries. Australia and
China are countries where book consumption is high, especially for children’s
books. We therefore chose children’s picture books as a cultural artefact and then
commented on how many of these books, in a globalising age are shared. That chil-
dren around the world can enjoy The Hungry Caterpillar is understood but how do
the translations relate to the story? Carle’s story has a wonderful lyrical emphasis in
English and strong beat. We imagine in Chinese it is very different. An example of
differences in translation can be seen in the Russian story Little Chick by Kornei
Chukovsky. A translation by Sheena Wakefield has the refrain ‘just like this’ on
every page but the writing is stolid and unexciting. Mirra Ginsberg also tells the
story and her translation has magic and emotion. ‘Just like this’ has turned into the
beat ‘like this’ and she breaks the rhythm on one page to become ‘like these’. As we
comment in Chap. 2 by choosing books as the cultural artefact, we have added the
translator as a mediator. Perspectives of early childhood education in Australia and
China can be considered to be a bit like these two translated books of the same story.
The same but different.
1.5 Conclusion
The three sections of the book reflect research into early childhood in China and
Australia. The first two sections supply context in relation to history, policy and
pedagogical beliefs using a socio/cultural frame (Rogoff 2003), Part 3 is case study
and has used the internationalisation literature to conceptualise this research (Turner
and Robson 2008). In the concluding chapter we consider the findings to reflect on
10 B. Nyland
what has emerged and identify questions that have arisen. Both countries have fol-
lowed international trends in developing curriculum policies and support docu-
ments. Indeed UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) recommends that
countries develop frameworks and policies to develop early childhood education.
This has meant that such activities are commonplace across the globe. The two
countries discussed here have followed the trend but as the Chinese directors’ com-
ments in Chap. 4 suggest, the problems may lie in implementation which involves
many players at different levels of influence. This presents the questions, what is the
role of policy in educational reform, who develops it and how is implementation
supported?
In Chaps. 5 and 6 educators’ perspectives on children’s learning was explored.
Once again, like the children’s picture books, the differences were nuanced.
Travelling ideas is a theme that can be brought into this discussion as many of the
educators knew the answers that would be most acceptable in the survey. It was a
biased survey in that it was designed with a participatory approach to early educa-
tion in mind and this could be read into the questions. The survey results suggest
the educators recognised the theoretical base of the survey and therefore differ-
ences in responses that were significant would be areas to explore when making a
comparative interpretation of the results. Travelling ideas, how they manifest in
different environments, might provide a guide to articulating such concerns as the
maintenance of Chinese characteristics. This research also highlights the issue
that educators are often considered to be change agents. In a national system
where is the educators power base? Do we need to reconsider the assumption that
change can happen at the grass roots when both countries have identified educator
low status, poor pay, shortage of trained staff and insufficient training as qual-
ity issues?
The third part of the book reported on a transnational higher education (TNHE)
collaborative partnership. This partnership was developed at a distance from the
main players and such initiatives should be considered from an economic, political,
cultural, social, and educational viewpoint as all these aspects formed a part of the
decision to have a partnership and the form it would take. If a partnership is to be
successful there should be knowledge of the aims, shared information from each
side and an understanding of the role of each stakeholder. What emerged here was a
top down design with participants at the universities having little shared knowledge
and therefore performing their duties in silos. In their interviews the students were
focused on their own experiences and it was difficult to know if the experience had
been one of personal growth. When the interviews were conducted the students
were fourth years students who had successfully completed their degrees. They
were critical of the teaching in China and this was a flaw in the method as the com-
parison between a first-year student and a completing student who has stayed in the
same environment may also reflect such differences. Adapting from school to uni-
versity can be a challenge, the 4 years from 18 to 22 can see enormous changes in
maturity and ideas about life choices and the political and social context has been
difficult. The students were critical of their Chinese experiences when they were
younger and praised the Australian experience and this could be an accurate
reflection of their impressions. The change in attitude could also be explained by

differences in circumstance or could have been stereotypical thinking as the
Australian atmosphere, expressed through press coverage, has had a cold war rhe-
torical sound for a long time and is getting worse. In a study conducted with an
earlier cohort of students in the same CAP program (Nyland and Acker 2017) it was
noted that the students interviewed for this earlier study were positive about particu-
lar courses they had studied in China, these were music and one spontaneously
praised the psychology content of the Chinese degree. A comparison between the
interviews cannot be drawn as the purpose of the studies were different. A future
study could be spread across the four years, focus on content and relationships as
well as general perspectives and be shared with research academics from both insti-
tutions to capture this important voice.
Globalization as a contemporary condition or process clearly shapes education around the
globe, in terms of policies and values; curriculum and assessment; pedagogy; educational
organization and leadership; conceptions of the learner, the teacher, and the good life; and
more. Though, following the legacy of the primacy of a nation-state and systems-theory
levels of analysis, it is traditionally conceived that educational ideas and changes move
from the top, such as from UNESCO and related bodies and leading societies, to the devel-
oping world, we find that often glocalization and hybridity, rather than simple borrowing,
are taking place (Jackson 2016).
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Chapter 2
History, Theory and Practice: Early
Childhood in Australia and China
Berenice Nyland
2.1 Introduction
As a comparative study the context of the two countries being discussed is impor-
tant. Australia and China are very different countries in terms of language, culture,
history and educational practice but there are also many shared ideas and chal-
lenges. In this chapter we explicate some of the differences, shared understandings
and challenges that each country faces as early childhood education becomes part of
global competition. At the end of the first section of the chapter is a chart showing
some main historical events in both countries, social/political and economic devel-
opment, international influences and the educational changes that accompanied
these historical periods. We discuss some of the main theories that have dominated
early childhood education in the two contexts. The Reggio Emilia scholars state that
the image of the child is the cornerstone of their philosophy and practice (Edwards
et al. 1993) so the image of the child was chosen as a subject that could represent
cultural views of children. The image of the child seemed a difficult topic especially
for an author who is not Chinese and does not speak the language. We therefore
decided to look at children’s literature, especially picture books. This gave us an
approach to describing images of children in the two cultures. The literature given
to children has been a focus of research and in recent years, has also been researched
as an expression of values of contemporary societies (Colomer et al. 2010).
Nodelman (2008) argues that picture books depict the adults’ perspective of the
child’s worldview, or what they believe it should be. The second section of the chap-
ter is a discussion by a Chinese early childhood scholar on trends in early childhood
education in China today.
B. Nyland (*)
School of Education, RMIT University, Bundoora, VIC, Australia
e-mail: berenice.nyland@rmit.edu.au
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 13

J. Ng, B. Nyland (eds.), Comparative Perspectives on Early Childhood
Education Reforms in Australia and China, International Perspectives on Early
Childhood Education and Development 32,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53475-2_2
14 B. Nyland
2.2 History and Theories of Early Childhood Education
Australia and China were aware of discourses around early childhood education in
the nineteenth century and the first preschools established in both countries were
dominated by Frobelian ideas. In Australia the first preschool was established in
1897 and in China in 1904. The teachers with Froebel training in Australia came
from England and in China were brought from Japan. This history indicates that the
early childhood education movement has been international in nature since the
1860s. Although Froebel is associated with children and play the instruction in these
early preschools was highly regulated. Access to preschool was limited and as ideas
about children and education were changing in both countries a demand for quali-
fied staff was growing. By the time the Qing dynasty collapsed in China and by the
time of the first world war in Australia, there were numerous training colleges estab-
lished. In China Sun Yat Sen’s three principles of democracy, nationalism and liveli-
hood of the people would be taught in schools throughout the country to support the
ideals of the New Republic. For Australia the early childhood services in the early
part of the century were mainly concerned with child poverty. It was not until after
1945 that a new migrant population and improved economic conditions saw an
increase in demand for preschools and a changing emphasis towards health, includ-
ing family and mental health.
There were shared theoretical influences during these times. In China figures like
Chen Hequin, who had studied educational psychology in America and scholars of
the May 4th movement who were acquainted with the works of Dewey were influ-
ential. Chen Hequin observed his own family to establish a Chinese psychology of
the young child, a Christian who had Confucian beliefs he developed curriculum,
parent education and practitioner training colleges. At the same time in Australia
Kindergarten Unions had been established in most states and advocates, like
Maybanke Anderson and Lillian de Lissa lobbied for trained teachers and assistants
and teachers’ colleges were founded in each state (Press and Wong 2013). As the
social value of preschool became more accepted other theories, than the mystical
and metaphysical ideas of Froebel (Brehony 2009) became popular. In both coun-
tries the ideas of Dewey, Montessori and the McMillan sisters were studied. The
Child Study movement led by Stanley G. Hall was also increasingly on the agenda.
However, China stood out by taking a national approach early on and produced
national Kindergarten Curriculum Standards in 1932. There was a recognised need
to incorporate Chinese characteristics in the curriculum.
It is necessary to conform to the national character of our country. China’s people are honest
and persevering and different from Europe, America and Japan. The equipment of kinder-
gartens should not be too flamboyant and must be cared for. It is not necessary to adopt
foreign styles and imported goods but use Chinese materials as much as possible.
The only two established early childhood programs mentioned in the curriculum
document were Montessori and the Nursery School Association (NSA) founded by
2 History, Theory and Practice: Early Childhood in Australia and China 15
Britain’s McMillan sisters, which were programs that had a heavy emphasis on
health and nurture. Australia was also influenced by these ideals of social reform
because of welfare considerations for children growing up during war and depres-
sion. After the Chinese revolution in 1949 the ideas expressed in the 1932 curricu-
lum were denounced as being aligned to American imperialism and Dewey was also
criticised (Su 1995).
From the 1930s to the 1980s the Chinese approach to early childhood followed a
different path than the one taken in Australia. As the communists fought in the coun-
tryside, especially around Yan’an where a base camp had been established, a model
kindergarten was established and was moved to Beijing in the 1950s and renamed
the May 1st Kindergarten (Tillman 2013). The influence of the Soviet Union could
be observed in these rural activities and this influence was obvious in the 1952 kin-
dergarten guidelines. The 1952 guidelines were developed under the direction of
Soviet educators, Chinese scholars and ‘proper ideology’ (Chiaromonte 1990, p. 2).
The new curriculum emphasised subject knowledge, skill development and
classroom-based instruction. Homework and text books were introduced. Subjects
were physical education, language, arts, music, maths and environmental learning
(Li and Chen 2016). This was a didactic syllabus influenced by behavioural science.
Tumultuous years would follow with the great leap forward (the great famine) and
in the 1960s and 1970s the Cultural Revolution. It was not until the opening of
China and the decision to expand the role of the market in Chinese society, under
Deng Xiaoping, that the development of early childhood education became a focus
for educators and policy makers.
Australian early childhood was moving slowly ahead during these years. In the
‘30s Lady Gowrie centres were opened in working class areas in the major cities in
each state. These centres were to be exemplar programs and would also carry out
research. The advent of war in 1939 meant the newly opened Gowrie centres were
quickly re-established as long day care centres to support women working for the
war effort. These model child development centres were the first national initiative.
From the post war years until the 1970s Australia experienced high migration and a
growing demand for childcare as well as early education. In 1972 the federal gov-
ernment committed to funding childcare as a workforce support. The state govern-
ments would be responsible for education. By the 1960s Australia was forging new
allegiances with the United States. Australia committed to the Vietnam War. It was
also a time of prosperity as the population grew, there was ever greater diversity.
Child study became popular and children were observed and check listed and par-
ents were interviewed about their child rearing practices.
By the 1970s Australia was changing. The Whitlam Labour government had
been short lived but had brought in many education reforms across the country. The
Australian Preschool Association (now Early Childhood Australia) (ECA) had been
established in 1962 and had a national journal. By the 1970s major tensions were
childcare versus education and quality of services. This latter meant that teach
16 B. Nyland
training became a focus of reform. By the 1980s national organisations, like ECA,
were becoming more involved with a range of children’s services, child care policy
was considered to have an important economic role to play. To meet demand the
suggestion that for-profit centres should receive government funds met with opposi-
tion from all sides of the political context. This was the start of funding becoming
complex, bureaucratic and a political tool. Government subsidies did go to the pri-
vate sector eventually, both for- profit and not-for- profit. The government intro-
duced quality assessment for all long day care centres to make this a politically
acceptable move. In the early 1990s, Australia and China begin to converge again.
As China recovered from the cultural revolution early childhood education was
not an initial priority. By 1989 China had issued two national policies that reflected
the government aim that children must be educated in ways that would enable them
to become adults who could compete in an open market society. The American
National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) influenced
policy makers who drafted the Chinese 1989 regulations. Developmentally appro-
priate practice (DAP) was the Piagetian approach to early childhood education
dominating America and it was also the dominant theoretical approach in Australia.
The national quality improvement regime for child care centres developed in
Australia in the early 1990s was based on the American accreditation system that
had been written and promoted by NAEYC. In the past 20 years different educa-
tional theories of early childhood education have found favour in different coun-
tries. A detailed discussion of curriculum reforms in Australia and China, in recent
years, can be found in Chap. 4 of this volume. China has strived to articulate Chinese
characteristics as the country has formed policies in curriculum development and
teacher standards. Australia has been less concerned, possibly because the culture of
Australia is dominated by diversity and since the second-world-war, very much
under the shadow of America. However, to try to capture the significance of these
expressions of culture we have looked at images of young children in the two coun-
tries through the cultural artefact of children’s picture books.
2.3 Images of Children
A tool mediates activity that connects a person not only with the world of objects of activity
but also with other people (Leont’ev 1974, p. 9).
The availability of children’s picture books and type of books are a product of
people within a particular society at a particular historical time. They reflect views
of the literature and visual aesthetics that are considered suitable for children within
the group. In that sense they are a mediating tool for children who are becoming
enculturated. They provide material for a child to interpret their own role in the
social environment. Engestrom (2014) says of this concept of mediation that:
The individual could no longer be understood without his or her cultural means; and the
society could no longer be understood without the agency of individuals who use and pro-
duce artefacts. This meant that objects ceased to be just raw material for the formation of
the subject as they were for Piaget. Objects became cultural entities, and the object-
orientedness of action became the key to understanding human psyche (p. xiv)
Ho (1997) reviews Chinese children’s literature and comments that literature

specifically for children was not common before the turn of the twentieth century.
After the revolution of 1911 children’s books were published in China but tended to
focus on western literature like Grimm’s and Anderson’s fairy tales and Aesop’s
fables. Australia reflected a similar pattern. Fairy stories, fables and Mother Goose
were popular fare for young children in Australia as well. As a colony and a fairly
new European settlement Australian literature in the twentieth century was keen to
express the characteristics it saw, especially those found in nature like the animals
and plants, to give the country an identity. However, Australian literature for chil-
dren was often couched in a framework that settlers had brought with them.
Australian alphabet books were the earliest and seemed to have been common
(O’Connor 2009). These alphabet books are interesting in their own right as the
jingles that go with each letter reflect the interests of the time. One of the early
alphabet books was published in 1871 (William Calvert) and praised corn, wool and
gold. By 1922 the Australian alphabet book was still closely aligned with settlers
from Britain but now espoused growing industries established by the ‘new’
Australians. For example, “C is for coal”. The first children’s book in China is con-
sidered to be The kingdom without a cat, written by Sun Yuxui in 1908. This was
one of the first books to be written in the vernacular and was about a labourer and
his cat.
In Australia many children’s books in the early part of the twentieth century
belonged to the fairy genre. Books like Harold Gaze’s The simple Jaggajay (1919)
and Pixie O’Harris’ The fairy who wouldn’t fly (1945) were popular. As the century
progressed Australian children’s books took on a more unique flavour than the fairy
books. However, these were expensive and by the end of the second world war
America had started to produce The Little Golden Books. Formulaic in writing
style, length and illustrations these books covered everything from bible stories to
Star Wars. The Little Golden Books were a cheap and accessible literature for
Australian children. The Little Golden Books are still popular but high-quality
Australian books have become accessible to families as publishing costs have
dropped and preschools and child care centres promote children’s literature and
most no longer have the Golden Books in their libraries. Chinese children also expe-
rienced exposure to children’s literature that was less that stimulating during
this period.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, children’s literature became truly proletarian with the works
of young professional writers nurtured by the communist regime. Among these writers were
Jin Jin, He Yi, Bao Lei And Ge Cuilin. With works of traditional and universal themes no
longer available, those with highly propagandist themes and poor quality writing flooded
the market (Ho 1997, p.131).
18 B. Nyland
By the 1990s the books available to children in China and Australia were increas-
ing and topics were expanding and were suited to an international audience. As
globalisation increased children’s books were made popular in a variety of lan-
guages and books that came to be considered children’s classics could be found in
Australian and Chinese preschools and around the world. Examples observed
include The rainbow fish (Marcus Pfister 1992), Handa’s surprise (Browne 1994)
and of course the ubiquitous Very hungry caterpillar (Eric Carle 1969) can be found
everywhere. The Australian author Allison Lester is also available in a Chinese for-
mat. By 2000 the Chinese government had become concerned that foreign books
were being given to children almost exclusively. According to Koetse (2017) the
ratio of foreign books to Chinese children’s books sold was 9:1. The Ministry of
Culture promoted local children’s authors and by 2011 the ratio was 6:4. There was
a suggestion in the Koetse article that some parents did not have fond memories of
the worthy and didactic books they were given when young, the poor-quality books
that Ho (1997) refers to. In contrast post-war Australians seem to look back on the
Little Golden Books they were given as children with affection and nostalgia. The
book Everything I need to know I learned from a Little Golden Book (Diane Mulfrow
2013) was a best seller and started a spate of adults revisiting their childhoods and
collecting all the Golden Book titles mentioned. This is not to ignore the growing
number of children’s books that would be considered to be quality literature and the
illustrations that complement the texts that are done by accomplished artists in both
countries.
2.4 Comments
Children in both countries were given folk tales and fairy stories until the twenti-
eth century. It is not a coincidence that illustrated books aimed at preschool chil-
dren were introduced at the same time that preschools were being established.
Many of the folk tales and fairy stories had universal themes and different ver-
sions of the stories existed simultaneously in many countries. For example,
Cinderella was first known in China (Yeh-Shen) in the ninth century and intro-
duced to French children in the 1690s. However, when books started to be written
specifically for children they were more grounded in the local context. The
Chinese book, The kingdom without a cat (1908), is a story that used vernacular
speech and had a story line that was relevant to a Chinese audience as the Qing
dynasty was finishing. In Australia the fairies were flying around in the Australian
bush dressed in Australian wild flowers but were very much part of the English
and Irish fascination for the fairy folk that seems to permeate English culture
(Jones 1994). Historical events took the two countries in different directions and
after the second-world-war Australian children’s culture was dominated by
America, as evidenced by the Little Golden Books. The books supplied to
children in China after the revolution and during the cultural revolution can be
equated with the Little Golden Books in that they promoted particular ideals and
the quality of the literature was not a primary concern. In Australia the Children’s
Book Council started at the end of the war to promote quality children’s was an
organisation that existed alongside popular mass culture. Educational institutions
in Australia have actively supported the promotion of good literature for children.
Many of these are international texts, like the examples given above and many
Australian children’s picture books, though native animals abound, have themes
that resonate with children around the world. After China started opening up in
1978 children’s books, like the Monkey series started to re-appear. By the early
1980s books like Havoc in heaven were available in English. Globalisation has
meant that children now share many stories and these are accessible in multiple
languages.
The popularity and type of children’s books in Australia and China can be
associated with the historical times and social context. The Chinese Ministry of
Culture found it necessary to promote local Chinese stories to parents who may
have grown up during the cultural revolution and did not find the literature inspir-
ing. For Australians the American culture was easy to digest while a strong
Australian literature grew up at the same time. Efforts to make theses home grown
books expressions representative of Australian culture have been difficult.
Aboriginal stories still belong to a more specialist genre and attempts to capture
an Australian spirit by turning some of the well-known poems, like those of Banjo
Patterson, into picture story books were attempted in the 1980s but the effect was
momentary.
Social images of children are embedded in these complex histories. That chil-
dren are the offspring of historical circumstance is illustrated here as we can see
how revolution, world war, migration can change the stories we tell our children.
Reflected in this is the hopes that we have for their future and this comes back to
the values that are considered important lessons to be learnt in the present. The
Chinese aim to maintain “Chinese characteristics” can be understood in this con-
text. Chinese parents are anxious their children must not miss out. Book buying
is a sign of being a good parent and this can be seen in the size of the publishing
industry in China and the emphasis on books for children. Books do express
implicit values. That many of the books given to children are the same books in
different languages is indicative of the strength of globalisation. Some of the
nuances might be lost in the translations. As an expression of culture language is
one of the first and most major systems a child learns. The international market
for children’s books has turned attention to translators as mediators between
cultures, ideologies and languages (Frank 2014). Governments, education
departments, local institutions like preschools, parents and children are involved
in a complex exchange in the global world of books. A society’s values and
moral systems are expressed in the literature. Children can understand their own
role in relation to others, the important aspects of encouraging imagination and
Another random document with
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Swans (twenty-four dozen) no price
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The consumption of liquids, pastry, and trifles, can easily be guessed
at.
Here is an ancient receipt for making a Christmas game pie, found in
the books of the Salter’s Company, which is presumed to have often
furnished an annual treat to the members in the olden times; and
when made after this receipt, by the Company’s cook in modern
days, has been found to be excellent.
‘For to make a mooste choyce paaste of Gamys to be etin at ye Feste
of Chrystemasse.
‘(17th Richard II., A.D. 1394.)
‘Take Fesaunt, Haare, and Chykenne, or Capounne, of eche oone; wᵗ.
ij. Partruchis, ij. Pygeounes, and ij. Conynggys; and smyte hem on
peces and pyke clene awaye p’fro (therefrom) alle pᵉ (the) boonys pᵗ
(that) ye maye, and p’wt (therewith) do hem ynto a Foyle (a shield or
case) of gode paste, made craftily ynne pᵉ lykenes of a byrde’s bodye,
wᵗ pᵉ lyuours and hertys, ij. kydneis of shepe and farcys (seasonings
or forced meats) and eyren (eggs) made ynto balles. Caste p’to
(thereto) poudre of pepyr, salte, spyce, eysell,[14] and funges
(mushrooms) pykled; and panne (then) take pᵉ boonys and let hem
seethe ynne a pot to make a gode brothe p’ for (for it) and do yᵗ ynto
pᵉ foyle of paste and close hit uppe faste, and bake yᵗ wel, and so s’ue
(serve) yᵗ forthe: wt pᵉ hede of oone of pᵉ byrdes, stucke at pᵉ oone
ende of pᵉ foyle, and a grete tayle at pᵉ op’ and dyvers of hys longe
fedyrs sette ynne connynglye alle aboute hym.’
Marrow bones seem to have been in favour at an early date. 2,000
marrow bones were among the requisites for the Goldsmiths’
Company’s feast, on St. Dunstan’s day, 1449.
In the reign of Edward VI., 1548, a time of plague and scarcity, the
king thought it prudent to fix the price of cattle, &c., sold in the
several seasons of the year:—
£ s. d.
The best fat ox, from Midsummer to
Michaelmas, at 2 5 0
One of inferior sort 1 8 0
The best fat ox, from Hallowmas to
Christmas 2 6 8
The best fat ox, from Christmas to
Shrovetide 2 8 4
The best fat wether, from shearing time
to Michaelmas 0 4 0
One of ditto, shorn 0 3 0
The best fat ewe 0 2 6
One ditto, shorn 0 2 0
The best fat wether, from Michaelmas
to Shrovetide 0 4 4
One ditto, shorn 0 3 0
Essex barrelled butter, per pound 0 0 0¾
All sorts of other barrelled butter, per
pound 0 0 0½
Essex cheese, per pound 0 0 0¾
All other sorts 0 0 0½
We are not quite such prodigious devourers of eggs as our French
neighbours, having a greater amount of meat or solid animal food to
fall back upon, and fewer fast days. Another reason is, that we
cannot, like the French, get them so fresh and cheap; but as an
alimentary substance, eggs are always in demand at a ratio
proportionate to the prices at which they can be obtained. In Paris
the consumption of eggs is at least 175 per annum to every head of
the population; in the departments it is more than double that
amount; eggs entering into almost every article of food, and
butchers’ meat being scarce and dear. If we only use, in London, half
the number of eggs the Parisians do, there must be a sale of about
173 millions a year; and the consumption throughout the kingdom
would be fully 2,000 millions. Although smaller in size, and not equal
to a new-laid egg, the French eggs arrive in pretty good condition,
and, if sold off quickly, are well adapted for ordinary culinary
purposes. Few are wasted, for even when not very fresh, they are
sold for frying fish, and to the lower class of confectioners for pastry.
Fried eggs, boiled eggs chopped up with salad, egg sauce for fish,
&c., eggs for puddings, for omelets, and pancakes, all contribute to
the sale. Omelets, sweet or flavoured with herbs, are much less
patronized in this country than they are in France.
The sixty wholesale egg merchants and salesmen in the metropolis,
whose itinerant carts are kept constantly occupied in distributing their
brittle ware, might probably enlighten us as to the extent and
increasing character of the trade, and the remunerative nature of the
profits. Railways and steamers bring up large crates, and carefully
packed boxes of eggs, for the ravenous maws of young and old, who
fatten on this dainty and easily digested food. The various city
markets dispose of two millions of fowls, one million of game birds,
half a million of ducks, and about one hundred and fifty thousand
turkeys, every year. But even if we doubled this supply, what would it
be among the three million souls of the great metropolis requiring
daily food.
Ireland and the continent contribute largely to our supply of poultry
and eggs. Immense pens of poultry, purchased in the Irish market,
are shipped by the steamers to Glasgow and Liverpool. Commerce
owes much to the influence of steam, but agriculture is no less
indebted to the same power. Taking everything into account, and
examining all the advantages derived by cheap and rapid transit, the
manufacturer of food is quite as much indebted to the steam-ship
and the locomotive as the manufacturer of clothing.
There is no difficulty whatever in testing eggs; they are mostly
examined by a candle. Another way to tell good eggs is to put them
in a pail of water, and if they are good they will lie on their sides,
always; if bad, they will stand on their small ends, the large ends
always uppermost, unless they have been shaken considerably,
when they will stand either end up. Therefore, a bad egg can be told
by the way it rests in water—always end up, never on its side. Any
egg that lies flat is good to eat, and can be depended upon.
An ordinary mode is to take them into a room moderately dark and
hold them between the eye and a candle or lamp. If the egg be good
—that is, if the albumen is still unaffected—the light will shine
through with a reddish glow; while, if affected, it will be opaque, or
dark.
In Fulton and Washington market, New York, a man may be seen
testing eggs at almost any time of the year. He has a tallow candle
placed under a counter or desk, and taking up the eggs, three in
each hand, passes them rapidly before the candle, and deposits
them in another box. His practised eye quickly perceives the least
want of clearness in the eggs, and suspicious ones are re-examined
and thrown away, or passed into a ‘doubtful’ box. The process is so
rapid that eggs are inspected perfectly at the rate of 100 to 200 per
minute, or as fast as they can be shifted from one box to another, six
at a time.
The preservation of eggs for use on ship board has always occupied
a large share of attention. They have been usually smeared with oil
or grease, and packed in bran or sawdust. A plan recommended by
M. Appert for preserving eggs is to put them in a jar with bran, to
prevent their breaking; cork and hermetically seal the jar; and put it
into a vessel of water, heated to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, or 12
degrees below boiling. The vessel with water being taken from the
fire, the water must cool till the finger may be borne in it; then
remove the jar. The eggs may then be taken out, and will keep for six
months.
Salted ducks’ eggs are an article in great demand in some parts of
the East, for transport by the trading junks. The Malays salt them as
they do their meat; but the Chinese mix a red unctuous earth with
the brine, which no doubt stops the pores of the shell, and preserves
them better. They are put into this mixture at night, and taken out
during the day to be dried in the sun, which is, in fact, a half roasting
process in a tropical climate.
Pickled eggs, while they constitute a somewhat novel feature in the
catalogue of condiments, are at the same time particularly relishing.
When eggs are plentiful, farmers’ wives, in some localities, take four
to six dozen of such as are newly laid, and boil them hard; then,
divesting them of the shells, they place them in large-mouthed
earthen jars, and pour upon them scalded vinegar, well seasoned
with whole pepper, allspice, ginger, and a few cloves of garlic. When
this pickle is cold, the jars are closed, and the eggs are fit for use in
a month afterwards. Eggs thus treated are held in high esteem by all
the farm-house epicures.
Fowls’ eggs, variously coloured, and having flowers and other
matters upon them, formed by the colouring matter being picked off
so as to expose the white shell of the egg, are a part of all the Malay
entertainments in Borneo. The eggs eaten by the Dyaks are
frequently nearly hatched when taken from the nest, as they enjoy
them just as well as when fresh.
An article called ‘condensed egg’ is now sold in the shops. It consists
of the whole substance of the fresh uncooked egg, very delicately
and finely granulated by patent processes, after the watery particles,
which the egg naturally contains, have been completely exhausted
and withdrawn, without further alteration of its constituents. It
contains all the nutritious properties of the egg in its natural state,
and must be valuable to shipmasters, emigrants, and others. One
ounce of it is said to be equal to three eggs.
The ancient Romans, though not great beef-eaters, were particular
as to poultry. Dr. Daubeny, in his Lectures on Roman Husbandry,
says—‘The ancient Romans had large preserves, not only of poultry
and pigeons, but even of thrushes and quails enclosed in pens which
were called ‘ornithones,’ from which they could draw their supply for
the table at pleasure. We are told, indeed, of two sorts of ornithones,
the one merely aviaries stocked with birds for the amusement of the
proprietor; the other kind, constructed with a view to profit, which
were often of vast extent, to supply the demands of the Roman
market for such articles of luxury. In the Sabine country particularly,
we read of extensive pens, filled with birds for the latter purpose. For
thrushes alone there were large rooms provided, each capable of
holding several thousand birds. As they were put in to be fattened,
the place had only just light enough to enable the birds to see their
food, but there was a good supply of fresh water accessible. And I
may remark that, whilst nothing is said by the Roman writers about
the fattening of oxen and sheep, particular directions are given for
fattening poultry and other birds—a strong additional argument of the
little importance they attached to the larger animals as articles of
food.’
The following may be enumerated as the sportsman’s game in
Jamaica:—
1. The pintado, or wild guinea fowl (Numida Meleagris), a bird now
domesticated in our poultry-yards. In its wild state the flesh is
considered by many persons to equal that of the pheasant.
2. The quail (Perdix coturnix).
3. Wild pigeons, namely, ring-tail, bald-pate, pea-dove, white-breast,
white-wing, mountain-witch, ground dove, and red-legged partridge.
4. Snipe (Scolopax gallinago).
5. Wild duck, or mallard (Anas boschas).
6. Gray, or Gadwall duck (Anas strepera).
7. The common teal (Anas crecca), the flesh of which was so much
prized by the Roman epicures, and is still in request for the table.
8. Widgeon (Anas Penelope).
9. Gray and ring plover (Charadrius minor, and hiaticula).
If we are out shooting in Canada we may easily add to our mess the
ruffled grouse (Tetrao umbellus), although these, like many other
birds, are partridges with the settlers—this variety being termed the
birch partridge. Another species, the spruce partridge of the colonists
(T. Canadensis), is less palatable, for, unfortunately, it has a habit of
feeding upon laurel leaves. But here is something to make amends
—a fine Esquimaux curlew, as large as an English partridge, and a
mud-sucker, id est snipe.
Let me note a Canadian receipt for cooking a partridge, which may
be useful to sportsmen and travellers:—
‘Expedition is the maxim of all sylvan cookery, and as plucking the
feathers of a partridge would be too great a tax on the time and
patience of the voyageur, the method most in vogue is to run your
hunting knife round his throat and ancles and down his breast, when,
taking a leg in each hand, and pressing your thumb into his back,
you pop him out of his skin, as you would a pea from its pod. Then
make a spread-eagle of him on a forked twig, the other extremity of
which is thrust into the ground, and after wrapping a rasher of bacon
around his neck and under his wings, as ladies wear a scarf, you
incline him to the fire, turning the spit in the ground, and you will
have a result such as Soyer might be proud of. When your other
avocations will not afford time even for the skinning process, an
alternative mode is to make a paste of ashes and water, and roll up
your bird therein, with the feathers, and all the appurtenances
thereof, and thrust the performance in the fire. In due time, on
breaking the cemented shell (which is like a sugared almond), the
feathers, skin, &c., adhere to it, and then you have the pure kernel of
poultry within.’
The red-legged partridge is common in the Greek islands, on the
continent of Asia, and in the southern countries of Europe. In some
of the Cyclades, where the inhabitants are too poor to expend
money on powder, they chase the birds on foot, till they are so
wearied, as to be easily taken with the hand.
Of all the European birds, the quail (Coturnix vulgaris) is the most
remarkable, on account of the vast numbers which congregate on
the shores of the Mediterranean in the spring, coming from Asia
Minor and Northern Africa, to avoid the excessive heat. For a few
weeks in the month of April, when they first begin to arrive in Sicily,
everybody is a sportsman. Arriving always in the night, although not
a quail could be seen the evening before, the report of guns the next
morning, in all directions, attests their number and the havoc that
has begun upon them. Such prodigious numbers have appeared on
the western coasts of the kingdom of Naples, that a hundred
thousand have been taken in a day, within the space of four or five
miles.
The flesh of the turtle dove is considered much superior to that of the
wild pigeon.
The passenger pigeon (Columba migratoria) of America, is a very
large and well flavoured variety, being 16 inches long, and 24 inches
in the spread of its wings; its hue chiefly slate-colour. They migrate at
certain seasons in millions, and feed on acorns and fresh mast. They
travel in the morning and evening, and repose about mid-day in the
forests. Their passage, whether in spring or autumn, lasts from 15 to
20 days, after which they are met with in the centre of the United
States. The Indians often watch the roosting places of these birds,
and knocking them on the head in the night, bring them away by
thousands. They preserve the oil or fat, which they use instead of
butter. There was formerly scarcely any little Indian village in the
interior, where a hundred gallons of this oil might not at any time be
purchased.
These pigeons spread over the whole of North America, abounding
round Hudson’s Bay, where they remain till December. They arrive in
the fur countries in the latter end of May, and depart in October. They
are met with as far south as the Gulf of Mexico, but do not extend
their range westward of the Rocky Mountains. Stray passenger
pigeons have been taken both in Norway and in Russia; and this bird
has found a place in the British fauna, from a solitary bird having
been shot in Westhall, Fifeshire, on the 31st December, 1825. Like
other pigeons, this genus makes a slender platform nest of sticks
and straws, but, unlike other pigeons, prolific as it is, it lays but one
egg. The female builds the nest, the male bird fetches the materials.
The time of incubation is 16 days, and the male relieves the female
in sitting during that period. The immense number of these birds
baffles all computation. Those eminent ornithologists, Wilson and
Audubon, describe flocks seen by them to contain respectively from
thousands of millions to upwards of a billion in each, the daily food
required to sustain which would be at least 60,000 bushels; and the
New York Evening Post informs us that, on one day, seven tons of
these pigeons were brought into the New York market by the Erie
railroad.
In their breeding places, herds of hogs are fed on the young pigeons
or ‘squabs,’ which are also melted down by the settlers, as a
substitute for butter or lard. The felling a single tree often produces
200 squabs, nearly as large as the old ones, and almost one mass of
fat. When the flocks of full grown pigeons enter a district, clap-nets
and guns are in great requisition. Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology,
says, Sir William Johnstone told him, that at one shot, he brought
down with a blunderbuss above a hundred and twenty pigeons.
Wagon loads of them are poured into the towns, and sold as cheap
as a half-penny up to two-pence the dozen. The flesh tastes like the
common wild blue pigeon, but is, if anything, better flavoured. Why (it
has been asked) could not this large pigeon, whose migratory habits
are principally caused by search for food, be introduced into this
country as a tame variety, or by crossing with our native breeds
enlarge the size; or, in the same way as fresh mutton was sent from
Australia, be sent in casks potted in their own fat, to supply us with
cheap pigeon pies? And the same with a cross with the large Texan
rabbit, or the wild American turkey, the latter being far superior in
size and appearance to its degenerate descendant, the tame turkey,
sometimes as much as four feet in length, and five feet from wing to
wing? The canvas-back ducks of America are there boasted of
exceedingly as a delicacy, yet, although a great variety of useless
water-fowl has been introduced merely as an ornament to the ponds
and streams of our gentry, no attempt has been made to bring this
kind to our farm-yards and tables; and even if it was found
impossible to tame the pure breed, a cross with our own might be
effected. In the capercailzie, or cock of the wood, a bird of the
grouse species, but nearly as large as a turkey, once indigenous to
Scotland, but now only found in the north of Europe, and in the
bustard, the largest European land-bird, the cock weighing from 25
to 27 lbs., we have examples of two fowls well worth the trial of
domesticating by the amateur or intelligent agriculturist, a trial which,
if successful, would probably repay quite as well as competition
about the colour of a feather, or the shortness of a tail, and in time
would be the means of affording a constant, certain, and moderately-
priced supply, which is never the case while animals remain in a wild
or half-wild state.
Although the forests of New Zealand are not thickly inhabited by the
feathered tribes, there are many birds to be met with. Among others
are the following, which are excellent eating.—The wild pigeon,
which is very large and common; the parrot or ka-ka; and the tui or
mocking bird, which is about the size of the English black-bird, and
of the same colour, but with two bunches of white feathers under the
neck—his notes are few, but very melodious, resembling the tinkling
of small bells, which harmonize together as they are delivered. The
bronze-winged pigeon of Australia is most delicate eating. It abounds
in summer, when the acacia seeds are ripe.
GRALLATORES.
From the order of grallatores, waders or stilt-birds, we find many
which yield choice dainties, whether it be the ostrich or emu for their
eggs, the bustard and bittern, the flamingo for its tongue, the plover,
dotterel, curlew, snipe, woodcock, rail, &c., for the table.
An ostrich egg is considered as equal in its contents to 24 of the
domestic hen. When taken fresh from the nest, they are very
palatable, and are wholesome, though somewhat heavy food. The
best mode of cooking them is that practised by the Hottentots, who
place one end of the egg in the hot ashes, and making a small orifice
at the other, keep stirring the contents with a stick till they are
sufficiently roasted; and thus, with a seasoning of salt and pepper,
you have a very nice omelet. The nest sometimes contains as many
as 24 eggs, and the difficulty the sportsman has is how to carry away
his spoil. The usual plan is to denude himself of his upper or lower
garments, and, tying up the orifices of leg-holes or arm-holes, to
make an impromptu sack, in which he can bear away his prize. If he
leaves them, he will be sure to find on his return that the ostrich has
broken the eggs, because they have been disturbed.
The eggs of the emu of South America are large, and, although the
food which they afford is coarse, it is not unpalatable.
The emu, or New Holland cassowary, is becoming rarer as
settlements advance. The same remark applies also to the kangaroo
and other animals against whom a war of extermination seems to
have been declared.
The emu is easily domesticated when taken young, and becomes
very familiar with, and attached to, the dogs, which generally leads to
the death of a tame one. A full-grown one, when erect, stands seven
feet high. The natives creep on them and spear them. The eggs are
of a tea green colour, with a watered appearance on the surface.
There is a singularity in the growth of the feathers—two of them
spring from one quill. The bird is principally valued for its oil. The skin
of a full-grown bird produces six or seven quarts of oil, clear, and of a
beautiful bright yellow colour. The method of extracting or ‘trying’ out
the oil is to pluck the feathers, cut the skin into pieces, and boil it; but
the aborigines prefer the flesh with the skin upon it, regarding it as
the Esquimaux do the flesh of whales and seals, as a highly luscious
treat. The flesh is eaten by Europeans, and preferred by some to the
kangaroo; the rump part is considered as delicate as fowl; the legs
coarser, like beef, but still tender.
Bustards are plentiful in many parts of the Cape Colony, and the
smaller sorts, called koerhans, are approachable in a bush country;
but the larger kinds, called paws, are a great prize, as they are found
on plains, and are generally shot with ball. In Australia, the bustard is
called, colonially, the wild turkey. It is a fine large bird, frequently
weighing 12 to 15 lbs., and extending full six feet, from tip to tip of
the wings. There it is declared excellent for eating, but its flesh is
much too gamey for ordinary palates.
Don Pernetty, in his Historical Journal of the Voyage to the Falkland
Islands, under the command of M. de Bouganville, says, they found
the bustard ‘exquisite either boiled, roasted, or fricasseed. It
appeared from the account we kept that we ate 1,500. It is, indeed,
hardly to be conceived that the ship’s company of our two frigates,
consisting of a hundred and fifty men, all in perfect health and with
good stomachs, should have found a quantity of these birds
sufficient for their subsistence during a stay of more than two
months, within a tract of country not exceeding three leagues.’
But they also tried other descriptions of feathered game. The wild
ducks were found, in general, to have the taste of mussels. Of a kind
of grey goose, weighing about 19 or 20 lbs., it is reported: ‘Its flesh
was oily, had a disagreeable smell and a fenny taste; but it was
eaten by the ships’ companies when no bustards were given them.’
The clucking hen of Jamaica (Ardea scolopacea), on the authority of
Browne and Robinson, is looked upon as the best wild fowl in the
country, although the latter writer tells us it feeds upon snakes,
toads, and lizards, as well as wood snails and gully crabs. The
flavour is, however, represented to be remarkably fine—a compound
of ham, partridge, and pigeon. The flesh is of a peculiarly close and
compact texture, and very tender.
The mangrove hen (Rallus Virginianus), indigenous to the watery
marshes of Jamaica, greatly resembles the dappled grey variety of
the common fowl. At the pullet age, the young birds are run down,
when feeding on the mud, with great facility. At this time, I have
found them to be delicious eating. Persons, on whose taste reliance
may be placed, say that, though a plover be undoubtedly a fine bird
for the table, and the sanderling a great delicacy, the young
mangrove hen exceeds both, as it combines all their peculiarity of
flavour with the fleshiness of the quail. This is no small
commendation. But much depends upon your cuisinier; if he is a
good artiste—a man of undoubted talents, it matters little what the
materials be.
The Rallus crex is another esteemed dainty of no ordinary kind, and
a most delicious bird.
In the reign of Henry the Eighth, the bittern was held in great esteem
at the tables of the great. Its flesh has much the flavour of hare, and
is far from being unpleasant.
Snipe of all kinds, from the ‘teeterer,’ that hovers about the edge of
the surf, to the jack snipe (Scolopax gallinula), half-brother to the
woodcock, are in high esteem for the table. The ‘green’ sportsman
finds these birds the most perplexing of all feathered game when on
the wing. Their catter-cornered, worm-fence line of flight renders
them very difficult to hit, until long practice has rendered the
marksman’s eye familiar with their erratic movements. Some
sportsmen take them at an angle; others after they have made their
tack; and others, again, seem to blaze away at them without any
particular aim, and yet always bring down their bird. The yellow-
legged snipe is in America considered the best species for the table.
They should be larded and roasted in bunches of three, and served
in gravy made from their own unctuous drippings. There are few
side-dishes more popular with epicures than snipe on toast. Some
cooks stuff them with a composition of bread crumbs and egg, highly
seasoned; but, in my opinion, they are far better without this kind of
‘trimmings.’
While the trail of the woodcock is a choice morsel with the English
epicure, the inhabitants of the North of Europe, to whose forests the
woodcocks retire in the summer, never eat the birds, esteeming their
flesh unwholesome, from the circumstance of their having no crops.
But they are particularly fond of the eggs, which the boors offer for
sale in large quantities in the principal markets, and this contributes,
possibly, to make the birds so scarce.
The semi-palmated snipe, better known by its common sobriquet of
‘pill-will-willet,’ the loud shrill note which it emits, is at certain periods
of the year esteemed an excellent bird in America. It ought to be
served up in the mode that snipes usually are, and for these
delicious viands it is esteemed a tolerable substitute when in good
order.
Dampier, nearly two centuries ago, speaking of the flamingo, says:
‘Their flesh is lean and black, but not ill-tasted. They have large
tongues, and near the root of them a piece of fat, which is accounted
a great dainty.’
The flamingo was much esteemed by the Romans at their
sumptuous entertainments. Their flesh is thought tolerably good
food, and the tongue was looked upon by the ancients as among the
most delicate of all eatables. Pliny, Martial, and many other writers,
speak of it in the highest terms of commendation. Many who have
tried it, consider the flesh extremely rich, much like that of the wild
duck, but with a strong fishy taste. The tongue is certainly delicate,
but scarcely worthy the high encomiums bestowed on it by the
ancients.
During the surveying expedition of Captain Owen, on the east coast
of Africa, the sailors used to shoot hundreds of these beautiful birds
for the purpose of making a dish of the tongues alone. The
remainder of the bird—in imitation of the Roman epicures—being
thrown away.
NATATORES.
The Natatores, or swimming birds, supply us with very choice food.
Even many of the coarse sea fowl are not rejected by voyagers.
The Chinese shoot sea-gulls in large numbers, which add to their
stock of food. A man is constantly engaged in the bay of San
Francisco, California, shooting sea-gulls, which he sells to the
Chinese at the rate of 25 cents each. The San Francisco Evening
News says,—‘This bird is a slow and steady mover, of large size,
and flies at a convenient distance over the head of the sportsman.
The man in the skiff was armed with a double-barrelled shot gun,
both barrels of which he would load, and taking a dead gull would
throw it high in the air and allow it to fall at some distance from the
boat. This would naturally attract a flock of gulls, and as they made
their slow circuit around the spot, the gunner raised his piece and
generally succeeded in bringing down a bird for both barrels. He
would then re-load as fast as possible, and if a gull was in range,
another shot was fired and another trophy won.’
The flesh of sea-fowl is generally too rancid to find much favour with
fastidious palates. Sailors indeed eat the livers and hearts of the
penguins, which are exceedingly palatable, but the black flesh of the
body is rank and oily, and has rather a perfumed taste. Some
voyagers, however, tell us, that eaten in ragouts, they are good as
that made from a hare.
The young puffins, having gorged themselves with sprats and
crustacea, when pickled with spices, are by some considered
dainties, and they are, occasionally, potted in the North. But when it
has attained its ugly full developed bill, like a short, thick plough
coulter, this bird does not look very prepossessing. Besides making
use of them for food, some of the islanders use them for fire-wood.
They split them open, dry them, and then burn them feathers and all.
There is a species of puffin, the Puffinus urinatrix or P. brevicaudis,
popularly termed the mutton-bird by Tasmanian colonists, which is
met with on some of the New Zealand islands. It forms the principal
food for the native inhabitants of Foveaux Straits, and by them is
called the titi. It is a sea bird of black colour,[15] in its usual condition
smaller than the common duck. Like all sea birds it has thin, slender
legs, with webbed feet: the wings are long, with many joints, I forget
how many: the bill is a little hooked at the point. They are generally
in large flocks, covering the ocean as far as the eye can reach;
sometimes flying all in the same direction, at other times crossing
through each other like swarming bees. They breed on the small
uninhabited islands scattered round the coasts of Stewart’s Island.
These islands have a loose, dry, peatish soil, on a stony bottom.
Their being exposed to the stormy winds, loaded with the salt spray
of the sea, prevents the growth of a forest, except patches of stunted
bushes intermixed with a sort of soft, light green fern. The loose soil
is perforated with numberless birdholes, like a piece of worm-eaten
wood, running from two to four feet underground in a horizontal
direction, at the farthest end of which is the nest. Each female lays
only one egg, which is nearly as big as a goose egg, on which they
sit—it is believed male and female alternately—many weeks. The
young bird is full grown in the month of April, which corresponds to
October in Europe. At that time, almost all the inhabitants of Foveaux
Straits, old and young—the infirm only excepted—repair to the Titi
Islands, and take the young birds out of their nests, which amount to
many thousands, and a great many still escape. They put a stick in
the hole to feel where the bird is, which generally betrays itself by
biting the stick. If the hole is so long that the bird cannot be reached
by the hand, a hole is dug over it, the bird taken out and killed by
breaking its head, and the broken hole covered with rubbish and
earth, so that it may be used again the next year. Afterwards the
birds are plucked, and, to clean the skin from the hairy down, it is
moistened and held over the fire, when it is easily wiped quite clean.
Then the neck, wings, and legs are cut off, the breast is opened, the
entrails are taken out, and the body is laid flat, either to be salted or
to be boiled in its own fat, and preserved in air-tight kelp bags.
Though it cannot be said that the young birds suffer, they being killed
so quickly, yet it might seem cruel to rob the parents of their young
ones on so large a scale, and one would fancy a great deal of
fluttering and screaming of the old ones, bewailing the bereavement
of their offspring. But that is not the case. None of the old birds make
their appearance in the day-time. They are all out at sea, and come
only to their nests in the evening when it gets dark, and are off again
at day-break. But yet it would seem the parents would be distressed
at finding their nests robbed. Not so. It would seem as if Providence
had ordered it so that man should go and take the young birds for his
food without hurting the feelings of the parents. When the young
birds are full grown, then they are neglected by their parents, in
order to starve them to get thin, else they would never be able to fly
for the heaviness of their fat. It seems that at the time when they are
taken by men, they are already forsaken by the old birds; and those
that are not taken are compelled by hunger, when they have been
starved thin and light, to leave their holes and go to sea. The old
birds are tough and lean, but the young ones, which are nearly twice
as big, contain, when the legs, wings, neck, and entrails are taken
off, three-fourths of pure white fat, and one-fourth of red meat and
tender bones. The flavour is rather fishy, but, if once used to it, not
bad at all, only rather too fat. They eat best when salted and smoked
a little, and then boiled a short time, and afterwards eaten cold. If
properly salted, they might make an article of trade, like herrings in
Europe. The fat when clean is quite white, and looks just like goose
fat, but the taste is rather oily; however, it may be used for a good
many other purposes than for food. It burns very well on small
shallow tin lamps, which get warmed by the light and melt the fat.
The feathers are very soft, and would make excellent beds if they
could be cured of the oily smell, which it is likely they can.
The following remarks on the articles of food found in the arctic
regions are by one of the officers of the Assistance:—
‘To the feathered tribe we are chiefly indebted, and foremost in the
list for flavour and delicacy of fibre stand the ptarmigan (Lagopus
mutus) and the willow grouse (Tetrao saliceti). The flesh is dark-
coloured, and has somewhat the flavour of the hare. These may be
used in pie, stewed, boiled, or roast, at pleasure, and are easily shot.
Next in gustatory joys, the small birds rank, a kind of snipe, and a
curlew sandpiper; both are, however, rarely met with, and do not
repay the trouble of procuring them.
‘The brent goose (Anser torquatus) is excellent eating, and its flesh
is free from fishy taste. Then follow the little auk or rotge (Alca alle),
the dovekey, or black guillemot (Uria grylle), the loon, or thick-billed
guillemot (Uria Brunnichii). The first two are better baked with a
crust, and the last makes, with spices and wine, a soup but little
inferior to that of English hare. All these are found together in flocks,
but the easiest method of obtaining them is either to shoot them at
the cliffs where they breed, or as they fly to and fro from their feeding
ground.
‘The ducks now come upon the table, and are placed in the following
order by most Polar epicures. The long-tailed duck (Fuliluga
glacialis), the king duck (Anas spectabilis), and the eider duck (A.
mollissima). They require to be skinned before roasting or boiling,
and are then eatable, but are always more or less fishy.
‘The divers are by some thought superior for the table to the ducks,
but the difference is very slight. The red-throated diver was most
frequently seen, but few were shot; and of the great northern divers
(Colymbus glacialis) none were brought to table, two only having
been seen. Some of the gulls were eaten, and pronounced equal to
the other sea birds; they were the kittiwake, the tern, and the herring
or silver gull.
‘The denizens of the sea have fallen little under our notice, and they
may be dismissed with the remark, that curried narwhal’s skin can be
tolerated, but not recommended. Some fresh-water fish were caught,
and proved to be very good; they are said to be a kind of trout.’
The eggs of sea-fowl, although much eaten on the coasts, are
seldom brought to market for consumption in our large English
towns, and yet they form a considerable article of traffic in several
parts of the world, and are procured in immense quantities about the
lands near the North and South Poles.
The precipitous cliffs of England are occasionally searched for the
eggs of the razor-billed auk, which are esteemed a delicacy, for
salads especially.
A correspondent at San Francisco informs me that an important
trade is carried on in that city in the eggs of sea birds. He states, that
the Farallones de los Frayles, a group of rocky islets, lying a little
more than twenty miles west of the entrance to the Bay of San
Francisco, are the resort of innumerable sea-fowl, known by the
fishermen as ‘murres.’ These islands are almost inaccessible, and,
with a single exception, are uninhabited. They, therefore, very
naturally afford a resort for great multitudes of birds. Some time
since a company was organized in San Francisco for the purpose of
bringing the eggs of the murres to market. An imperfect idea of the
numbers of these birds may be formed from the fact, that this
company sold in that city the last season (a period of less than two
months, July and parts of June and August) more than five hundred
thousand eggs! All these were gathered on a single one of these
islands; and, in the opinion of the eggers, not more than one egg in
six of those deposited on that island was gathered. My
correspondent informs me that he was told by those familiar with the
islands that all the eggs brought in were laid by birds of a single kind.
Yet they exhibit astonishing variations in size, in form, and in
colouring. There is no reason to suppose that he was misinformed in
regard to these eggs being deposited by a single species. The men
could have had no motive for deception, and similar facts are
observable on the Labrador coast and in the islands north of
Scotland. Besides, the writer ascertained from other sources, that all
the eggs brought to the market were obtained from a limited portion
of the island, known as the Great Farallone—called the Rookery,
where a single species swarm in myriads, and where no other kind
of bird is found. Naturalists, who have received specimens of these
birds, pronounce them to be the thick-billed or Brunnich’s guillemot,
or murre, of Labrador and Northern Europe. The eggs are three and
a half inches in length, and are esteemed a great delicacy.
There is a small island off the Cape of Good Hope, named Dassen
Island, about six miles from the mainland, which is one and a half
mile long by one broad, from which 24,000 eggs of penguins and
gulls are collected every fortnight, and sold at Cape Town for a half-
penny each.
The late Lieut. Ruxton, R.N., speaking of the Island of Ichaboe, on
the Western Coast of Africa, says, ‘Notwithstanding that the island
had been occupied for nearly two years, during which time
thousands upon thousands of penguins had been wantonly
destroyed, on the cessation of work these birds again flocked to their
old haunts, where they had again commenced laying their eggs. The
rocks round the island are literally covered with penguins,
cormorants, and albatrosses. The former, wedged together in a
dense phalanx, have no more dread of man than ducks in a poultry-
yard, although they have met with such persecution on the island;
and any number might be taken by the hand without any difficulty.
The sailors eat the livers and hearts, which are exceedingly
palatable, but the flesh of the body is rank and oily.’[16]
Captain Morrell, also writing of Ichaboe (Nautical Magazine, vol. 13,
p. 374), tells us, ‘Eggs may be obtained here in great quantities. In
the months of October and November this island is literally covered
with jackass-penguins and gannets, which convene here for the
purpose of laying and incubation. The nests of the gannets are
formed like those of the albatross, but are not so much elevated;
while the jackass-penguins lay their eggs in holes in the ground from
twelve to thirty inches in depth, which they guard with the strictest
vigilance. They frequently lay three or four eggs, but the gannet
seldom lays more than two.’
A correspondent, writing from Tristan d’Acunha, in September, gives
an account of his adventures in taking penguins’ eggs. ‘This is now
the time for penguins’ eggs. They get great numbers of them. There
are two rookeries, as they call them; one on the east, and one on the
west, of us. To the one on the west, they go over land, beyond
Elephant Bay. I went there last year, when I saw the great sea
elephant and the penguins for the first time. But this year I have
been disappointed, the weather has been so unsettled. But
yesterday was a fine day, and they were going in the boat to the
other, to which they can go only by water; so I went with them. It was

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Comparative Perspectives on Early

Childhood Education Reforms in

Contemporary Research and Perspectives on Early

The Quality Agenda in Early Childhood Education

Public Goods Provision in the Early Modern Economy:

Inclusive Education in Schools and Early Childhood

Voices of Transgender Children in Early Childhood

Peer Play and Relationships in Early Childhood

Preventing childhood obesity in early care and

Early Childhood Policies and Systems in Eight Countries

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/7601

ISSN 2468-8746 ISSN 2468-8754 (electronic)

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

Part 1 The Reform Agenda in Both Australia and China

Part 2 Comparative Curriculum and Its Role in Remodelling

Part 3 Transnational Teacher Education: A Case Study

8 Early Childhood Teacher Education: An International/Transnational

Part 4 Conclusion and Implications

Minyi Li is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Beijing Normal

Kay Margetts is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Melbourne.

Josephine Ng is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Education at RMIT University.

Berenice Nyland is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Education at RMIT. Her

Fig. 4.1 Interconnections of policy levels in China������������������������������������������ 49

Table 2.1 Early childhood historical events in Australia and China

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 3

These opportunities can have many advantages as international exchanges can

1.2 A Comparative Perspective

be a social, cultural, historical and political process. We have therefore taken a

1.3 Why China and Australia?

A comparative perspective of early childhood education between Australia and

a strong international perspective. A knowledge of many early childhood education

China is one of the 40 destinations that Australians are encouraged to apply to

1.4  arly Childhood Education Development in a Context

reflection of their impressions. The change in attitude could also be explained by

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 13

2.2 History and Theories of Early Childhood Education

2.3 Images of Children

Ho (1997) reviews Chinese children’s literature and comments that literature

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Part 1 The Reform Agenda in Both Australia and China

Part 2 Comparative Curriculum and Its Role in Remodelling

Part 3 Transnational Teacher Education: A Case Study

8 Early Childhood Teacher Education: An International/Transnational

Part 4 Conclusion and Implications

Fig. 4.1 Interconnections of policy levels in China�� 49

1.2 A Comparative Perspective

1.3 Why China and Australia?

1.4 arly Childhood Education Development in a Context

2.2 History and Theories of Early Childhood Education

2.3 Images of Children