Tikki Tikki Tembo

Whether or not this is an authentic Chinese folktale, it is a humorous attention-getter that still has a good moral to it. It does provide an opportunity to point out how Chinese names are usually shorter than Japanese names, something most kids in our school would not be aware of.

What amazes me is that in this age of fancy graphics students still are drawn to these simple illustrations.

A recommended read-aloud!


Stereotypes and falsehoods in this fake "folktale from China"   January 3, 2006
Beatrice Izzey (Los Angeles)
40 out of 80 found this review helpful

If it were possible to give zero stars, I would have.

If you want a book that legitimates and perpetuates the notion that Asian names (and Asians themselves) are exotic, incomprehensible, and nonsensical, get this book.

If you want a real folktale from China for your kid, this is not it. Look elsewhere.

Do you think Chinese people need to explain to their own kids why we have one-syllable names? No. Do you think there are Chinese folktales about English people or German people with silly long names? No. This is not a true Chinese folktale.

This book was written for non-Chinese "westerners" by someone who is very unknowledgeable about Chinese language, history and culture.

A telling example: Chang can be written at least 20 different ways in Chinese, and none of those words mean "little or nothing," contrary to what the author claims. Those quotations inserted by the author are irritating. The author claims s/he is "retelling" a Chinese folktale, but I read many Chinese folktales as a kid, and I have never encountered this one. A Google search on this book uncovers Internet discussion groups on children's folktales confirming that there are no Chinese folktales like this. Isn't it too easy for a writer to tell a racist, ahistorical, irresponsible story then disclaim responsibility, and claim that s/he was just "repeating" what she heard from someone else?

Historically, there has never been a time in China when first borns were given superlong names.

The name "Tikki tikki..." isn't even Chinese. It's totally made up by the author. It just "sounds" exotic and incomprehensible a la Polynesia, Japan, Indonesia, India... you get it. It does not mean "the most wonderful thing" in any language. (It does sound like "Riki Riki Tavi.")

The factual premise of the story is also absurd: the boy had a name so long that people couldn't readily recognize it when the brother said it. Why didn't the boy have a nickname. In Chinese families, there are specific nicknames for eldest son, second son, baby brother, etc., and kids are usually called by these titles rather than by given name. Not to be pedantic, but this is yet another incredulous aspect of this "folktale." Come on, the boy is drowning in a well, and the little brother cannot make the grownups understand that!

I also found through Google some folklore academics who thought that the author may have "retold" a folktale, but one that was crafted by European missionaries and colonists who sought a humorous albeit false, unsupported explanation for why their Chinese subjects had such funny monosyllabic names. True, anyone who has not bothered to study Chinese language and history would have a hard time understanding why everyone seems to have the same short name.

Aside from all the above, as some other reviewers have noted, the artwork is not so authentic either, mixing pseudo-Japanese costume with generic multi-culti ethnic hippie garb. The artist also failed to do basic research, or believed that Chinese, Japanese, whatever, they're all the same.

The last line in the book says it all: "the Chinese have always thought it wise to give all their children little, short names instead of great long names." As anyone who has studied the Chinese language knows, Chinese names are not "little and short" but even a name like Li can be written thirty different ways in Chinese. Only to an ignorant person do the names appear "little and short."

Maybe I just have little tolerance for people who make fun of "ethnic" names without recognizing that all names have a history and even American names like Jones or Lee are, objectively speaking, ethnic, and strange and exotic to someone who doesn't live in the U.S. or England.

I received this book as a gift. I am throwing it away. I don't want my quarter-Chinese daughter to get a distorted, stupid, false perspective on a great civilization. She is two years old, and cannot yet distinguish between fact and fiction.

I cannot recommend this book to anyone of any age. The last thing this world needs is another disingenuous book that dumbs down and places Chinese culture in false light under guise of "authenticity." We already have Hollywood and popular media doing that.


Humourous, but not chinese nor a good lesson to teach kids   February 5, 2004
29 out of 44 found this review helpful

First off, the key to this popular book is the main character's long name, which you will repeat a dozen times in the book and remember it for the rest of your life. It's a great long word, and it's fun to say.

However as parents (especially if your child is young and can't discern between what's rubbish and what's true) we need to be more careful about just reading fun things to our kids, when it comes at the expense of other misunderstandings.

Inform yourself first :
1) this story has nothing to do with China. It could be just as well been on an imaginary country. The fact that the illustrations are asian, glosses over the fact that the countries in asia (china and japan) are quite different. Having the supposed chinese characters wearing japanese shoes.. wrong.

2) the names have nothing to do with the chinese language

3) the custom of ignoring the second son has no place in children's stories, however one may want to think that's a true Chinese custom (which it isn't)

4) "chang", an extremely common name, does not mean "nothing" in chinese. It's like saying Smith means "rubbbish" ... absolutely wrong to teach kids to associate common names with negative meanings.

Beyond that, it's a good book, but read with caution.


A Great Book for Reading Aloud or Retelling   November 30, 1999
Dwain Preston (Quincy, IL)
28 out of 31 found this review helpful

"Tikki" is over thirty years old, and still going strong. I am a storyteller, and I love to retell the story of the little boy with the outlandishly long name (giving full credit to Arlene Mosel, of course!). Having learned Chinese, and spent some time in China, I do not try to pass it off as an authentic Chinese folktale. Mosel wrote it to have fun, and those of us who read and tell the story must do it in the same vein. Knowing that I am an old man and that my mental faculties may be fading a bit, my granddaughter, upon hearing me tell it for the first time, asked, "Grandpa, how long did it take you to learn to say that name?" I told her several days of practice (not mentioning that a class of first graders could probably do it in two tries!). Three cheers for Arlene Mosel! God willing, the electronic world will not have completely eradicated the printed word, and Tikki Tikki Tembo will be still be around at the turn of the next millenium!


Questionable teaching material   June 7, 2001
23 out of 41 found this review helpful

With so many books that offer rhyme patterns and beautiful illustrations, I cannot recommend this book simply because it lacks a strong teaching/moral component.

The second son is ignored, mistreated and called "nothing". The first son is glorified and given his proud name. So much time is spent idolizing the first son, but when the first son falls in the well and is rescued by his younger brother, there is (in the story) the slightest blip of change, but never an apology or an outpouring of love for the second son (just relief that the first son is alive).

Beyond that, it leads the listener to believe that this name practice existed in Asia. This is not an Asian folk tale.