What's 'When I was a child'?

 

'When I was a Child' is Hiroki Kosuge's creative work consisting of micro short narratives.

 

All the micro short narratives are narrated with first person, based on the compilation of the interviews with people from different cultural backgrounds.

 

All the stories will begin with the line; ‘when I was a child’.

 

What is written in this work will be based on the real-life events that the interviewees experienced when they were children, but the character’s emotion can be fictional in consideration of the unity of this creative work.  

 

 

Why? 

 

This project has four major goals;

 

1. To have a better understanding of the diverse cultures through exploring one’s childhood  

 

2. To widen the range of the characters by telling one's childhood from various cultural backgrounds with first person.  

 

3. To share different childhood experiences with the participants.

 

4. To enlighten the people involved in this project on how one’s childhood relates to their adulthood.

 

• The goals of 1 and 2 are beneficial to Hiroki Kosuge.

 

• The goals of 3 and 4 are reciprocal between Hiroki Kosuge and the participants.

 

 

 

How?

 

• The interviewees will be intentionally chosen by Hiroki Kosuge, considering their cultural backgrounds, ethnicity and nationality.

 

• After the interviewee’s filling in the consent form, the interview will be started.

 

• The interviewees will be asked;

 

            When you were a child*.........

 

What was your dream?

What was your favorite dish?

What was your favorite toy?

What was your house like?

Who was your hero/heroine?

What was your favorite TV program?

What was your favorite subject at school?

 

*To achieve the goal of examining the effect of the childhood on the adulthood, childhood is defined as the period between 5 and 12, in accordance with Erikson’s stages of psychological developments.

 

 

 

 

4. Based on the interviews, Hiroki Kosuge will write micro short narratives. The length of the narrative will be around 150 words per one interviewee.

 

 

*To suggest the cultural background, the interviewees’ names and nationalities will be shown in this creative work, however, to protect their privacy, false names will be employed.

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5.  The complete work will be shared on this website.