First Day of School: Cultural Stereotypes in Translated Children's Books in Indonesia

The translation of children’s storybooks involves not only linguistic elements but also complex cultural adaptation. This study examines the forms of stereotypes present in Indonesian-translated children’s books centering on the theme of the first day of school. Four translated books authored by Heuer (2021), Rao (2021), and Egbert (2021a, 2021b) were selected for analysis, utilizing Kress’s multimodal discourse analysis framework. The findings reveal that stereotype formation manifests across three aspects: character stereotypes (encompassing personality traits, professions, socioeconomic status, and gender), cultural stereotypes (covering religion or beliefs, behavior, ethnicity, and customs), and semiotic stereotypes (comprising iconic, indexical, and symbolic). Nationalism is internalized through clothing illustrations, national flags, and contrasting colors used to differentiate public and private schools. The authors’ ideology leans toward women’s empowerment by featuring central female child characters. Although, the books are claimed to have been adapted to Indonesian culture, the analysed children’s storybooks still contain some foreign cultural elements. These cultural differences are reflected through cultural stereotypes in games, social activities, and customs.