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Renditions nos. 77 & 78 (Spring & Autumn 2012)
Chinese Science Fiction: Late Qing and the Contemporary
Guest Editor: Mingwei Song
This issue showcases representative work of Chinese science fiction from the late Qing and the contemporary. As a popular genre, science fiction has energized modern Chinese literature by evoking a whole array of sensations ranging from the grotesque to the sublime, from the Utopian to the apocalyptic, and from the human to the post-human. It mingles nationalism with fantasy, envelopes politics in scientific discourse, and delivers sharp social criticism with an acute awareness of probabilities and possibilities. Science fiction today both echoes and complicates the late Qing writers’ vision of China’s future and the transformation of our species and universe, and this special issue aims to contextualize a comparative reading of some important Sci fi writings from these two epochs and the similar expectations and anxieties they bring to Chinese readers.
288 pages
Table of Contents
Editor’s Page | 5 | |
Mingwei Song | Preface | 7 |
PART ONE: THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY | ||
Xu Nianci | New Tales of Mr Braggadocio Translated by Nathaniel Isaacson |
15 |
Wu Jianren | New Story of the Stone: excerpts Translated by Sterling Swallow |
39 |
Louise Strong | The Art of Creating Humanity Translated by Suozi [Lu Xun] Re-translated by Carlos Rojas |
70 |
Xu Zhuodai | The Secret Room Translated by Christopher G. Rea |
78 |
PART TWO: THE EARLY TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY | ||
Liu Cixin | The Poetry Cloud Translated by Chi-yin Ip and Cheuk Wong |
87 |
Liu Cixin | The Village Schoolteacher Translated by Christopher Elford and Jiang Chenxin |
114 |
Han Song | The Passengers and the Creator Translated by Nathaniel Isaacson |
144 |
Wang Jinkang | The Reincarnated Giant Translated by Carlos Rojas |
173 |
La La | The Radio Waves That Never Die Translated by Petula Parris-Huang |
210 |
Zhao Haihong | 1923—a Fantasy Translated by Nicky Harman and Pang Zhaoxia |
239 |
Chi Hui | The Rainforest Translated by Jie Li |
255 |
Fei Dao | The Demon’s Head Translated by David Hull |
263 |
Xia Jia | The Demon-Enslaving Flask Translated by Linda Rui Feng |
272 |
Notes on Authors | 283 | |
Notes on Contributors | 286 |