Er Shi Shi Ji Zhong Guo Ke Huan Xiao Shuo Shi / History of Chinese Science Fiction in the 20th Century by Wu Yan (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Er Shi Shi Ji Zhong Guo Ke Huan Xiao Shuo Shi / History of Chinese Science Fiction in the 20th Century by Wu Yan Shaoming Duan The Tortuous yet Extraordinary Development of Chinese SF in the Twentieth Century. Wu Yan, Er Shi Shi Ji Zhong Guo Ke Huan Xiao Shuo Shi [History of Chinese Science Fiction in the 20th Century]. Beijing UP, 2022. 235 pp. ¥68.00 pbk. To date, studies of Chinese sf have tended to maintain a local focus—that is, an author selects a short period of time and then summarizes and evaluates the science fiction of that period. Representative works include Jia Liyuan’s Modern and Unknown: A Study of Science Fiction in the Late Qing Dynasty (2021), Zhan Ling’s Research on the Transformation of Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction (2022), and Hua Li’s Chinese Science Fiction during the Post-Mao [End Page 502] Cultural Thaw (2021). Unlike these earlier studies, Wu Yan, China’s foremost sf scholar, summarizes and analyzes the development of sf in China over the past 100 years from a macro perspective, so that readers can accurately and comprehensively understand its tortuous yet extraordinary development. Wu divides the history of Chinese sf in the twentieth century into five periods: its development in the late Qing Dynasty, sf during the Republic of China, sf in the early People’s Republic of China, sf after the Cultural Revolution, and sf in “the new era.” In his preface, “The Rise and Fall of Chinese SF,” Wu sums up these several periods of the development of sf in China with the words “prosperity, evolution, marginalization, transformation, and maturity.” There was no such category as sf in the ancient Chinese literary tradition; it first appeared in the late Qing. At the end of the ninteenth century, intellectuals in the late Qing introduced this type of Western literature into China with the mission of enlightenment and national salvation. In 1872, the Chinese translation of Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” (1819) was published in Shanghai Shen daily, opening up the exploration of sf in the Chinese literary field. After the New Culture Movement (1915–1919), realism became the dominant literary genre for the next seventy years. Realistic literature was praised and promoted by the majority of the population because it reflected their suffering and exposed social corruption. During the period of the Republic of China (1911–1949), sf was a marginalized genre. During the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), Mao Zedong accused writers of being representatives of the bourgeoisie and their novels of being poisonous weeds poised against the Party and socialism. To the Chinese people, sf was a symbol of Western culture and for ten years the creation of science fiction was completely at a standstill. In the 1980s, Deng Xiaoping regarded sf as “spiritual pollution literature.” Once again sf was severely criticized. Wu’s first chapter is “The Development of SF in the Late Qing Dynasty (1900–1911).” In the late Qing, sf was a way for intellectuals to explore the world, truth, and fate (5). To these writers, the exploration and conquest of unknown islands or planets was the basis for China’s rejuvenation. Wu focuses mainly on Wu Jianren’s The New Story of the Stone (1905). From the perspective of ideology, artistry, and integrity, The New Story of the Stone represents for Wu the highest level of sf in the late Qing (34). Its excessive didactic emphasis, however, weakened the aesthetic value of The New Story of the Stone. Wu also points out the common problems of sf in the late Qing. Due to the lack of basic scientific knowledge, the depiction of scientific phenomena by sf novelists of the late Qing lacked the most basic scientific and logical supports, leading to scenarios that were absurd and ridiculous. Wu’s second chapter is “The Development of SF during the Republic of China (1912–1949).” Science fiction during the late Qing had a very clear political character, but when the Qing Dynasty perished in 1912, sf also declined. It was replaced by the new realist literature of the May 4th movement. Wu points out that the sf of the Republic of China was...