Universe of Pluralism: Extraterrestrial Intelligence in Liu Cixin's Short Stories

ABSTRACT: This paper examines extraterrestrial intelligence in the short stories of Chinese science fiction writer Liu Cixin and their relation to the alien civilization in Liu's immensely successful Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy. I will discuss the topic from three aspects: extraterrestrial intelligence's role as both metaphorical and literal mirrors in Liu's short stories; various alien worldviews and existential states that derive their conflicting diversity from the scientific and humanistic divide in the literary tradition of Chinese science fiction; aliens that represent either the scientistic outlook or the pitfalls of scientific and technological progress. While the values and outlooks of alien civilizations in Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy are uniformly based on a reductive and unambiguous set of axioms, Liu's short stories argue for the multiplicity and relativism of existential values and purposes of life in the universe not only by portraying diversity, but by juxtaposing opposites, abolishing binaries, and questioning absolute positions. I argue that Liu's short stories concerning extraterrestrial intelligence convey a message about the plurality and relativism of worldviews and existential values through embracing the coexistence of the antithetical stances of humanism and science, disputing the absolute positions of anthropocentrism and scientism, and dissolving the binary of the human self and the nonhuman other.