Chinese Science Fiction: Concepts, Forms, and Histories

by Mingwei Song (Editor), Nathaniel Isaacson (editor), Hua Li (editor)

This volume brings together emerging approaches and addresses shifting paradigms in Chinese science fiction studies, offering a window on fan cultures, internet fiction, gender, eco-criticism, post-humanism and biomedical discourse. These studies present a “second wave” of Chinese sf studies, re-evaluating the canon of Chinese sf print and cinematic production, and expand the range of critical approaches to the subject. The structure of the volume is both chronological and theme-focused. These studies also demonstrate that Chinese science fiction represents a significant contribution to modern Chinese cultural production, both in terms of its value, speaking powerfully to our modern condition, and its sheer volume in terms of production and consumption. Chinese science fiction speaks to both China’s rapidly shifting reality, its political multiplicity and its formless future, voicing the anticipations and anxieties of a new epoch filled with accelerating alterations and increasing uncertainty.  

315 pages, Hardcover

Published April 28, 2024

About the author

Mingwei Song is a Chinese literary critic and Associate Professor of Chinese at Wellesley College. He is the director of the Chinese program. He has written books and articles in both English and Chinese. He received a “Shanghai Literature Award” for literary criticism in 2003.