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New Story of the Stone: An Early Chinese Science Fiction Novel
One of China's first works of science fiction, New Story of the Stone is a belated twentieth-century sequel to the beloved eighteenth-century masterpiece Story of the Stone (more famously known as Dream of the Red Chamber). The story follows protagonist Jia Baoyu, borrowed from the original Story, as he is dramatically hurled forward over a hundred years from his own time into a bewildering future: first the decadent semicolonized late Qing China of the author's own time and later an astonishing high-tech Confucian utopia called the Realm of Civilization.
Baoyu is equally disoriented in both places: in China proper, he is distressed by the growth of foreign influence and weakening of the traditional moral code in favor of capitalist consumerism and selfish gain; in the Realm of Civilization, he is amazed by everything he encounters—from flying cars and ingenious medical technologies to the perfectly moral populace. Seen through Baoyu's eyes, the Realm is everything that late Qing China has failed to be and offers a hopeful vision of what it might yet become.
This quick-paced romp deftly highlights some of the major preoccupations of the tumultuous final decade of China’s last dynasty while raising important existential questions about China’s future. Enlivened by author Wu Jianren’s vivid imagination and wry sense of humor, this playful, satirical adventure is essential reading for lovers of science fiction and Chinese literature in translation.
Baoyu is equally disoriented in both places: in China proper, he is distressed by the growth of foreign influence and weakening of the traditional moral code in favor of capitalist consumerism and selfish gain; in the Realm of Civilization, he is amazed by everything he encounters—from flying cars and ingenious medical technologies to the perfectly moral populace. Seen through Baoyu's eyes, the Realm is everything that late Qing China has failed to be and offers a hopeful vision of what it might yet become.
This quick-paced romp deftly highlights some of the major preoccupations of the tumultuous final decade of China’s last dynasty while raising important existential questions about China’s future. Enlivened by author Wu Jianren’s vivid imagination and wry sense of humor, this playful, satirical adventure is essential reading for lovers of science fiction and Chinese literature in translation.
600 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1905
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March 15, 2026DNF at 25%. Could not get into the story.
January 5, 2026
This is a continuation of the Story of the Stone and since I had not read that I was concerned that background be needed but coupled with Evans Weber's introduction and quite frankly Xue Pan's continued insistence that Baoyu was a completely different person I will say that for those with the same concerns I don't believe reading the first one is necessary. Although I will be going back and reading it as well as Liang Qichao's On the Relationship Between Fiction and the Governance of the People.
I am obviously not going to review this in my normal fashion either as I feel like it's almost impossible to do so. This book is steeped in what was happening in China during this timeframe that while I wouldn't go so far as to call it a historical record, I find it difficult to review it simply as a fictional novel. For starters there are only very few circumstances where I did not agree with Baoyu in much of his statements pertaining to colonization, women's rights, and other issues that I expected him to be completely backward on as a character. The book was originally published in 1905 so I think some expectation that the main characters thoughts would be outdated is understandable. What I found instead though was at least an idea of moving in the right direction on these topics and a character that very bluntly expressed why he believed that things like foot binding for example was outdated and horrific. He also mentions that he believes it is just as much up to the men to see the barbarity in this practice as it is for the women who are subjected to it. While, yes, his reasoning is that quite frankly how could a man be attracted to something that is so gross, as it deforms the body part making it unattractive to look at as well as completely unhygienic, I found it difficult to argue with that logic. Cause yes. Was it up to today's standards in the fact that it was an abusive practice women were subjected to? No probably not and much of his arguments are like this. Sound but not wholly okay nor put forth for the right reasons. Hopefully that makes sense.
What I did whole heartedly agree with though was his disgust with colonization which is the entire point of the book. When Baoyu comes back to civilization after meditating for it sounds like at least fifty years he enters into a world where foreigner's have taken over China in every conceivable way. From the technology to the clothing, to even the food people are eating everything seems to have come from either European, Japanese, or American sources. Nothing is made by the Chinese and no one seems to mind this. Especially not Xue Pan another character from the previous book who has completely bought the company line, so to speak, hook, line, and sinker. Everything foreign made is good and anything traditionally Chinese is bad. What is worse though and what point Baoyu made again and again is it's not just that everything is foreign made it is the idea that the Chinese are simply not intelligent enough to have done it on their own. There are so many times when Baoyu encounters a new piece of technology that when he asks why the Chinese don't just make their own he is met with people who are just flabbergasted that he would even ask such a silly question, the answer is obvious; They can't. Every time we came across one of these conversations it was infuriating. Having more than a hundred years difference in perspective I can only say that the only reason I feel I was possibly madder than Baoyu is that I know for how long white colonizers have pushed this idea regarding anyone not white. Baoyu woke into a world where it had been decided that his people were not just backwards, they were simply incapable of being anything but and they needed the guiding hand of someone smarter and wiser so they could at the very least pretend at some level of civilization. In this regard alone I find the first half of this book an excellent snapshot of the world living under colonization and those who in many cases went to extremes to get out from under the thumbs of Western powers.
The second half of the book has Baoyu entering into the Realm of Civilization. This is a sort of Chinese Utopia where those who are deemed to be "civilized", basically adherents to Confucianism have gathered and propelled Chinese society into the stratosphere on pretty much all levels. They have things akin to cell phones, flying cars, advanced weaponry, and virtually no poverty. I'm going to be honest I feel like this is the portion of the book that may lose a lot of people, that being said I think it's important to keep in mind that while so much of what the people of the Realm believe is hypocritical at best and downright racist at worst the point of the Realm is more to demonstrate where the Chinese could be without the interference of the colonizers.
What I think I found the most interesting of this had nothing to do with the topics at hand though, it was 100% Wu's writing style. This could have been written at any time in the last decade to be quite honest. I don't often research authors but after reading this I did do some research into him and to say that I wasn't the least bit surprised that he was considered a man ahead of his time is an understatement. For me this was probably the most fascinating part of the whole thing. Many of the sites that I read regarding his writing style state that they believe he was inspired by Western authors and while I suppose I can see this a little bit but I've read books written by Western authors during this same timeframe and quite frankly they simply aren't this well done. Not in terms of appealing to society as a whole versus a much smaller educated populace. I am certainly no expert on early 20th century Chinese literature or even early 20th century American literature but of what I've read of both I found this leaps and bounds more modern than most American works from the same timeframe. He uses humor quite often to get his point across and Baoyu's constant frustration with Xue Pan and Xue Pan's quite honestly idiotic antics are almost slapstick. Especially since even when Baoyu has given Xue Pan advice even if his advice was given for a ridiculous reason Baoyu ends up being right in the end. There's a situation with a watch that demonstrates this perfectly, so if you do read this keep an eye out for when Baoyu goes off about Xue Pan's watch, it does not resolve itself in anyway that you'd think it would.
Now, this all being said, we have to circle back to the fact that a paper entitled On the Relationship Between Fiction and the Governance of the People inspired Wu when writing this. While I have not read the paper yet, I do plan on it, I don't feel I'm going out on a limb here by saying this whole thing smacks incredibly hard as blatant propaganda. Especially when you get to the last lines of the book. That doesn't make most of this wrong in terms of colonization, but I think that's important to take into consideration. There is definitely an agenda here and to be fair I don't believe Wu was trying to hide that in the least, quite the opposite in fact, again especially when you get to the final lines of the book this becomes again blatant. Wu believes that the country has took a turn due to the lack of adherence to Confucious and his teachings, had China not gone astray here they wouldn't be in this position. The Realm of Civilization is a perfect utopia because they are strictly adhering to these teachings, the only route to true Civilization is through Confucious. This is the refrain for the entire second half of the book and to be honest it gets quite tedious by the end, but I think you get the point when I say Wu had an agenda he wasn't trying to hide.
Overall, this was genuinely just fun to read, which is a weird thing to say given the topic at hand but thanks to Wu interjecting a bit of humor and a bit of adventure into this a difficult conversation becomes not only easier to digest but easier to understand.
As always thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for the eArc!
I am obviously not going to review this in my normal fashion either as I feel like it's almost impossible to do so. This book is steeped in what was happening in China during this timeframe that while I wouldn't go so far as to call it a historical record, I find it difficult to review it simply as a fictional novel. For starters there are only very few circumstances where I did not agree with Baoyu in much of his statements pertaining to colonization, women's rights, and other issues that I expected him to be completely backward on as a character. The book was originally published in 1905 so I think some expectation that the main characters thoughts would be outdated is understandable. What I found instead though was at least an idea of moving in the right direction on these topics and a character that very bluntly expressed why he believed that things like foot binding for example was outdated and horrific. He also mentions that he believes it is just as much up to the men to see the barbarity in this practice as it is for the women who are subjected to it. While, yes, his reasoning is that quite frankly how could a man be attracted to something that is so gross, as it deforms the body part making it unattractive to look at as well as completely unhygienic, I found it difficult to argue with that logic. Cause yes. Was it up to today's standards in the fact that it was an abusive practice women were subjected to? No probably not and much of his arguments are like this. Sound but not wholly okay nor put forth for the right reasons. Hopefully that makes sense.
What I did whole heartedly agree with though was his disgust with colonization which is the entire point of the book. When Baoyu comes back to civilization after meditating for it sounds like at least fifty years he enters into a world where foreigner's have taken over China in every conceivable way. From the technology to the clothing, to even the food people are eating everything seems to have come from either European, Japanese, or American sources. Nothing is made by the Chinese and no one seems to mind this. Especially not Xue Pan another character from the previous book who has completely bought the company line, so to speak, hook, line, and sinker. Everything foreign made is good and anything traditionally Chinese is bad. What is worse though and what point Baoyu made again and again is it's not just that everything is foreign made it is the idea that the Chinese are simply not intelligent enough to have done it on their own. There are so many times when Baoyu encounters a new piece of technology that when he asks why the Chinese don't just make their own he is met with people who are just flabbergasted that he would even ask such a silly question, the answer is obvious; They can't. Every time we came across one of these conversations it was infuriating. Having more than a hundred years difference in perspective I can only say that the only reason I feel I was possibly madder than Baoyu is that I know for how long white colonizers have pushed this idea regarding anyone not white. Baoyu woke into a world where it had been decided that his people were not just backwards, they were simply incapable of being anything but and they needed the guiding hand of someone smarter and wiser so they could at the very least pretend at some level of civilization. In this regard alone I find the first half of this book an excellent snapshot of the world living under colonization and those who in many cases went to extremes to get out from under the thumbs of Western powers.
The second half of the book has Baoyu entering into the Realm of Civilization. This is a sort of Chinese Utopia where those who are deemed to be "civilized", basically adherents to Confucianism have gathered and propelled Chinese society into the stratosphere on pretty much all levels. They have things akin to cell phones, flying cars, advanced weaponry, and virtually no poverty. I'm going to be honest I feel like this is the portion of the book that may lose a lot of people, that being said I think it's important to keep in mind that while so much of what the people of the Realm believe is hypocritical at best and downright racist at worst the point of the Realm is more to demonstrate where the Chinese could be without the interference of the colonizers.
What I think I found the most interesting of this had nothing to do with the topics at hand though, it was 100% Wu's writing style. This could have been written at any time in the last decade to be quite honest. I don't often research authors but after reading this I did do some research into him and to say that I wasn't the least bit surprised that he was considered a man ahead of his time is an understatement. For me this was probably the most fascinating part of the whole thing. Many of the sites that I read regarding his writing style state that they believe he was inspired by Western authors and while I suppose I can see this a little bit but I've read books written by Western authors during this same timeframe and quite frankly they simply aren't this well done. Not in terms of appealing to society as a whole versus a much smaller educated populace. I am certainly no expert on early 20th century Chinese literature or even early 20th century American literature but of what I've read of both I found this leaps and bounds more modern than most American works from the same timeframe. He uses humor quite often to get his point across and Baoyu's constant frustration with Xue Pan and Xue Pan's quite honestly idiotic antics are almost slapstick. Especially since even when Baoyu has given Xue Pan advice even if his advice was given for a ridiculous reason Baoyu ends up being right in the end. There's a situation with a watch that demonstrates this perfectly, so if you do read this keep an eye out for when Baoyu goes off about Xue Pan's watch, it does not resolve itself in anyway that you'd think it would.
Now, this all being said, we have to circle back to the fact that a paper entitled On the Relationship Between Fiction and the Governance of the People inspired Wu when writing this. While I have not read the paper yet, I do plan on it, I don't feel I'm going out on a limb here by saying this whole thing smacks incredibly hard as blatant propaganda. Especially when you get to the last lines of the book. That doesn't make most of this wrong in terms of colonization, but I think that's important to take into consideration. There is definitely an agenda here and to be fair I don't believe Wu was trying to hide that in the least, quite the opposite in fact, again especially when you get to the final lines of the book this becomes again blatant. Wu believes that the country has took a turn due to the lack of adherence to Confucious and his teachings, had China not gone astray here they wouldn't be in this position. The Realm of Civilization is a perfect utopia because they are strictly adhering to these teachings, the only route to true Civilization is through Confucious. This is the refrain for the entire second half of the book and to be honest it gets quite tedious by the end, but I think you get the point when I say Wu had an agenda he wasn't trying to hide.
Overall, this was genuinely just fun to read, which is a weird thing to say given the topic at hand but thanks to Wu interjecting a bit of humor and a bit of adventure into this a difficult conversation becomes not only easier to digest but easier to understand.
As always thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for the eArc!
July 1, 2025
This book is presented as a sequel to the Chinese literary classic (alternatively) known as Dream of the Red Chamber or Story of the Stone. The central character is a scholarly traveler by the name of Baoyu. The first part of the book is set in China around the time of the Boxer Rebellion, an event that features in the story. Throughout this portion, the book reads like historical fiction. However, Baoyu's travels eventually bring him to a hidden realm, a technologically advanced utopia within China. It is here where Baoyu's adventures get fantastical and otherworldly, and the book ventures into the domain of Science Fiction.
The setting of the book reminds me a little of Marvel's Wakanda from Black Panther. Perhaps both instances of worldbuilding were motivated by the humiliated colonists' fantasy of being more advanced than those who pull the strings for once, or of showing their (respective) lands to be places of "crouching tigers and hidden dragons" (i.e. where great talents exist but remain unseen.) (Note: While China wasn't on-the-whole colonized by a Western country, its interaction with England and other Western nations left it forced to accept terms unfavorable and undesirable to China (not to mention the outright colonized enclaves such as Hong Kong and Macau.) While the publisher has emphasized the science fiction aspect of this work, it is an anticolonial work through and through. The book can come across as xenophobic and nationalistic in places, but this only reminds the reader of how such positions might be arrived at under the boot of foreign influence.
The book is readable though philosophical and is well worth reading for those interested in developing a deeper insight into Chinese perspectives.
The setting of the book reminds me a little of Marvel's Wakanda from Black Panther. Perhaps both instances of worldbuilding were motivated by the humiliated colonists' fantasy of being more advanced than those who pull the strings for once, or of showing their (respective) lands to be places of "crouching tigers and hidden dragons" (i.e. where great talents exist but remain unseen.) (Note: While China wasn't on-the-whole colonized by a Western country, its interaction with England and other Western nations left it forced to accept terms unfavorable and undesirable to China (not to mention the outright colonized enclaves such as Hong Kong and Macau.) While the publisher has emphasized the science fiction aspect of this work, it is an anticolonial work through and through. The book can come across as xenophobic and nationalistic in places, but this only reminds the reader of how such positions might be arrived at under the boot of foreign influence.
The book is readable though philosophical and is well worth reading for those interested in developing a deeper insight into Chinese perspectives.
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