Wai-ping Yau- Chinese SF in the Anthropocene

International Symposium on Cloud, Heat, Sea, Wind in the Light of Ecological Civilization
Panel 2

Paper: Chinese SF in the Anthropocene

Speaker:
Dr. Wai-ping Yau
Associate Professor, Department of Translation, Interpreting and Intercultural Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University
邱偉平博士
香港浸會大學翻譯、傳譯及跨文化研究系副教授

Abstract:
This paper discusses the work of three Chinese science fiction writers from the perspective of a deepening ecological crisis that urges us to understand the close connections between society and ecology, to rethink anthropogenic practices, and to imagine an alternative future. Special attention will be paid to whether and how this ecological crisis is understood as multifaceted along the lines of social interaction, political economy, capitalist mechanisms and the interstate system. In Liu Cixin’s (劉慈欣) trilogy Remembrance of the Earth’s Past (地球往事三部曲), also known as the Three-Body series (三體系列) (2008–2011), one of the origins of the never-ending inter-galactic wars can be traced back to a Chinese scientist who, sharing the environmental concerns raised in Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring, decides to seek help from an extraterrestrial civilisation out of despair at the ecological and human depravation witnessed during the Cultural Revolution. But the universe turns out to be a ‘dark forest’ where preventive warfare rages, reminiscent of a Hobbesian conception of international relations that pits great powers against each other in their quest for lebensraum and natural resources. In Hao Jingfang’s (郝景芳) 2014 novelette Folding Beijing (北京摺叠), the city folds itself into three different spaces at regular intervals to provide (unequal) access to sun, air and other resources for the ruling elite, the professionals, and the workers who are predominantly engaged in the waste processing industry. As the working-class protagonist trespasses the tightly policed boundaries between the different spaces, we get a glimpse of the changing cityscape as a nexus between ecology and capital, between government and international politics. In Chen Qiufan’s (陳楸帆, also known as Stanley Chan) 2013 novel The Waste Tide (荒潮), the female protagonist is a young migrant worker toiling in one of the many e-waste processing plants in Silicon Island, a fictional version of the world’s largest e-waste dumping ground at Guiyu in the province of Guangdong. A neurological virus transmitted through e-waste turns her into a cyborg that leads a rebellion against the exploitative plant owners. Juxtaposing these works of Chinese SF against the Chinese government’s conception of ecological civilisation, this paper aims to explore forms of agency that address the multifaceted nature of our ecological crisis.

Видео Wai-ping Yau- Chinese SF in the Anthropocene канала Anthropocene & Contemporary Chinese Cultures