Science-Fiction in China: political evidence?

Abstract

The emergence in modern China (late nineteenth century and early twentieth century) then the
renewal in contemporary China (late twentieth century and early twenty-first century) of Chineselanguage science fiction literature in mainland China might seem more than a remarkable literary
fact: a singular political evidence. Our aim will be to demonstrate that there exists a structural
analogy between, on the one hand, the oracular practice of politics in China and, on the other, the
literary exercise of anticipating the future in Chinese SF novels. The discourse of power presupposes
a form of ritual performativity where the future, as an indeterminate power of change, becomes
the object to be sacrificed. Hence the political evidence of the science-fiction novel that can display the dream of a Chinese renaissance within a narrative where the future is already guessed
and determined; hence also the need for the regime to control it; hence the difficulty for writers
to escape this horizon of nationalist expectation and their merit when they succeed in doing so.