Found in Translation – "New People" in Twentieth–Century Chinese Science Fiction

What will the world look like in the future? How do people think and act in that future world? What constitutes the allures or hidden dangers of being modern? These are questions science fiction is uniquely equipped to entertain as a genre, a genre that took on a seriousness and significance in twentieth century China rarely seen in other parts of the world. While marginalized in standard literary history, science fiction was the privileged literary form originally, and repeatedly, entrusted with the modernization of the Chinese mind for the sake of nation-building. Since its introduction into China via translation at the beginning of the twentieth century as a type of new fiction bearing the badge of universal modernity, science fiction in China had always been associated with aspirations for membership in the modern world first and foremost, and in world literature secondarily. Found in Translation investigates Chinese science fiction as a phenomenon of world literature, or a product of transculturation. Through exploring the multiple "textual pathways" as well as "conceptual and thematic networks" that exist between translations and creations during the two boom periods and beyond, the book highlights the ways in which science fiction intervened in critical debates on nationalism, realism, humanism, and environmentalism in twentieth century China.

“This book is a timely contribution to ongoing discussions about humanism and posthumanism in contemporary global technoscientific culture. It is also an important contribution to both Chinese sf studies and world literature studies”

-- Hua Li, Montana State University Science Fiction Studies
A delightful 130-page read . . . This book, with its creative intertextual research and insightful cultural analysis, will appeal to scholars and graduate students interested in Chinese science fiction, late Qing literature, or/and literature in the post-Mao era. Jiang’s comparative approach, in particular, is bound to inspire further discussions on the translingual features of modern Chinese literature. . . Many enlightened passages will surely help to enliven class discussions. -- Yingying Huang, Lafayette College Utopian Studies
An important and insightful work -- Christopher N. Payne East Asian Journal of Popular Culture

JING JIANG is Associate Professor of Chinese and Humanities at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, where she teaches courses on modern Chinese fiction, Postsocialist Chinese film, and Chinese drama.

This item is eligible for free returns within 30 days of delivery. See our returns policy for further details.