The Reincarnated Giant : An Anthology of Twenty-First-Century Chinese Science Fiction Paperback / softback

Edited by Mingwei Song, Theodore Huters

Part of the Weatherhead Books on Asia series

Paperback / softback

Out of stock

Description

A new wave of Chinese science fiction is here. This golden age has not only resurrected the genre but also subverted its own conventions.

Going beyond political utopianism and technological optimism, contemporary Chinese writers conjure glittering visions and subversive experimentsâ€”ranging from space opera to cyberpunk, utopianism to the posthuman, and parodies of Chinaâ€™s rise to deconstructions of the myth of national development. This anthology showcases the best of contemporary science fiction from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Peopleâ€™s Republic of China.

In fifteen short stories and novel excerpts, The Reincarnated Giant opens a doorway into imaginary realms alongside our own world and the history of the future.

Authors such as Lo Yi-chin, Dung Kai-cheung, Han Song, Chen Qiufan, and the Hugo winner Liu Cixinâ€”some alive during the Cultural Revolution, others born in the 1980sâ€”blur the boundaries between realism and surrealism, between politics and technology.

They tell tales of intergalactic war; decoding the last message sent from an extinct human race; the use of dreams as tools to differentiate cyborgs and humans; poetsâ€™ strange afterlife inside a supercomputer; cannibalism aboard an airplane; and unchecked development that leads to uncontrollable catastrophe.

At a time when the Chinese government promotes the â€œChinese dream,â€ the dark side of the new wave shows a nightmarish unconscious.

The Reincarnated Giant is an essential read for anyone interested in the future of the genre.