1,721,186 research outputs found
Science Fiction and the Avant-Garde Spirit: An Interview with Han Song
No full textA journalist for Xinhua News Agency by day and science fiction writer by night, Beijing-based Han Song mines his daily experience as a journalist for his science fiction works, which are often dark and experimental in combining social elements with new forms and styles. Interviewer Chiara Cigarini decided to ask him some questions regarding his poetics and his production
Cina infestata: l'immagine di Cina nella fantascienza di Han Song
No full textThis paper focuses on the work of Han Song, an important contemporary Chinese sf writer. His dark and difficult stories brim with violence and bloodshed and frequently leave readers puzzled as to his intentions, yet many critics have defended the value of his work. My analysis focuses on the reasons for the persistence of such dark images of China in his writing. Han Song's work exceeds Lu Xun's critique of national character and makes him an inheritor of the enlightenment spirit of the May 4th Movement (1915–1921). At the same time, the impact of Buddhism imbues his work with a nihilism that inevitably dilutes the power of his critique. Paradoxical feelings of detachment from and attachment to reality find voice in his sf writing, which ought to be viewed as the practice of dharma as well as a critique of reality. In other words, his “Gloomy China” should be seen not only as a national allegory in Fredric Jameson's sense of the term, but also as a universal exploration of the meaning of existence
L'esploratore dello strano confine
No full textThis preface outlines Han Song's work and the short stories included in the anthology
Hearing (Technological) Anomalies: An Analysis of Han Song’s ‘The Rebirth Bricks’
No full textContemporary Chinese science fiction author and journalist Han Song’s works often cross the lines dividing reality from imagination, science fiction from literary mainstream, technology from the supernatural. This article, focusing in particular on Han’s novella “The Rebirth Bricks” (Zaisheng zhuan), aims to investigate the role played by the senses in a shift from the science fictional novum to the fictional “uncanny.” Featuring technological bricks, haunted by sounds of the dead which are perceived through sight and hearing, this novella is analyzed from the standpoint of this perceptual complementarity which expresses Han Song’s “science fictional re‐enchantment,” a re‐use of supernatural themes of the past that allow him to express the (technological) anomalies of China’s current reality
Donne e politica. Interviste a L. Cigarini, A. Del Re, I.Dominijanni, E. Donini, M.Forcina, L. Muraro
No full textnell'intervista è affrontato il tema del possibile cambiamento del meccanismo della politica-potere e della rappresentanz
On Chinese Science Fiction
No full textThe present contribution contains a review of two books published in 2017, both revolving around Chinese science fiction. These books are Celestial Empire: The Emergence of Chinese Science Fiction by Nathaniel Isaacson (Wesleyan University Press) and Space to Create in Chinese Science Fiction by Robert G. Price (Ffoniwch y Meddyg)
Crossing The Boundaries: An Interview with Chinese SF Writer Xia Jia
Get PDFThe science fiction writer Xia Jia (autonym Wang Yao), is also a
researcher and actress, and currently an associate professor at Xi' an Jiaotong University. Her production, well-known as "porridge science fiction", softer than the "soft" one, is marked by a continuous boundary-crossing, which leads reality and fiction to chase each other and mingle together. This interview is conducted to shed lights on this prominent Chinese science fiction writer, and to better understand Chinese science fiction in a global setting. In the interview, the interviewer and interviewee address the problem of crossing the boundary
between the sentimental and technological, reason and magic, history and future, international approach and Chinese roots, mainstream and marginalization, writing and translation, science fiction and life
Catastrophic, Supernatura Tides: Oceanic Epistemologies In Sinophone Science Fiction From The Mainland
No full textThis paper explores the intricate relationship between oceanic narratives, identity formation and ecosystem devastation within the works of three science fiction authors from Mainland China: Wang Jinkang 王晋康 (b. 1948), Han Song 韩松 (b. 1965), and Chen Qiufan 陈楸帆 (b.1981). Each of these writers narrates the development of in-between, hybrid identities at the frontiers between water and land, attempting to dismantle the binary oppositions these natural elements represent. Their works simultaneously express environmental concerns through portrayals of an overflowing, seething and contaminated ocean permeated with the supernatural. Moreover, in addressing the severe consequences of the colonial violence and ecological catastrophe affecting our planet, each narrative offers potential paths to a harmonious recovery. To achieve such harmony, the three authors adopt oceanic perspectives that blur the boundaries between East and West, Indigenous and foreign, nature and culture, thus challenging monolithic worldviews. By applying an approach informed by Édouard Glissant’s theories, this study attempts to identify an oceanic perspective in Mainland Chinese sf authors that represent ideological, identitarian and geographical divisions as fluid borders between sea and land
Sogno nel ‘sogno cinese’. Nebula e la fantascienza cinese contemporanea
Get PDFBy examining the four short stories collected in Nebula (2017), the first dual-language Chinese science fiction anthology published in Italian, this article provides an overview of contemporary Chinese science fiction
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