The lecture seeks to interpret the dialectic between revolution and fiction in modern and contemporary China. It starts with a rereading of Liang Qichao’s famous manifesto of “Fiction Revolution” and his science fiction The Future of New China (1902) which projects China in 2062. In many ways, the novel anticipated the literary and cultural politics of China in subsequent decades. The lecture calls attention to the resurgence of Chinese science fiction in the new millennium, ranging from utopia to dystopia, from extraterrestrial fantasy to futurist escapade, and argues that the dialectic of revolution Liang invoked in fictional terms remains as relevant to “the future of new China” now as it was then.
Hosted by: Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures

In conjunction with: Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies, Center for Translation Studies, Department of English, Department of History, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities, Program in Comparative and World Literature, School of Languages, Cultures and Literatures, Spurlock Museum, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory.