New Voices In Chinese Science Fiction, Neil Clarke, Xia Jie, Regina Kanyu Wang, eds. (2022)
This was a delightful discovery. It’s among the many things purchased in fits of enthusiasm which them languish for a bit in the bottomless morass that’s my Kindle—nine months in its case. And this is one the rare ones that I really wish I’d gotten to earlier. All of these stories are good, and they span a dizzying range of styles and approaches.
· My Family And Other Evolving Animals, Shuang Chimu, translated by Carmen Yiling Yang (2019). The story opens with “Mom” accidentally releasing fruit flies into a space station, setting off a chain of rapid evolution and change. The story delves beyond entomology into the dynamics within a family participating in a new diaspora. Change is always and everywhere. This dragged a little, but was thoughtful and layered. · The Bridge, Liu Xiao, translated by Andy Dudak (2019). Old Ji is quickly being left behind by change; living in the shadow of a bridge connecting Summit Town to Magna Luna, he makes a living climbing the bridge and returning with crystalline ore for resale. This is a tale of tradition clashing with change, and how some things persist even if they take on new forms. I appreciated this more for the theme than the specific story.
· Tombstone, Yang Wanqing, translated by Andy Dudak (2021). New Anchorage is kept safe and prosperous by harvesting the energy from departing souls in the giant, tombstone-like Osiris Tower. Xiaofan is a conductor of those departing, but gradually, like cracks at the base of a tombstone, doubt is beginning to creep into his mind about what, exactly, he’s working with. In the shattering of old certainties, he finds a new purpose. This was dystopian, but crackled with vibrant energy.
· PTSD, Hui Hu, translated by Rebecca Kuang (2018). A manipulative content producer pushes a young stranger into tragedy, not realizing that what he’s done is going to come back to him unexpectedly and violently. Well-crafted and compelling, this never let the human aspect be eclipsed by the action.
· By Those Hands, Congyun “Mu Ming” Gu, translated by Judith Huang (2019). An interesting complement to The Bridge; this deals with a master bamboo weaver facing competition from automation. He intersects with a neuroscientist anxious to preserve the thought patterns that guide his hands. One of the best among a very strong group.
· The Kite of Jinan, Liang Qinsan, translated by Emily Jin (2018). In the introduction to the volume, Xia Jie calls the story “a factually fictional history of technology.” Written in a non-fiction style, this centers on a fictional amateur historian’s deconstruction of a 1910 explosion at a small gunpowder factory in Shandong province. Done in a style completely unlike the other stories—for once calling this “unique” is not a stretch—it nonetheless tells a fascinating story about a restless inventor at a pivotal, turbulent period in Chinese history.
· Pixiu, Shi Heiyao, translated by Andy Dudak (2017). An unemployed biology graduate gets picked up by a mining company to develop microbes that can help harvest rare earth minerals from tailings. The story explores interpersonal relationships through—am I really going to write “analogies with genetically engineered bacteria”? It’s more plausible than I’m making it sound. Heavy on the philosophy, and takes a little while to build, but rewarding if you’re patient.
· The Postman, Liao Shubo, translated by Rebecca Kuang. This was a shortish story about an interstellar postman who gets an unusual, life-changing message from the past. The story deals in universal themes of loneliness and love, as well as the irony that sometimes we never quite see the whole truth about the things which move us. Just lovely work.
I was struck by the historical consciousness of some of the stories. The Kite of Jinan is the obvious example, but a couple of others, e.g. The Bridge and By These Hands, expressed it indirectly in the form of discussing how “the old ways” are being displaced.
A lot of what I read, especially American military SF, has a very light historical valence and comes across as wanting to update With The Old Breed or similar works. But there doesn’t seem to be as much historical awareness in a lot of what’s reviewed here. Change, of course, has been a continuous feature of the last decades of Chinese history, so it would make some sense if that was close to the surface in its popular literature as well.
It is also fascinating to wonder how political some of these stories are when looked at from a Chinese perspective. PTSD, My Hands and Tombstone make interesting reading if looked at through a—admittedly American—political lens. I found myself speculating about whether these stories are used to express mass opinion or offer commentary in a veiled way, using allusion and analogy to make points.
“He was constantly complaining, and his mind was full of both idealism and bottomless fury. Most importantly, he had a hazy sense of ethics, and he was willing to act on behalf of ill-defined, illusory justifications.”
Tombstone, particularly, struck me as having some fairly pointed and not wildly subtle social commentary worked into the story. If it had been written by an American it would be an unremarkable anti-capitalist/environmentalist critique. (“Late-stage capitalism is literally eating people’s souls!” and so forth. All reasonable and nuanced, of course.)
I assume Chinese writers who want to thrive keep criticism within careful limits. So it was a mild surprise to see references to “Dissident Element L” and the slavery-within-the-machine metaphor/appeal to truth as the kindling of change at the end of the Lightyear Award-winning story. The Bridge and By These Hands are more subtle in their critiques of change, at least by comparison.
I don’t know enough, unfortunately, to read between the lines here—or even be sure there are lines to read between. But it’s an interesting thought experiment to wonder how transgressive—if at all—some of these stories might be in their original context.
Speaking of which, it’s noteworthy that many of the stories are themselves prize winning in their original Chinese. This made the editors’ and translators’ excellent collective results all the more of an accomplishment. This was a fantastic opportunity to look at a selection of top-flight writing from modern Chinese voices.
Smirk factor: All clear: 2pts (This reflects well on both the authors and translators.)
Immersion factor: Chest-high: 1.5 pts (A couple of these had very long build-ups.)
Writing quality: High: 2pts
Character/plot development: Average: 1 pt
Innovative/interesting: High: 2pts
Total: 8.5/10 (rounded to 5 stars)