Chinese Science Fiction during the Post-Mao Cultural Thaw

Chinese Science Fiction during the Post-Mao Cultural Thaw focuses on the years after Mao Zedong's demise, from 1976 to 1983, during which China's politics and culture underwent unusual changes. Li's book is a laudable scholarly endeavor that provides readers with a new interpretation of science fiction (SF) during the post-Mao era. Li connects the production of Chinese SF to a wider context, including mainstream literary perspectives, domestic political demands and predicaments, changing international relations, and Western SF traditions. From my point of view, this book contributes to existing scholarship in four different ways.First, Li offers an explanation for the launching of the "Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign" in 1983, and for the withering of SF in the 1980s, that is different from that of many other scholars. According to Zhan Ling, Chinese officials liked art that closely connected to politics in the 1980s.1 Yet SF writers were very interested in thriller themes during this period, pursuing literary value while neglecting political significance. Science fiction deviated from reality, which went against Deng Xiaoping's idea of "seeking truth from facts," proposed in 1978. For these reasons, Zhan argues, SF was labeled as "bourgeois literature" in the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign and severely criticized.2 Wu Yan offers another explanation, focusing on how, in 1983, renowned scientist Qian Xuesen published an article in People's Daily that accuses then-current SF of being "specimens of pseudoscience" and misleading teenagers.3 Qian's viewpoint caught Deng's attention; he claimed in the same year that SF was a pollution of science.4 Moreover, a growing number of books and films promoted sexual liberation and Western democracy at this time. Faced with this "crisis," Deng called on all levels of judicial and propaganda departments to thwart the spread of these ideas and works in society. This campaign lasted for three years, with approximately twenty-four thousand people being executed for "mental impurity." It dealt a heavy blow to SF as well, causing the number of SF writers as well as the social impact of SF to decline significantly.5Compared to Zhan and Wu, Li places more emphasis on the fact that Deng wanted to achieve political and ideological unity through this campaign. In the 1980s, many voices were opposing Deng at the top of the Communist Party of China (CPC). Although Deng was not the highest leader of the CPC in name, he controlled the standing of the CPC. Many high-level officials accused Deng of destroying socialist democracy. Deng launched the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign under the pretext of fighting the spread of "Western-inspired liberal ideas among the Chinese Populace" (14), while aiming to purge high-level dissidents from the CPC. This campaign, like Mao's Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and 1970s, became increasingly violent and difficult to control as it went on. Many officials in the CPC took advantage of the campaign to attack people, policies, and behavior that they disliked (15). Li's account is very convincing because it aligns with the political changes that have occurred since then. Hu Yaobang was dismissed in January 1987 due to "indulging bourgeois liberalization and weakening the Party's leadership."6 As the general secretary of the Central Committee of the CPC, Hu admired the Western political system with its separation of powers and intended to establish such a system in China to achieve democratic modernization. However, his efforts were obstructed by Deng. The establishment of a modern democratic system would have signified the end of the CPC dictatorship.Further, Li points out that SF in the post-Mao era lacked a critical awareness of ethical problems. SF writers of this era tended to ignore the moral and ethical implications of the use of modern technology, or they took up modern technology without the reflectiveness and attention to detail that makes modern technology something more than a normative ideal. For example, in Xiao Jianheng's "Buke's Adventure," the narrator's daughter loses a leg due to a traffic accident and receives a transplant. Six months later, she can walk again. Xiao's novel insists that highly developed medical technology can repair damaged body parts and improve people's quality of life. It does not show, for instance, how the hospital obtained these organs or whether it had received the donor's consent. Xiao repeatedly stresses that "scientific experimentation is a necessary component in the People's Republic of China's match to become a major world power" (103), giving expression to an uncritical attitude of scientism. After seizing power in 1949, the CPC divided the Chinese people into two categories: the revolutionary (such as peasants and workers) and the counterrevolutionary (such as landlords and spies). The CPC held that it was beneficial to the country and its people that hospitals and laboratories removed organs of the counterrevolutionaries and used them for scientific research and medical operations. Xiao's novels disregard moral and ethical problems around organ transplantation in their portrayal of these medical procedures as symbols of technological progress.Third, Li reveals that SF of the post-Mao era features characteristics that are typically associated with more recent and present-day fiction. For example, Ye's Jin Ming series, emphasizes fantasy and horror, echoing themes of 1990s suspense novels. Li's analyses consist of diachronic and comparative approaches that, together, enable her to trace and compare SF themes over time and across the East and the West. She demonstrates that the post-Mao era should not be dispensed with; on the contrary, it constitutes a crucial transitional period for Chinese SF.Finally, Li finds that SF writers began to move from the lower to the higher classes in the post-Mao era. In the Mao era, intellectuals were suspected of being "capitalist roaders" that attempted to subvert the proletarian regime by influencing public opinion. They therefore had to cater to the CPC's policies in order to protect themselves. In the post-Mao era, SF writers were no longer forced to serve as political mouthpieces; many of them rather turned their attention to social and cultural themes. Authors were often not paid in the Mao era, whereas in the Deng era, SF writers could be highly compensated for their writing. The average salary of Chinese intellectuals in the post-Mao era was 77.5 yuan per month; Ye Yonglie reached a monthly income of 320 yuan, for which he was envied by colleagues and friends (30). The founding of the Chinese Association for the Popularization of Science in 1979 manifested and made official SF's new status. Science fiction writers thus made not only more money but also gained symbolic and political capital. And since China is an official-rank-oriented country, the new political resources led to more creative freedom for SF writers.In the first chapter, "The Field of Chinese Science Fiction (1976–1983)," Li takes the demise of Mao on September 9, 1976, as the book's starting point. From 1976 to 1978, the high-level members of the CPC were engaged in fierce power struggles. It was not until Deng became the highest leader and proposed the "Reform and Opening-Up" at a conference in December 1978 that the political situation stabilized. His concept of governing the country was opposite to Mao's; the post-Mao era was a revolutionary era, not a continuation of the Mao era. Importantly, it also saw a revival of SF. In October 1979, Deng emphasized that literary and artistic workers should have the freedom to create and to not be interfered with arbitrarily. The favorable atmosphere did not last long. In 1983, the CPC launched the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign; SF was labeled as "spiritual pollution literature" and severely criticized.The second chapter is a study of Zheng Wenguang's Mars series. Centering around the exploration of Mars, Zheng portrays the vastness of outer space and the inconceivable power of modern technology. In the novel Martian Builders (1983), "builders" come to Mars, transform its surface and atmosphere, and even drill wells. Zheng also explains in great detail the composition of the atmosphere, involving such elements as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen, argon, sulfur, and silicon. The detailed description of the Mars atmosphere serves as an example of how SF sought to contribute to the popularization of science in the years after Mao's demise. At that time, the CPC also called on all walks of life—including scientists as well as the creative arts—to "break a new path." Zheng's SF depicts astronauts landing on Mars and transforming its environment, which can be interpreted as an expression of the CPC policies in the field of literature.In the third chapter, "A Scientific Holmes in Post-Mao China: Ye Yonglie and His Science Fiction Thrillers," Li examines how Ye Yonglie integrated detective thrillers into a standard variety of Chinese SF narrative. From the late Qing to Mao era, a major goal of Chinese SF was to spread scientific knowledge and enlighten audiences. Science fiction narrative thus focused on what can be described as "preaching." Ye's synthesis of detective and SF genres made a significant contribution to the revival of entertainment fiction in the post-Mao era. In addition, Black Shadow (1981) shows Ye's efforts to incorporate themes related to Chinese society and history into his work (67). The publication of the novel was met with strong public disapproval. For example, the Shanghai Daily published a comment condemning Black Shadow for "exposing the horrors of the Cultural Revolution to the point of distortion; and in so doing, it smears China's socialist society, thereby negating the values of socialism" (72).The fourth chapter examines the motif of alien invasions in Tong Enzheng's SF, in particular in the novel Faraway Love (1979). Tong's SF does not aim to impart scientific knowledge but focuses on the weaving of narrative, highlighting literary and aesthetic values. His space alien narratives connect China's historical past with both present-day Chinese society and alien civilizations (95). However, for some SF writers and critics, such writing diminishes the value of SF for the popularization of science. Thus, from 1979 to 1983, a heated debate about the merits of "scientific" versus "literary" writing took place in the SF field.The fifth chapter probes the posthuman conditions in Xiao Jianheng's SF narratives about organ transplantation and robotics. "Buke's Adventure" (1979 1962), a story about organ transplantation, considers the potential of bio-scientific advances to vastly improve the quality of life for humans and other animals with severely damaged organs or body parts (101). The story "Qiao the Younger Fell Ill" (1982), which features a posthumanist narrative centering on technology, critiques bureaucratic red tape in economic enterprises and calls for systematic economic reforms. Such SF can be seen as a response to the CPC's demand for technology to promote economic development and overall prosperity.The sixth chapter, "Tech-Science Fiction and the Four Modernizations," focuses on the emergence of genetic engineering as an important SF theme in the post-Mao era. For example, Hu Yong-huai's "The Sweet Season" (1979) portrays an increased productivity in the growing of grains, fruit, and vegetables resulting from advances in plant breeding and genetic engineering. In March 1978, the central committee of the CPC proposed the concept of "science and technology as the primary productive force" and carried out a rural land reform, implementing a policy of grain production contracted to households. The simultaneous emergence of agricultural narratives in SF can be seen as writers catering to the political environment of the time. Their narratives do not interrogate the harmful implications of twisting nature aggressively to suit human ends in their preoccupation with the wonders of technological wizardry (124).The seventh chapter, "Fledgling Media Convergence: PRC Science Fiction from Print to Electronic Media," examines how the emergence of media such as comics, lianhuanhua (linked-picture books), cartoons, illustrations, movies, and TV in the post-Mao era expanded Chinese SF audiences to a wider extent than ever before. Lianhuanhua soon became a prominent visual vehicle for SF (140), and its popularity as a medium contributed to SF's rapid development. In the post-Mao era, SF was also frequently adapted into radio dramas, movies, and TV dramas, although the dissemination of these adaptations remained limited.In the eighth chapter, "Blooming, Contending, and Boundary-Breaking Even in a Genre of Government-Backed Literature," Li distinguishes between two modes of writing: "social realism" and "socialist realism." "Social realist" writers of the first half of the twentieth century expose the injustice and corruption of the social system through the "reality" presented in their novels; "socialist realist" writers conceal social problems and numb the people's spirit through their novels' "reality." Chinese SF, in Li's view, integrates these two modes. A transition from social realism to socialist realism took place over the course of the twentieth century due to changes in China's political climate and the leadership's political necessities. Before he founded the People's Republic of China in 1949, Mao supported social realism, calling on writers to expose the corrupt rule of the Kuomintang. After 1949, during his leadership, he supported socialist realism, calling on writers to praise the greatness of the CPC. Li further argues that the publication of thaw-era SF was subject to the approval of the bureaucratic apparatus under Deng Xiaoping (177). In her conclusion, Li suggests that Chinese SF is a genre of literature that tends to be backed by the government.So far no other scholar has provided such a powerful and thoughtful reflection on this age of Chinese SF as Li does in this excellent study. The eight chapters offer careful and thorough analyses of Chinese SF during the post-Mao era, without becoming bogged down in long descriptions and while maintaining a successful balance between praise and criticism. Li traces important developments in the production and consumption of Chinese SF in the interregnal period between Mao's death in 1976 and the Anti-Spiritual Pollution Campaign in 1983. Her academic investigation is comprehensive and in depth, and a must-read for SF scholars as well as lay readers interested in the history of Chinese SF.