Colonial Modernities and Chinese Science Fiction by Isaacson, Nathaniel Kenneth, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 2011, 316 pages; 3493491
In Chapter 4, I present a close reading of Wu Jianren's (1866–1910) New Story of the Stone (1905), arguing that the novel aggregates nearly all of the key metaphors of late Qing science fiction. Building upon this mode of reading, Chapter 5 examines a number of original works of late Qing science fiction, including Huangjiang Diaosou's (b.?) Tales of the Moon Colony (1902), Xu Nianci's (1874–1908) New Tales of Mr. Braggadocio (1904), Bihe Guanzhuren's (1871–1919) The New Era (1908), and others, arguing that Chinese authors were vexed by the difficulties of turning the rhetorical knives of colonial discourse against their colonial wielders. Chapter 6 follows my analysis of late Qing science fiction is followed by an examination of the changing role of SF through the May fourth period, reading Lao She's (1899–1966) City of Cats (1932), in light of the 1920s reassessment of Chinese tradition and Western science.