Fear of Seeing: A Poetics of Chinese Science Fiction

by Mingwei Song

A new wave of cutting-edge, risk-taking science fiction has energized twenty-first-century Chinese literature. These works capture the anticipation and anxieties of China’s new era, speaking to a future filled with uncertainties. Deeply entangled with the politics and culture of a changing China, contemporary science fiction has also attracted a growing global readership.

Fear of Seeing traces the new wave’s origin and development over the past three decades, exploring the core concerns and literary strategies that make it so distinctive and vital. Mingwei Song argues that recent Chinese science fiction is united by a capacity to illuminate what had been invisible―what society had chosen not to see; what conventional literature had failed to represent. Its poetics of the invisible opens up new literary possibilities and inspires new ways of telling stories about China and the world. Reading the works of major writers such as Liu Cixin and Han Song as well as lesser-known figures, Song explores how science fiction has spurred larger changes in contemporary literature and culture. He analyzes key variations of utopia and dystopia, cyborgs and the posthuman, and nonbinary perspectives on gender and genre, among many more. A compelling and authoritative account of the politics and poetics of contemporary Chinese science fiction, Fear of Seeing is an important book for all readers interested in the genre’s significance for twenty-first-century literature.

Genres: China

384 pages, Paperback

Published October 3, 2023

About the author

Mingwei Song is a Chinese literary critic and Associate Professor of Chinese at Wellesley College. He is the director of the Chinese program. He has written books and articles in both English and Chinese. He received a “Shanghai Literature Award” for literary criticism in 2003.

Reviews

[Brady]

While almost too theoretical for me at times, Song presents a fascinating way to view the advent of Chinese SF. As is the case with many academic works, there were some arguments and chapters I liked more than others. Chapter 3, which questions if Lu Xun can be read as sci-fi, was particularly interesting. Song made me question what SF is and where it could go in the future. Worth the read.

[Michael Drew]

Fear of Seeing offers a compelling critical framework for understanding the rise of contemporary Chinese science fiction.
Mingwei Song’s idea of a “poetics of the invisible” gives the book a distinctive way to examine what literature makes visible and what society leaves unseen.
Its movement between Liu Cixin, Han Song, utopia, dystopia, posthumanism, gender, and literary history makes the study unusually interdisciplinary.
The book has also received significant scholarly recognition, including the SFRA Book Award.
It is especially valuable for readers interested in Chinese literature, science fiction studies, world literature, and contemporary cultural change.