Case studies

This is a multi-sited project that combines literary analysis, archival research, and ethnographic approaches to explore the complex social, political, and cultural ecology within which contemporary Chinese-language SF is embedded.

This mixed-method approach allows us to explore different case studies spanning from short stories to theme parks, from films to conventions. Ultimately, we are set to explore "Chinese SF" as it unfolds beyond the written page and this approach informs the structure of our research.

  • Case study 1 - The texts

    Our first case study is text-based and comprises two sites:

    • The first site focuses on the close reading of selected works from some of the most representative SF writers from mainland China today, such as Liu Cixin 刘慈欣, Wang Jinkang 王晋康, Hao Jingfang 郝景芳, Han Song 韩松, Chen Qiufan 陈楸帆, Wang Kanyu 王侃瑜, He Xi 何夕, Fei Dao 飞氘, and Xia Jia 夏笳;

    • The second site is focused on the  Chinese SF magazine Kehuan shijie 科幻世界. Adopting a distant-reading perspective that takes into account the magazine's decades-long publication history, we aim to track the development of the SF genre in the contemporary Chinese context, the circulation of foreign SF in translation, and of Chinese SF worldwide.

  • Case study 2 - Beyond the texts

    Our second case study moves beyond the texts by focusing on the discursive and material production of Chinese SF literature. We do not speak here of a concerted effort through which Chinese-language SF is fashioned into “Chinese SF,” but rather of how the latter should be understood as the composite byproduct of individual interests, market dynamics, and institutional pushes that overlap and feed off one another. We aim to explore the following five sites:

     

     

    (Photo source: sohu.com)