Chinese science fiction studies is a burgeoning and changing field. This panel focuses on new voices in Chinese science fiction during the most recent decade. The theme of “newness” is reflected in three aspects. Over the past ten years, Chinese science fiction has witnessed the emergence of the “second new wave” with a group of talented young science fiction writers and their works. Accompanying this second new wave, the field of Chinese science fiction studies has also witnessed fresh approaches, including changes in thematic, narrative, formal, historical, and theoretical trends. The theme of “newness” is also manifested in the fact that this panel predominantly features the research of advanced doctoral students who are bringing new voices to the field. The four presentations approach the related issues from distinct perspectives: ethnic minority experiences, science fiction writers who double as translators, AI robotic domestic worker; and coevolution of species dwelling in outer space.

The panel starts with Michael O’Krent’s presentation “Native Soil on Another Planet? Pema Tseden’s Tibetan Calendar as Minority Polemic,” in which he explores the understudied science fiction by the late Tibetan writer-filmmaker Pema Tseden (1969-2023). O’Krent argues that the relative lack of sf narrative written by ethnic minority authors suggests that Chinese science fiction does not depict contemporary realities but rather anticipates a futurity that is reserved for the ethnic Han majority. He engages in a close reading of Pema Tseden’s 2008 story “A Single Sheet of Paper,” which foregrounds ethnic minority experiences in Chinese science fiction. By turning to science fiction, Pema Tseden draws upon the tendency of Chinese Native Soil (xiangtu) writers to exoticize the local. Whereas Native Soil literature’s idealization of China's hinterlands calls for greater inclusion of ethnic minority groups in the formation of Chinese national identity, Pema Tseden forwards a critique that advances in science, technology, urbanization, and economic development leave hardly any future for minority ethnic groups.

In her presentation “Rediscovering Chinese Science Fiction,” Yijun Liu examines newly translated Chinese science fiction narratives that had been written by such writers as Chu Xidao and others in the early 2000s and originally published in Chinese speculative fiction journals. Liu reassesses the heterogeneity of contemporary Chinese science fiction works from translational and transnational perspectives. By engaging in close readings of these translated works, Liu argues that these interstitial and nuanced writings and translations enrich the inclusivity and dynamism of perceived and (re-)forming images of Chinese science fiction in international communities. These translated narratives also underscore the crucial role of translators who themselves are also science and speculative fiction writers. Their authorial identity helps shape the process of textual transformation and community-building around Chinese science fiction in target cultures.

Yihan Wang’s presentation “Technologized Domestic Labor in Post-Socialist China” engages with Marxist feminist debates regarding labor and work with a focus on social reproduction, following scholars such as Arlie Hochschild, Kathi Weeks, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Melissa Gregg. Through a close reading of the Hugo Award winner Hao Jingfang’s 2017 story “The Question of Love,” Wang explores technologized affective labor and technological agencywith an eye to decipher changing conceptions of social reproduction and the technological promise of care against the tension between productivist imperatives and reproductive values. Wang indicates that “The Question of Love”challenges the monopoly of the productivist model of socio-technological anticipation with a thematic emphasis on affective labor for childcare—and points to a reproductive futurism that envisions alternative forms of lifestyles and interpersonal relations.

Hua Li’s presentation “Coevolution and Species Diversity in Shuang Chi Mu’s ‘My Family and Other Evolving Animals’” focuses on Shuang Chi Mu’s eco-utopian story about how both humans and other animals have survived and evolved together in outer space within a self-sustainable ecological space station called Shangri-la. Drawing upon various theoretical discussions of ecotopia and eco-socialism, co-evolution, and caring labor, Li explores the intertwined relations between nature, human beings, other animals, and technology, as well as the role that human beings can play in the process of evolution when humankind continues to expand its exploration of nature beyond Earth. Li argue that “My Family and Other Evolving Animals” confirms the important role that humankind can play through the impact of its labor and technological advances on Nature as it enables and sustains a balanced natural world flourishing with various highly evolved species of plants and animals in the foreseeable posthuman era.

Panelists will be limited to twelve minutes for each presentation time to allow for questions from the audience following the presentations.