Evolution or Samsara? Spatio-Temporal Myth in Han Song's Science Fiction

Abstract

Since the late Qing, the question of whether history is evolutionary or cyclical has been inextricably intertwined with the narrative of China’s establishment of a nation-state, and the attendant host of questions regarding political ethics and cultural value. In post-1990s Chinese science fiction, particularly the discourse of “evolution/competition/selection,” has constituted a dominant narrative mode. In comparison to this, the most singular aspect of Han Song’s work is the lack of such a distinct vision of time and the absence of a historical teleology constructed from an evolutionary perspective. This essay takes cyclical time in Han Song’s work as a point of departure in analyzing “Free and Easy Youth” (“Qingchun de diedang”), “Control Cycle” (“Shoukong huan”), “The Fundamental Nature of the Universe” (“Yuzhou de benxing”), “Earth Is Flat” (“Diqiu shi ping de”), “Great Wall” (“Changcheng”), and other representative works. By revealing the absurdity and incertitude underlying the modern myths of “civilizational progress” and “scientific ideals,” these works present the author’s own paradoxical musings about modernity.