Cina infestata: l'immagine di Cina nella fantascienza di Han Song

This paper focuses on the work of Han Song, an important contemporary Chinese sf writer. His dark and difficult stories brim with violence and bloodshed and frequently leave readers puzzled as to his intentions, yet many critics have defended the value of his work. My analysis focuses on the reasons for the persistence of such dark images of China in his writing. Han Song's work exceeds Lu Xun's critique of national character and makes him an inheritor of the enlightenment spirit of the May 4th Movement (1915–1921). At the same time, the impact of Buddhism imbues his work with a nihilism that inevitably dilutes the power of his critique. Paradoxical feelings of detachment from and attachment to reality find voice in his sf writing, which ought to be viewed as the practice of dharma as well as a critique of reality. In other words, his “Gloomy China” should be seen not only as a national allegory in Fredric Jameson's sense of the term, but also as a universal exploration of the meaning of existence.