(East-West Question) How do Eastern and Western civilizations and technological development affect the values of science fiction works?
China News Agency, Beijing, May 25th: How do Eastern and Western civilizations and technological development affect the values of science fiction works?
Author Jiang Xiaoyuan Chair Professor of Shanghai Jiaotong University, Founding Dean of the Institute of History of Science and Science Culture
With the growing prosperity of Chinese local science fiction creations in recent years, local works are increasingly showing the values of Chinese culture itself.
From a historical point of view, the development of civilization and technology has indeed had a profoundly different impact on the creation of science fiction in the East and the West.
Early Origins of Science Fiction
Science fiction works in the modern sense are usually considered to have their original origin in the West.
The origins can be traced back and forth, such as Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" in 1818, a little farther, such as Kepler's "Dream of the Moon" in the early 17th century, and even farther back to ancient times Greco-Roman works, which are considered to have the germs of science fiction, such as Plutarch's "On the Surface of the Moon" (about 80 AD), Lucian's "A True Story" (about 170 AD), which have already begun to discuss Creatures on the Moon.
When researchers carry out this kind of retrospective, they invariably expand or generalize science fiction works as "fantasy works". This expanded definition is not without positive inspiration for further understanding of the problem.
Under the expanded definition, some works of ancient China can be considered, such as "Journey to the West", "Fengshen Romance", "Jinghuayuan", and even some earlier chapters such as "Liezi", which undoubtedly belong to Fantasy works.
From the content point of view, works such as Lucian's "A True Story" are quite similar to "The Mirror of Flowers", and they all have various imaginations of exotic adventure travel.
For the fantasy works of various peoples in the ancient world, it may be easier to find a common ideological background, such as the reverie generated by facing a bright moon, Plutarch's imagination, and the ancient Chinese's imagination of the Chang'e Osmanthus Guanghan Palace , it is not difficult to find similarities.
However, with a series of changes with global impact, such as the Renaissance, the Great Geographical Discovery, and the Industrial Revolution, the landscape of Chinese and Western fantasy works has diverged significantly.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Hengwei
Sci-fi as a science trumpeter
When modern science entered the stage of history, the image of its ancient source, Greek science, was long gone.
Modern science appears in people's imaginations in an image similar to "magic", such as the scientific images presented in "Dream of the Moon" and "Frankenstein".
Later, with the emergence of the Industrial Revolution, the "magic" image of science gradually sublimated, and its victories one after another led to a new religious belief in it, and many people believed that science could solve all problems.
This is an era in which science is advancing rapidly, and accordingly, scientific trumpeters like Jules Verne have emerged. His numerous works have long been popular in the Western world and even later socialist countries, and have become popular reading materials for youth science education. .
At about the same time, modern science fiction works began to be translated and introduced into China in the late Qing Dynasty, triggering a wave of imitation creations by Chinese authors.
These Chinese works also focus on the praise, vision, and appeal of science, but they often imagine the country that will be prosperous and prosperous in science in the future as China.
However, this creative craze did not last long, and China has fallen into the abyss under the aggression of foreign powers.
After the Revolution of 1911, China has not yet escaped the misery of being poor and weak.
Immediately followed by the war of resistance against Japan and national salvation and liberation.
During this period, Chinese science fiction has almost entered a complete silence.
The International Trend of Contemporary Science Fiction
Roughly circa 1900, followed by Verne in the era of HG Wells, the mainstream of Western science fiction began to move on a different track.
For more than a century, sci-fi creators throughout the Western world, including fiction writers, cartoonists, and film writers and directors, have almost invariably carried out their sci-fi creations under a common program.
This program is sometimes referred to as the "anti-scientist program".
This program is so powerful that those who agree with it will consciously create under this program, but even those who disapprove or have not thought about it in depth will unconsciously be coerced into creating under this program.
One of the most powerful proofs of this program is the fact that for more than 120 years, the future world in almost all mainstream Western science fiction works has been dark and absurd.
Under this program, Western science fiction works take reflection on science and technology as their own responsibility, and generally show the consequences of over-development of science and technology in their works, warn the madmen of the abuse of science and technology to harm society, and warn that capital’s crazy pursuit of profits with the help of science and technology will ultimately lead to extreme Endanger the global environment and the safety of the public.
The dome exhibition "Origin" is a metaphor that people standing at any point in any space-time dimension should keep questioning and thinking about human subjectivity.
Photo by Du Jianpo issued by China News Agency
From the perspective of contemporary science fiction as a whole, the above-mentioned program has proved to be a dynamic program after more than a century of creative practice.
Correspondingly, the scientism program that firmly believes that science and technology will eventually solve all the problems of human society, although it once gave birth to Verne's creation, has now become an outdated program.
There is another aspect that may only be regarded as a "tributary", which seems to be mentioned here, namely the "Golden Age of Science Fiction" that emerged in the United States in the early and mid-20th century, when there were some very popular popular magazines in the United States, with " "Surprise" as the call, published a large number of novels of interstellar adventure, supernatural horror and other genres, which can also be classified into the category of science fiction.
Some of the masters in the history of science fiction also refuse to write in these magazines.
However, because "pop fiction" has never been favored by literary halls, these works usually fail to enter the ranks of "mainstream".
Reflection on science is the most precious value of science fiction
After a long period of hiatus, Verne-type sci-fi creation revived in New China, a tradition that continued until the 1980s.
However, after the reform and opening up, Chinese science fiction quickly integrated with international standards. Today, Chinese science fiction writers as a whole have joined the international trend without hesitation.
After entering the 21st century, Liu Cixin has become the undisputed benchmark of Chinese science fiction.
If the background is the trend of international sci-fi reflection on science, then Liu Cixin is an anti-trend ideologically from the scientism concept that Liu Cixin himself does not shy away from; Same way.
The reason why this rather peculiar phenomenon occurs is that Liu Cixin "tortured confessions" to human nature in his stories, revealing the darkness of human nature.
The interrogation of human nature in the stories of science fiction works is precisely the most important form of expression of the most important values of science fiction—ideological and reflection on science.
"Three-body·Space-time Immersion Exhibition".
Photo by China News Agency reporter Chen Chao
In fact, various types of novels or movies can interrogate human nature. The particularity of science fiction works in this regard is that only science fiction works can reflect the impact of science and technology on human nature and the test of science and technology on the formation of human nature.
Of course, other types of works can reflect the tests of human nature from other places, such as money, love, ambition... The tests of human nature, but these are not the tests of science and technology, and once the test of science and technology on human nature appears in the story of the work, Then, of course, this work is a science fiction work.
This is why it is possible, and indeed must, to reflect on science in sci-fi.
There is also a fairly popular view in China that science fiction is regarded as part of popular science.
Reflecting on science in popular science is of course indispensable in theory, but in China's actual national conditions, it is a very rare thing.
If the primary realm of sci-fi is the longing for science and the popularization of scientific knowledge, then the highest realm of sci-fi is philosophy, which is to think deeply about the infinite development and application of science and technology.
Science fiction works can constitute virtual contexts, which can lead to unusual new thinking.
Because there are many issues that cannot be thought about or cannot be thought about in daily life situations, fantasy works can provide a virtual thinking space with an imaginary story frame.
Novels can often do better than movies in this regard. For example, Liu Cixin's "torture to extract confessions" of human nature is such an example.
This is only one aspect of the problem.
On the other hand, science fiction has a more unique contribution, and one that other kinds of work usually don't offer.
This is the deep concern about the misuse of technology, which can at least be understood as a humane concern for science and technology.
In this sense, science fiction works are undoubtedly a very important part of the communication of contemporary science and culture.
It now seems that, at least in the field of literature and art, in fact only science fiction can shoulder the social responsibility in this regard.
(Finish)
About the Author:
Jiang Xiaoyuan, chair professor of Shanghai Jiaotong University, and the first dean of the Academy of Science History and Science Culture.
He graduated from Nanjing University in 1982, majoring in astrophysics, and graduated from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1988, the first doctoral degree in the history of astronomy in China.
In 1994, the Chinese Academy of Sciences was exceptionally promoted to professor.
In 1999, the first Department of History of Science in China was established at Shanghai Jiaotong University.
He has published more than 100 kinds of works at home and abroad, and published more than 200 academic papers. He has long set up personal columns in Beijing and Shanghai newspapers and magazines, and published a large number of book reviews, film reviews and cultural reviews. His academic thoughts have aroused widespread repercussions at home and abroad.