Hospital: 1

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The kind of science fiction I write is two dimensional; but Han Song writes three-dimensional science fiction. If we look at Chinese science fiction as a pyramid, two-dimensional science fiction would be the foundation, but the kind of three-dimensional science fiction that Han Song writes would be the pinnacle." - Cixin Liu It is the dawning of the 'Age of Medicine', where everything is to revolve around healtcare, a Clinical-Academic-Industrial Complex: Hospital and illness are perfect metaphors for this message, since even in the West, trust in doctors and modern medicine is a given, with only conspiracy theorists (given an impulse by the recent pandemic) questioning the system. This means it took me a while too before I definitely decided that Yang Wei was being taken by the nose.

That same year, Han Song published his debut collection, 宇宙墓碑 (Google translate says “Cosmic Tombstone” but the title has also been rendered as “Gravestone of the Universe,” or “Tombstone of the Universe”) with Xinhua Publishing in China. It was a career landmark for Song, who would become a heavily awarded, important figure in Chinese-language science fiction. 宇宙墓碑 also followed two nonfiction books and at least a handful of earlier short stories. It was a career landmark for Song, who would become a heavily awarded, important figure in Chinese-language science fiction—to the point of being called one of the “four heavenly kings” of science fiction, and amassing 1.076 million fans on Weibo. Before and after this incident, spacecraft traveling the solar system discovered the ruins of similar hospital-like structure, including red crosses, on Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, all of the planets' moons, and even some asteroids.I think the biggest change is that the world is becoming more and more difficult to understand. Therefore, my works are more and more obscure and difficult to understand. For the most part, genre readers in the US are unaware of authors who publish in languages other than English. The result is that giants in those fields, like Han Song, are relatively unknown. For example, in 1998 Connie Willis published her Hugo Award winning book To Say Nothing of the Dog (Bantam Spectra), Octavia E. Butler published her Nebula Award winning book Parable of the Talents (Seven Stories), and Nalo Hopkinson published her Locus Award winning book Brown Girl in the Ring (Warner Aspect)—which also landed her the win for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer (later renamed the Astounding Award). My day job was to serve as a government functionary in the capital, where I spent my days writing up reports and preparing speeches for my superiors. It was a good thing that I had a side job as a songwriter, a hobby that helped keep me distracted from my tedious nine-to-five job. My songwriting had earned me a bit of a name for myself. Occasionally I was invited to write songs for various companies, allowing me to earn some extra money and improve my living situation. That is why Corporation B had hired me. It is a pity I am not more familiar with the particularities of modern Chinese society, though the translator’s afterword is invaluable in this respect. From my perspective, it is clear Hospital criticises a system that brainwashes naïve citizens, takes away their agency, takes away their ties to anything that is not the system, mothers them, makes decisions for them, paints a picture of the world with clear enemies, tells them only trust in the system can save them, and mercilessly assails them if they attempt to break free. Corruption, ambition, incompetence and abuse of power are rife. It is not difficult to understand why the Chinese Communist Party eventually bans most of Song’s writings.

Facing the reality presented in science fiction, it may be necessary to establish two laboratories, one for technology and the other for ideas. I believe this is also part of the efforts for technology to do good. Doing good means being able to think independently and propose new concepts that others do not have when drastic changes occur.If the journey through Hospital hasn't been the point, it's still been an interesting one -- though also quite long and drawn-out, a (nearly all-)consuming vision of disease, suffering, and pain. Red Star Over America (2000), describing the collapse of the United States in a world dominated by China. [3] But this is where his problems begin. A complimentary bottle of mineral water from the hotel minibar results in sudden and debilitating stomach pain, followed by unconsciousness. When he wakes three days later, things don’t improve; they get worse. With no explanation, the hotel forcibly sends him to a hospital for examination. There, he receives no diagnosis, no discharge date…just a diligent guide to the labyrinthine medical system he’s now circulating through. As a scholar of Chinese literature, what are your thoughts or observations about science fiction (or genre fiction in general) in China?