Book Review: Visions of Dystopia in China's New Historical Novels

By not limiting his attention solely to the literary emplotment of dystopian themes in Chinese new historical fiction from the 1980s up until the present, and by bringing into the discussion the shared links this quasi-genre has with narrative explorations of dystopia in the Slavic and Anglophone li...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The China quarterly (London) 2015, Vol.223, p.848
Main Author: Payne, Christopher N
Format: Review
Language:English
Subjects:
Anglophones
Dystopias
English language
Fiction
Film adaptations
Ge Fei (1964- )
Han Shaogong (1953- )
Historical fiction
Li, Rui (1950- )
Mo Yan (1956- )
Novels
Realism
Science fiction & fantasy
Wang Anyi (1954- )
Ye Zhaoyan
Yu, Hua, 1960
Zhang Wei
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:By not limiting his attention solely to the literary emplotment of dystopian themes in Chinese new historical fiction from the 1980s up until the present, and by bringing into the discussion the shared links this quasi-genre has with narrative explorations of dystopia in the Slavic and Anglophone literary worlds, as well as links to Latin American magical and post-magical realism, Kinkley highlights, on the one hand, the transhistorical scope of dystopian anxieties, whilst simultaneously pointing out that "China's recent dystopian historical novels constitute a fresh and distinctive strain within it" (italics added) (xii). Mo Yan, Yu Hua, Wang Anyi, Han Shaogong, Su Tong, Ye Zhaoyan and Ge Fei, as well as a few lesser known - in the English language at least - authors such as Li Rui and Zhang Wei), Kinkley should be praised for the sheer number of works considered: 17 core texts, including respective film adaptations, as well as a number of secondary pieces. The final chapter, "The end of history, dystopia, and 'new' historical novels?," takes into account the changed trend(s) in PRC literature over the last decade or so, acknowledging the reality that new historical fiction does not (perhaps never did) possess much by way of cultural currency amongst young Chinese readers today.
ISSN:0305-7410
1468-2648
DOI:10.1017/S0305741015001083