SF from the other end of the thru-planet tunnel

kw: book reviews, science fiction, short stories, chinese literature

When I was a kid, we "all knew" that if you dug a hole straight through the Earth, you would reach China. Only after we got a globe did we figure out that, antipodal from nearly all of North America, you'll find ocean, except a little bit that is opposite a section of Australia. To tunnel to somewhere in China, I would have to dig parallel to the plane of the equator, at an angle of about 50°, rather than 90° straight down.

Metaphorically, however, the U.S.A. and China really are poles apart. How does this affect science fiction written in China versus that written here? In a word, "dramatically". For one thing, SciFi was banned in the People's Republic of China (PRC) for about half of the Communist era there, roughly 1949 to the present. An essay in Broken Stars: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation, edited and translated by Ken Liu, outlines the repeated submergence and resurgence of the genre in China. As I read in "A Brief Introduction to Chinese Science Fiction and Fandom" by Regina Kanyu Wang, whenever the gate opens, the Chinese SciFi "horses" race off in every direction. This book, a follow-on and companion to Invisible Planets (issued about three years ago), opens a window upon that amazing scene for the English-language reader.

Whatever you might find in Western SciFi, you are likely to find in Chinese SciFi, from space opera to post-apocalyptic dystopias, from time travel to psycho-thrillers. One thing I missed was alien encounter stories, not that they are absent, but seem to be very rare. I suspect that the Chinese think that Westerners are alien enough, and frequently dwell on the consequences of that.

Just statistically, there are about 3½ times as many people in the PRC as in the USA, and nearly twice as many as in the USA and Europe combined. That means there are huge numbers of excellent writers, writing in Chinese, about which the English-language world knows nothing. It is beyond me to survey the field, so I'll just comment on a very few stories I particularly liked.

The title story, "Broken Stars" is by Tang Fei (an indivisible pseudonym), in a genre I can't quite place. A central artifact in the interplay between the narrator and a "pale woman" is an "astrolabe", a "star-taker". Historically, the astrolabe was a measuring instrument that was later developed into the sextant, and then the theodolite, for measuring star positions. This infinitely-unfoldable paper device shows the planets' positions instead, and is for astrology. When the narrator, losing patience with wildly erratic prediction, draws on it, events are changed; cause and effect are tangled up. Is it a parable of "taking charge of one's own life?" Other threads in the story don't back that up, and I was left with an ambiguous feeling.

"What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear", by Baoshu (also a pseudonym), could be said to take a page from "Benjamin Button", but for all of China. This quasi-history of US-China relations and events within the PRC starts with the massacre in Tiananmen Square and moves forward through Premier Deng's era to that of Mao, in the apparent present. It is nearly all in reverse order, limned by the lives of three characters who experience it all.

"The History of Future Illnesses", by Chen Quifan, begins with iPad Syndrome, and runs through variations that culminate in the destruction of language. To say more is to give too much away, but the story could be a taken as a cautionary tale.

I didn't read Invisible Planets, so I'll have to scare up a copy.

The ultimate war classic

kw: book reviews, nonfiction, war, diplomacy, duplicity, translations, classics, chinese literature

I once spoke with a retired U.S. Army Colonel. He'd just given a speech about the need for strength, at a time (late Vietnam war era) the military was much hated. He said, "Peace means you have no living enemies." That sounds pretty strong, but he went on to say the first resort is to win over someone, to make an opponent an ally; war is the last.

Having just read The Art of War, attributed to Sun Tzu, I see where he was coming from. A quick look for references indicates that this must be the second-most studied book in history, after only the Bible.

The edition currently in print in paperback, translated by the late General Samuel B. Griffith, is being touted as a guide to managers, not just for military readers. While I like the emphasis on gaining allies, the classic Thirteen Chapters is much more about deceit and duplicity. When war is necessary, deception is necessary, but to consider commerce and business to be "war on another field" as some have termed it, makes this a very risky proposition. Just consider Enron...

More than half the volume is apparatus. The translation is but 68 pages, and a third of that is translated commentary, a tiny fragment of the 23 centuries of Chinese scholarship of Sun Tzu. The first, 18-page, appendix is mostly composed of a translation of a similar treatise by Wu Ch'i. In another appendix we find this volume is the seventh English translation.

My own favorite quote is from the chapter "Offensive Strategy": "...those skilled in war subdue the enemy's army without battle. They capture his cities without assaulting them and overthrow his state without protracted operations."

This brings to mind the conclusion of the Cold War. President Reagan set the stage with his "Evil Empire" speech, showed his willingness to go to war with a couple small operations such as Grenada, then stood at the Berlin Wall and said, "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall." The Soviet Premier could do little but watch as the German people and many of their Russian guards did just that. I remember it was my birthday, November 9, 1989, and I was driving to work when the news bulletin came on the radio. I pulled over to weep, and was half an hour late to work. Such is the benefit of appropriate strategy.