Collins Living-Learning Center

Why did flying balloons become a popular theme in Chinese science fiction during times of national crisis? What does rail travel have to do with the rise of modern women in urban Shanghai? How does contemporary Chinese science fiction serve to negotiate China's political trauma and its new role in the world today? This course examines how modern technologies, from powerful gunboats to everyday objects, have been represented, imagined, and fantasized in China from the late nineteenth century to today. By investigating key examples of Chinese fiction in conjunction with films and scholarly articles, we will explore how technologies provide intellectual and emotional frameworks for the Chinese to imagine the self, the nation, and China's place in the world. More than a survey of Chinese science fiction, the course also intends to offer a critical perspective to understand the cultural and social context behind global technological modernity. 

Instructor: Aolan Mi

Selected by Board of Educational Programming (BOEP)

• A&H
• What are CASE requirements?