Despite periods of heavy censorship and political opposition, science fiction has emerged in the People's Republic of China as a popular literary genre. This anthology of stories by six major Chinese science fiction writers is the first such collection to be published in English. The stories are enriched by China's ancient tradition of fantastic literature as well as that nation's fascination with futuristic science and technology, and they provide illuminating glimpses of Chinese attitudes, values, and daily life. Wu provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of Chinese science fiction together with a chronological bibliography of stories, novels, and related critical works. This fine anthology of eight stories by six authors shows that, while years behind the west in terms of maturity of the genre, China is catching up as fast as the state will allow. Editor Dingbo Wu's excellent introduction gives a historical overview of SF in China, while detailing the fluctuations of political acceptibility during the past decade.

"Publishers Weekly"

Despite periods of heavy censorship and political opposition, science fiction has emerged in the People's Republic of China as a popular literary genre. This anthology of stories by six major Chinese science fiction writers is the first such collection to be published in English. The stories are enriched by China's ancient tradition of fantastic literature as well as that nation's fascination with futuristic science and technology, and they provide illuminating glimpses of Chinese attitudes, values, and daily life.

Like most Chinese science fiction writers, the authors represented in this volume are engaged in scientific research or the popularization of science. Their work reflects the critical dictum that scientific fiction must be scientifically factual or based on reasonable extrapolations of known fact. Among the themes treated in these stories are people's use of and relationship to robots and clones; peaceful versus military application of technology; futuristic detection and intelligence operations; space exploration and warfare; and personal heroism, patriotism, and responsibility. The stories typically incorporate an optimistic view of science's contribution to the future of humankind. Wu provides a comprehensive introduction to the history of Chinese science fiction together with a chronological bibliography of stories, novels, and related critical works. This collection offers a unique perspective on modern China and a welcome opportunity to explore the Chinese contribution to one of the most popular forms of contemporary fiction.

Chinese popular culture is extremely diverse and richly complex. The 18 chapters in this reference provide the most current and comprehensive bibliographical and descriptive study of Chinese popular culture in English. The chapters, each devoted to a particular topic, are written by expert contributors who offer comprehensive surveys of research materials and discuss the most important points of critical interest. The opening chapters of the book discuss the complexity of the Chinese cultural tradition and the relationship between popular culture and Chinese civilization. The chapters that follow are devoted to particular topics that reflect key elements of Chinese popular culture, such as tea drinking, literature, and religion. The chapters generally discuss the history of the topic, review current research in the field, evaluate available reference sources and research collections, and present bibliographic information.