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K.Y.Wong on Chinese SF
编辑时间：2004/10/12 幻想的边疆
Prof. Wong Kin-yuen is one of the few Chinese scholars engaged in science fiction research. He has taught courses in science fiction and fantasy in the US and Taiwan, and has been promoting the genre in Hong Kong. He has also participated actively in important international academic conferences, and published in academic journals related to the subject. Prof. Wong is currently chairman of the Department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies at The Chinese University.
The widespread consumption of science fiction in the form of cultural products such as novels, films, television programmes, comics and cartoons reflects the increasing importance of science fiction and fantasy. Figments of the wildest imaginations several decades ago have now become part of everyday life: electronic money, voice-controlled electrical appliances, remote-controlled monitoring systems, and microchip identification for dogs. Whereas a few decades ago, science fiction is a sub-culture, it has now moved from the periphery to mainstream culture with the advent of the information age, the Internet, and novel technologies. We are indeed, to quote Jean Baudrillard, the 'first generation living in science fiction'.
Universities in the West had courses in science fiction novels and culture way back in the 50s. In recent years, examples are often quoted from science fiction by important technoculture publications to illustrate the concern of the humanities over the impact of technological development on the human race. Issues such as genetic engineering, cloning, and human-assisted reproduction have become important issues that sit astride technology and culture.
What is the situation like in Chinese communities? With greater freedom of speech, a more efficient telecommunications network, and a more lively convergence of Chinese and Western cultures, Hong Kong should presumably enjoy greater advantages in science fiction creation than Taiwan and the mainland. Yet, ironically, its performance in this respect has been lagging behind. Taiwan, which has had three generations of sci-fi writers, produces works with high quality in terms of cultural depth, and grasp of latest technology. In mainland China, Science Fiction World, a science fiction journal published in Chengdu, Szechuan Province, enjoys a 40,000-strong circulation. This giant of a publication boasts a huge team of young writers, whose setback, however, is the lack of adequate exposure to the latest technology and its cultural implications, and their limited command of foreign languages, notably English. Most works written in Taiwan and on the mainland are what is known as 'soft core' sci-fi, rather different from the 'hard core' materials written by scientists that are frequently found in the West.
Representative works of Chang
Shi-kuo, sci-fi writer from Taiwan Science Fiction World, enjoying a large circulation in mainland China
In Hong Kong, science fiction works are scarce and quite a lot of them are of low quality. Efforts at promotion are weak and basically amateurish in nature. One of the main reasons for this is probably the historical division of students into science and arts streams at too early a stage in their schooling, which propels science and humanities to opposite poles. Teachers and students alike are trapped in an exclusive world of either arts or science.
An interdisciplinary research group at The Chinese University led by Prof. Wong Kin-yuen received approximately HK$1 million from the Research Grants Council in 1998 to study the different traditions of science fiction writing in Chinese and Western societies. Entitled 'A Comparative Study on Chinese and Western Science Fiction and Fantasy in the Context of Hong Kong Culture', the project has two objectives.
First, it is to establish the relationship between the humanities and the spaces mapped by science and technology in contemporary society through a study of science fiction, and to investigate the functions of science fiction in dealing with such relationships, for example, the impact of advanced communication technology on our identities, how we see ourselves and relate to society and reality as we know it, how we position ourselves between electronic culture such as ICQ and the Internet, and humanity. The split in modern thinking between nature and culture, subject and object, literature and science has been dealt with in many science fiction works, and a thorough study of this genre in a Chinese-Western comparative perspective is believed to illuminate the kind of cultural anxieties we are faced with.
The second objective is to rethink Hong Kong's educational structure, so that any absence of science fiction in the curriculum or teaching material can be made up for by the authorities. 'Although we live in an IT-filled environment, most teachers can detach themselves completely from real life. One rarely finds composition topics that touch on information technology, not to mention science fiction. How then can students develop creativity in these areas?' said Prof. Wong. He pointed out that whereas technology provides material for science fiction works, the imagination and creativity in such works also inspire scientific research in a mutually rein-forcing circle. (After all the term 'cyber space' was coined by a science fiction novelist.) This circle is absent in Hong Kong. Hence decision-making authorities should keep up with the times by bringing technological culture into the humanities curriculum so that arts and science are engaged in a mutually reinforcing and mutually beneficial relationship.
The project has five component parts:
(1) Data Collection
Prof. Wong visited the University of California at Riverside in the US, and the University of Liverpool in the UK, which boast respectively the second and the third largest collections on science fiction and fantasy worldwide. He discovered there is very little data on works in that genre that are written in Chinese. The first mission of the project is therefore to set up the world's first database on science fiction materials in Chinese with a bibliography translated into English, and exchange such data with the two libraries, so that Western scholars will come to know about Chinese science fiction.
(2) Translation and Comparative Studies
Sci-fi classics
The researchers will collect the translated texts of Western science fiction, and investigate how Chinese intellectuals have received the theories of Western science and technology and applied them to educating the young since the early 20th century.
(3) Forms and Narratives
Science fiction has gone through a long history of formulation. From the Gothic novel of the 19th century to the mixed discourse of today, the fears and repressions of society of each era have manifested themselves in science fiction. In the context of post-modernism, feminism, and post-colonialism, science fiction reflects issues of race, class, gender, and sexual desire. By carrying out a study on the production and consumption of science fiction and fantasy in Chinese-speaking societies, the project will be able to delineate a theory of identity in Chinese societies.
(4) Cultural Studies
This part of the study focusses on the relationship between science fiction and popular forms of mass media. In various traditions of cultural theory, science fiction presents and critically evaluates the concepts of media and technology, rethinking the relationship between humans and machines. Postmodernist science fiction also examines relations between culture and the new media in the context of multiculturalism. The findings of such study will help Hong Kong understand how pop culture influences the construction of cultural identities.
(5) Conferences and Publications
The results of the project will be published in three collections of essays, respectively entitled Chinese Science Fiction: An Annotated Bibliography, Comparative Studies of Modern Science Fiction, and Hong Kong Culture and Science Fiction. Another outcome of the project is Hong Kong's first international conference on science fiction and fantasy to be organized jointly with UC Riverside in January 2001. Participants will include scholars, cultural critics, and sci-fi writers from mainland China, Taiwan, the US, the UK, Australia, and Japan.
According to Prof. Wong the creation of Silicon Valley was closely related to the artistic experiments with virtual reality of the hippies in the 60s. 'We now talk about building Cyberport in Hong Kong but we do not have that kind of cultural background. This means that any cyberport we build will only remain on a very superficial and commercial level. We talk about IT without really knowing much about I or T. We only know how to use the computer,' he remarked. He hopes that the research project can be the first step in preparing Hong Kong for the rapid changes ushered in by technological advancement, so that it can gain an edge over its neighbours in different areas of development in the new century.
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/puo/bulletin/issue/200002/efiction.htm
date of post: Oct. 12, 2004(Yan)
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