Emerging as a cultural force among the younger generation, Chinese science fiction reveals much about how young Chinese understand power, civilisation and global rivalry in an era of rapid technological and strategic transformation. Though India rarely appears in these imagined worlds, they nonetheless offer an unexpected yet powerful lens into Beijing’s strategic mind. If imagined futures shape real ambitions, what lessons can India draw from reading Chinese science fiction?
Once a taboo genre in China, Chinese science fiction (SF) is now heavily promoted by the Chinese government and is increasingly recognised as a window into China’s strategic imagination. It reflects key dimensions of China’s worldview, including technological determinism, collectivism, multipolarity and civilizational identity, as well as of its behaviour, such as long-horizon thinking. India is largely absent in Chinese SF, but even this absence reveals something about China’s geopolitical priorities.
Several structural factors have contributed to the rise of contemporary Chinese SF. First, China’s all-inclusive strategic push into science, technology, and innovation created a technoculture in which speculative futuristic imagination became desirable. Second, the Communist Party of China (CPC) and state institutions, including the China Writers Association and China Science Writers Association, and publishers have actively promoted Chinese SF as a part of the “Chinese Dream,” where creativity and innovation are the top priorities, under the national project of scientific modernisation. Third, Chinese youth—who are exposed to global pop culture and yet living under China’s unique political and social context—find in Chinese SF a platform and language to express hope, anxiety, and moral uncertainty.