The Propagandistic Motives Behind China’s First Science-Fiction Novel
Wu Jianren; Liz Evans Weber, Tr., The Story of the Stone: An Early Chinese Science Fiction Novel (New York: Columbia University Press, June 2025). Softcover: 978-0-231203-47-0: $30. 570pp.
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“One of China’s first works of science fiction, New Story of the Stone” (author: Wu Jianren (1866-1910); first-printed in Chinese: 1905) “is a belated twentieth-century sequel to the beloved eighteenth-century masterpiece Story of the Stone (more famously known as Dream of the Red Chamber)” (author: Cao Xueqin; mythological: characters include a Taoist priest and a Buddhist monk; first-printed: 1791). Europe had been publishing mad-scientist, or semi-scientific fiction across the previous centuries; this work was just the earliest formulaic time-travel science-fiction in China. “The story follows protagonist Jia Baoyu, borrowed from the original Story”—in the original this character becomes a monk by the end—“as he is dramatically hurled forward over a hundred years from his own time into a bewildering future: first the decadent semicolonized late Qing China of the author’s own time…” The “Introduction” misstates that during the Qing dynasty China was “forced to sign a series of ‘unequal treaties’ that imposed crushing indemnities upon China while simultaneously forcing Chinese territory open to foreign trade” (x). In my re-attribution studies, I explain that British merchants and ghostwriters combined warfare and corruption to manipulate a few Chinese politicians into signing these “unequal treaties”, defending them with violent attacks on Chinese territories. This intro instead makes it sound as if there were economic hardships in China that made these unequal deals necessary. The Europeans publicized they were building infrastructure, or otherwise doing something positive in China, while they were in fact robbing China of its resources, and force-selling opium to its population (i.e. the Opium Wars). Since this intro explains that Wu’s narrative was “a trenchant indictment of the state of late Qing society and morality”, it seems likely that this work was a Western propaganda (xiv). The 1890s was part of a Scramble for China when various European nations, including not only Britain, but also Russia and others seized parts of China across the Qing dynasty: spheres of influence included Tibel and other regions under Britain, French Indo-China, Japanese regions, and a German region. Since there was no preceding interest in science-fiction in China, it seems logical that a European author ghostwrote this propaganda, and it was then translated into Chinese and sold as an authentic Chinese narrative. The biographies of authors were part of such propagandistic fictions, which convinced because the author seemed to be a friendly-insider. In the body of this novel, the narrator first-mentions the “Great Qing” before exclaiming: “How Shameful!” He is referring to a failure to document a historical event’s date (“1900”) until this science-fiction “discovery” (56). The next reference is to “upholding the Qing and exterminating the foreign” (170). This seems to be an exaggerated rivalry that positions foreigners as the victims. This battle-crime is described as a “teaching” of a sect, satirically described as a “sagely decree” (179). Another confirming detail: “But as I see it, we are all Chinese, and so everything that concerns China is our business.” This seems to be protesting-too-much: who said the speaker/narrator is not Chinese? “And since this particular treaty was made in secret, it’s clear that the government isn’t willing to tell us what’s in it.” This shifts the blame for making a bad treaty onto the Chinese government, instead of leaving the fault with the foreign invaders. “But after the uprising of the Boxer bandits, when Prince Qing and Grand Secretary Li went to the capital to negotiate for peace…” “Prince Qing” is accused of reaching this corrupt deal, and failing to stop the Russians from forcing the Chinese from throwing themselves into the Heilong River (221-2). Showing the Chinese killing themselves, instead of being slain by Russian troops is again hardly siding with the Chinese side of this dispute. I think these references consistently show a Western bias.
“And later an astonishing high-tech Confucian utopia called the Realm of Civilization. Baoyu is equally disoriented in both places: in China proper, he is distressed by the growth of foreign influence and weakening of the traditional moral code in favor of capitalist consumerism and selfish gain; in the Realm of Civilization, he is amazed by everything he encounters—from flying cars and ingenious medical technologies to the perfectly moral populace.” The moral seems to be that western invaders will eventually lead China to this ideal Civilization through their continuing colonial control: since this is where the earlier scene is heading. “Seen through Baoyu’s eyes, the Realm is everything that late Qing China has failed to be and offers a hopeful vision of what it might yet become. This quick-paced romp deftly highlights some of the major preoccupations of the tumultuous final decade of China’s last dynasty while raising important existential questions about China’s future.”
There are indeed important questions raised in this text, but I believe this editor has misunderstood what these questions are. Though my interpretation of events is based on original analysis of monopolistic control of the press in Europe by ghostwriters that has not been publicized in any previous study. Thus, it would have been stranger if this book matched my findings.
The introductory content and the back-matter notes are extensive and should help any researcher to similarly reach their own conclusions. I would just advise all to think critically when any text is puffed as a “first” in a field. All types of libraries should benefit from this acquisition, as this novel is indeed important to the history of the invasion of science-fiction into eastern realms.
--Pennsylvania Literary Journal: https://anaphoraliterary.com/journals/plj/plj-excerpts/book-reviews-summer-2025/

This book is presented as a sequel to the Chinese literary classic (alternatively) known as Dream of the Red Chamber or Story of the Stone. The central character is a scholarly traveler by the name of Baoyu. The first part of the book is set in China around the time of the Boxer Rebellion, an event that features in the story. Throughout this portion, the book reads like historical fiction. However, Baoyu's travels eventually bring him to a hidden realm, a technologically advanced utopia within China. It is here where Baoyu's adventures get fantastical and otherworldly, and the book ventures into the domain of Science Fiction.

The setting of the book reminds me a little of Marvel's Wakanda from Black Panther. Perhaps both instances of worldbuilding were motivated by the humiliated colonists' fantasy of being more advanced than those who pull the strings for once, or of showing their (respective) lands to be places of "crouching tigers and hidden dragons" (i.e. where great talents exist but remain unseen.) (Note: While China wasn't on-the-whole colonized by a Western country, its interaction with England and other Western nations left it forced to accept terms unfavorable and undesirable to China (not to mention the outright colonized enclaves such as Hong Kong and Macau.) While the publisher has emphasized the science fiction aspect of this work, it is an anticolonial work through and through. The book can come across as xenophobic and nationalistic in places, but this only reminds the reader of how such positions might be arrived at under the boot of foreign influence.

The book is readable though philosophical and is well worth reading for those interested in developing a deeper insight into Chinese perspectives.

The lengnthy introduction to the New Story of the Stone allows to deepen the knowledge about the Chinese culture. I am not a scholar about Chines literature or science-fiction, still, I've found the book amazing. I needed to make a list of the characters' names, as I am not fluent at all in Chinese. I thoroughly enjoyed the travel into another concept of imagination with other environments. This is real travel to another culture, the kind of book which makes you richer. Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley, all opinions are mine.