Reimagining Care and Empathy in Chinese Science Fiction

Abstract This article analyzes how recent Chinese science fiction (SF) highlights the pervasive influence of emerging technologies in redefining care ethics within the envisioning of future human societies. It focuses on three SF texts by emerging women authors: Regina Kanyu Wang's “The Language Sheath” (2020), Congyun “Mu Ming” Gu's “Color the World” (2021), and Haihong Zhao's “Baby, I Love You” (2022). My analysis begins with a discussion of care ethics theory and its natural synergy with the speculative nature of SF. It then unpacks how these stories interrogate the increasing role of technology in shaping familial, social, and cultural dilemmas related to care ethics, particularly how empathy-oriented care ethics intersects with the campaign of empathetic technology and the persuasive effects of SF. My examination suggests that recent stories by contemporary Chinese women SF writers push us to reevaluate our concepts of the body, empathy, and care in the face of a future where the lines between these fictional tales and our reality become increasingly blurred. It offers a timely analysis of whether emerging technologies provide optimistic strategies or false promises for invoking care ethics and awakening our innate sense of connectedness.