Gender and Genre in Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction

Abstract Chinese science fiction's growing popularity and integration into an increasingly diverse global science fiction field have sparked discussion of the genre's approach to gendered subjectivity. This article explores the intersections of gender and genre in Chinese science fiction on both textual and extratextual levels. The author argues that Hao Jingfang's 郝景芳 “Beijing zhedie” 北京折疊 (Folding Beijing) and Xia Jia's 夏笳 “Baigui yexing jie” 百鬼夜行街 (One Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight) combine, subvert, and reinterpret tropes of premodern Chinese literary genres like caizi jiaren 才子佳人 (scholar beauty romances) and zhiguai 志怪 (tales of the strange) to critique gendered and racialized expectations placed upon Chinese women via discourses like patriarchal authoritarianism and ornamentalism. Such strategic mobilizations of generic tropes, when considered in the context of larger discursive fields, challenge popular conceptions of science fiction as a male-dominated genre and expand definitions of science fiction within China and globally.