Below are some of my favorite stories...
“Tongtong’s Summer” by Xia Jia. Tongtong’s Grandpa, who can no longer live on his own, moves in with her family. Grandpa grumpily resists getting a caretaker, so Tongtong’s father decides to try out a prototype robot caregiver, which they call Ah Fu. One day Tongtong begins conversing with Ah Fu, and finds out that the robot is remotely controlled by Wang, a university student working in R&D at the robot manufacturer’s facilities. Grandpa’s temper continues to worsen, until Wang comes up with a creative solution.
This is a fairly straightforward tale that sensitively explores the needs and concerns of the elderly in a near-future science fictional setting. I was especially moved by the author’s note at the end, dedicating this story to “all the grandmas and grandpas who, each morning, can be seen in parks practicing tai chi, twirling swords, singing opera, dancing … You made me understand that living with an awareness of the closeness of death is nothing to be afraid of.”
“Night Journey of the Dragon-Horse” by Xia Jia. A huge, ancient and rusted dragon-horse awakens from a long sleep to find a desolate world from which humans have disappeared. Where cars once filled the street like a river of steel, lush trees now dance in the wind. The dragon-horse begins a journey to explore this changed world. He befriends a chatty bat, and they exchange stories as they travel. It’s a leisurely tale, a melancholy tale, a poetic meditation on the effects of passage of time. As a bonus, Xia Jia provides links for some YouTube videos to an actual robotic dragon-horse, built by France and gifted to China to commemorate the friendship between their nations, which inspired this story.
“The City of Silence” by Ma Boyong. In the year 2046, the State tightly controls the lives of its inhabitants, in a polluted, stagnant world. People’s lives are solitary and rather empty, with the Web as the main vehicle for human interaction. They are only allowed to use “healthy words” in their communications in person or online. Originally a list of forbidden words deemed unhealthy (for example, “tired,” “love,” “movement,” and all sexual and curse words), now it is a list of the words that people are permitted to say or write. And the List of Healthy Words gets shorter every day. People’s speech is constantly monitored and policed by the state.
Arvardan applies to use the BBS forums, but they don’t contain any more interesting speech or ideas than he normally sees. However, he notices that the documents given him by a woman working in the Department of Web Security contain a hidden message … and a dangerous invitation.
Evidently inspired by George Orwell’s 1984, which is discussed in one of the meetings of the Talking Club that Arvardan joins, “The City of Silence” takes the concept of thought police and applies it to a technological age. As one of the characters comments, “technology is neutral. But the progress of technology will cause a free world to become freer, and a totalitarian world to become ever more repressive.” Arvardan and his friends know and can still think the words that the State now deems unhealthy, but one wonders what will become of the next generation in Ma Boyong’s nightmarish society.
"Folding Beijing" by Hao Jingfang: Lao Dao, a humble man who works in a waste processing plant in “Third Space” Beijing, sorting recyclable trash, finds a bottle with a message offering what for Lao Dao is a fortune, to take a message from a man in Second Space to a woman he loves who lives in First Space. Travel between the three areas is dangerous and illegal, but Lao Dao, desperate to earn enough money to pay for his young daughter’s education at a decent school, is determined to make the trip.
As the story unfolds, it becomes apparent that Beijing literally folds and unfolds as well: the city has been completely rebuilt, with huge sections of ground that turn upside down every 24 hours. The inhabitants of each space are put into a drugged sleep while their part of the city folds up and disappears underground. This increases Beijing’s ability to support a large population … and, disturbingly, also increases the physical and emotional separation between the haves, have-nots, and “have-somes.” First Space has by far the lowest population and most of the wealth; it also gets the largest amount of time above ground (24 hours in every 48), while Second Space, filled with white collar workers, gets 16 hours and the underclass in Third Space only gets 8 hours.
The setting is the real jewel of this science fiction novelette, a clear symbol of the economic and social differences between the classes and the lack of fairness in the way economic benefits and even life itself have been parceled out. With such a dramatic setting, the story itself is far more understated than one might expect — even the exciting scenes have a quietness to them, and every time the tension ramps up it soon ramps right back down again. Rather than pursue a more dramatic story, Hao Jingfan chose to focus on the domestic details of life. As she mentions in her interview with Uncanny Magazine, “The characters themselves care more about things that touch their daily lives: family, love, power, and wealth, but a reader can see the fundamental inequity of their world.” It’s a thought-provoking story that melds well with the unique setting, and illustrates human nature in action, as well as some larger truths. A highly recommended read.
Liu Cixin’s two stories, "The Circle" and "Taking Care of God," were among those in this anthology that impressed me the most. "The Circle" is set in ancient China, where Jing Ke, an intellectual and would-be assassin of the king of a neighboring dynasty, is co-opted by King Zheng as an advisor instead. King Zheng is entranced by Jing Ke's studies, hoping it might open the door to eternal life. When Jing Ke explains pi to the king, and the difficulties of calculating its digits, the king pushes him to do whatever he can to calculate pi much further. The answer that Jing Ke comes up with, a primitive man-powered computer, is absolutely fascinating. Anyone with an interest in computer programming should read this story.
“Taking Care of God” uses a science fictional setting to explore the interrelationship between the youthful and the aging, both on an individual level and on a macro level, as we see here how an entire civilization echoes the aging process. There is frustration and some understandable self-interest on both ends of the spectrum. As bad as the elder abuse gets in some situations, it hits hard when one of the Gods explains that they have been treated even worse in the past. Their urgent advice to humanity in the end was an interesting and unexpected turn in the narrative.
