Counterfeit Paradise and Good Hell ——Two Paradigms in Hong Kong Science Fiction and Their Subsequent Resonance

Abstract

This presentation illustrates two sci-fi paradigms established by The Fat Years, Dark Fluid, and their subsequent resonance from mainland China, and argues that unique point of sight from HK, authors’ self-consciousness of creation, and thought experiment potential of the genre allow us to take HK Sci-Fi as Method. In The Fat Year, Chan Koonchung takes HK as the external viewpoint of the mainland and reveals reality hidden under the appearance of prosperity and peace. The protagonist as an outsider in Beijing from HK gains an in-between position in which he can see through the anti-utopian society as 'Counterfeit Paradise'. Dark Fluid allegorize HK in the post social movement era, where anxiety, turbulence, and state of exception has become the norm, as a 'Good Hell' which has become the starting point for establishing a new utopian community with hope. What is unique is that in HK, which has little utopian impulse in the culture, the utopian vision in the fiction is represented as the opposite side of the political antithesis. This recalls Fredric Jameson's “Anti-anti-Utopianism” which presents an alternative path to break through the static and isolated imagination of Utopia. Furthermore, I found that works in 'Special Issue of Chinese Language Sci-Fi' in Hong Kong Literary created by mainland writers inevitably or accidentally coincide with the above two paradigms as gaining the perspective of HK. This indicates that literary experiment with socio-political consciousness and feeling structure in particular position and viewpoint opens up possibilities for new patterns of thought and expression.