Chinese Science Fiction and Representations of Ecofeminists: Women Warriors and Madwomen

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Title:	Chinese Science Fiction and Representations of Ecofeminists: Women Warriors and Madwomen
Authors:	Huang, Peter I-min
Keywords:	Chinese science-fction;ecofeminism;Liu Cixin;The Three-Body;Chen Qui-fan;The Waste Tide
Date:	2021-04-30
Issue Date:	2022-03-10 12:17:05 (UTC+8)
Publisher:	Routledge
Abstract:	Chen Qui-fan’s The Waste Tide (2013) and Liu Cixin’s The Three-Body Problem (2008) are two recent critically acclaimed works of science-fction (sci-f) that are examined here against ecofeminist theory in its latest, so- called fourth wave, manifestations. Those refect more engagements with literature produced outside of the West and with work produced by scholars in the burgeoning areas of environmental theory and practice of queer ecol- ogy, environmental justice, (critical) animal studies, (critical) plant studies, postcolonial studies, and climate justice.1 A comparison here of Liu’s main- stream sci-f novel and Chen’s less well-known cyberpunk sci-f novel, a comparison that is inspired by those latest directions in ecofeminism, sheds light on the ways in which The Three Body-Problem, which has been more successful from a fnancial and commercial point of view than has been the cyberpunk and sci-f novel The Waste Tide, tacitly defers to and indulges in popular and dominant masculinist constructions of and fantasies about eco-terrorists and eco-fascists. Those constructions appear in and betray the novel’s three apparently profoundly and disturbingly morally fawed main characters, individuals who become disillusioned with the direction in which small but powerful groups of humans who have no faith in Earth’s oldest environments are steering the planet. Through two of those characters in particular, Ye Wenjie and Wenjie’s daughter Yang Dong, the novel subtly and disingenuously depicts ecofeminists as violent women and madwomen. In contrast, The Waste Tide is more sympathetic to the kinds of environ- mental positions and goals upon which Liu’s novel casts doubt. Chen’s sci-f novel expresses in effect that if one wishes to identify and challenge violent and militant eco-fascist agendas, rogue eco-cults, and eco-terrorists, then one must look to mainstream, dominant directions in society and industry. Those directions betray masculinist ideologies. The novel focuses on one of those directions in particular, that which identifes the electronics and electronic waste (e-waste) industries. Specifcally, the novel questions the ongoing problem of illegal dumping of e-waste in China, a country that continues to be “the world’s largest e-waste dumping ground” despite the government’s ban on importing e-waste since 2000 (Healey 2017, 3). The novel’s principal protagonist is an ecofeminist woman warrior, Xiaomi.
Relation:	Ecofeminist Science Fiction International Perspectives on Gender, Ecology, and Literature
Appears in Collections:	[Graduate Institute & Department of English] Chapter

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