2066: Red Star Over America
2066: Red Star Over America is a science fiction novel by Han Song[1]: 202 which was published in 2000.[2] In the story, the United States of America has experienced a series of economic disasters and political crises, while China has become an idyllic superpower.[1]: 202 The protagonist is a Chinese Go prodigy who goes to a competition in the US and is caught in the midst of the Second American Civil War,[1]: 202 and a terrorist attack at the World Trade Center (the buildings were destroyed the year after it was published).[2] After a series of adventures, he returns to China.[1]: 202
In the novel, China has achieved its superpower by accepting the influence of Amando, an intelligence that plans the citizens' lives and oversees their happiness.[1]: 202 Amando fails when Martians come to Earth, turning China into the Land of Promise (fundi, also a way of referring to a cemetery).[1]: 202 The story is told as a flashback from the year 2126, a time when earthling civilization no longer exists.[1]: 203
The book deals with themes of nationalism versus globalism.[1]: 202 Academic David Der-wei Wang writes that the novel deals also with "the geopolitics of utopia in terms of socialist (China), capitalist (America), and extraterrestrial space."[1]: 202
Its title is in part a reference to Edgar Snow's classic reportage of China, Red Star Over China.[1]: 202
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wang, David Der-wei (2016). "Red Legacies in Fiction". In Li, Jie; Zhang, Enhua (eds.). Red Legacies in China: Cultural Afterlives of the Communist Revolution. Harvard Contemporary China Series. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center. ISBN 978-0-674-73718-1.
- ^ a b Sebag-Montefiore, Clarissa; Times, Special to the Los Angeles (2012-03-25). "Cultural Exchange: Chinese science fiction's subversive politics". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2025-05-22.