The Construction Of “Future China” In Science Fiction Novels At The End Of Qing Dynasty And The Beginning Of The Republic Of China

Science fiction in the late Qing and early Republic of China was the sprout of Chinese science fiction literature.It originated from the combination of the scientific trend of thought of “ Western learning spreading to the east ” and the ideal of “saving the country” by intellectuals in the late Qing Dynasty.The forms of technology and fiction construct the national imagination of future time and space.“Future China” in the science fiction novels of the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China fully showed the strange sparks from the encounter between ancient China and western powers,and had a profound impact on the development of modern Chinese literature.Although it has not existed for a long time,it has provided intellectuals with a new way of expression and ideological content for constructing an ideal country,and it has also influenced the modernization and transformation of Chinese literature.On the basis of collating and digging the literature,this article puts science fiction in the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China in the historical context of the time to examine it.It mainly focuses on text interpretation and historical data analysis.The political image of the country image presented in the text,Moral ethics,technological level,military strength and other aspects to discuss the performance characteristics of the combination of “ science ” and imagination,traditional culture and modern civilization.By exploring and analyzing the construction of the national image in the science fiction of the late Qing dynasty,we can gain a glimpse of the contemporary mentality of the intellectuals in constructing the nation-state,and also reflect the absorption and fusion of modern scientific spirit and traditional moral culture in the modernization of the late Qing literature.The introduction mainly introduces the background and significance of topic selection,the definition of science fiction in the late Qing Dynasty and the early period of the Republic of China and the overall situation of current research,the internal connection between science fiction and national imagination,and the scope of this thesis.The first chapter explains the background of the birth of science fiction in the late Qing Dynasty and the early period of the Republic of China.It summarizes the reasons for its rise from internal and external reasons.The direct reasons are mainly influenced by the “fiction world”revolution and foreign translation works.The rise of the “ science of saving the country by science ” and rising political enthusiasm.The author believes that the survival crisis of the extinct country forced the intellectuals of the late Qing Dynasty to rethink and pay attention to the future of the country's destiny.The spread of modern science and the translation of extraterritorial novels provided them with new topics and expressions.Science fiction became the knowledge of the late Qing Dynasty.The elements open up new ways for people's wisdom and dissemination of new knowledge.The second chapter focuses on the country image in science fiction from the aspects of transportation,medical treatment,military weapons,and education.On the one hand,it fully reflects the creative concept of building a large country of science and technology;on the other hand,it highlights the writers' group's commitment to science and technology And simplification and universal understanding of scientific principles.The third chapter is based on the context of traditional Chinese culture and explores the influence of traditional cultural thoughts on the construction of the country.Although it has absorbed western advanced systems and science and technology from the content,it is still modern based on the ideal of “Datong”.The shape of the state,therefore,the national imagination has the remarkable characteristics of a mixture ofscience and imagination,and the integration of tradition and modernity.The fourth chapter focuses on how the "Future China" image construction is formed on the artistic level.Most science fiction novels use travel narrative and dream narrative to connect the current reality with the future imagination,relying on the fiction of the novel itself to reconstruct the future of China,and this construction is completed because of the emergence of a new concept of time and space.