Chinese Culture Radar with Xueting Ni

Bringing Light to Chinese Culture and Science Fiction

Xueting Ni is a writer and curator of contemporary Chinese culture and science fiction. One of her goals is to bring light to modern China from historical and contemporary perspectives.She has compiled the anthology Sinopticon,  showcases the diversity and depth of the Chinese science fiction tradition.

We discuss the inspiration and purpose behind Sinopticon, and how science fiction can explore important social and political issues through allegory and imagined worlds.

Xueting C. Ni was born in Guangzhou, during China’s re-opening to the West. Having spent a childhood living in cities across China, she emigrated with her family to Britain, where she continued to be immersed in Chinese culture, alongside her British education, realizing ultimately that this gave her a unique a cultural perspective in bridging her Eastern and Western experiences

Shorts

Could an AI Tax Save Human Jobs?

Culture and Sci-fi in China (audio podcast)

Transcript for the Podcast

Setting the Scene

Author and curator of literature and culture

The origins and purpose of “Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction”

The role of science fiction in exploring societal issues and the future and the past

The interplay between technology progress and preserving humanity and human connection

The meaning in The Return of Adam

People in China are looking to the past to see who we were in order to inform the future

Older Chinese Sci-fi writers Wang Jinkang and Han Song

The depth and themes in Chinese science fiction, including the influence of historical events like the Cultural Revolution

The importance of storytelling and reading in shaping the future

Ethical dilemmas around technology, privacy, inequality, and AI

Misconceptions about the future

How the future may develop