Author: Holger Briel, Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University-United International College
Email: holger.briel@gmail.com
Published: June 7, 2024
https://doi.org/10.22492/ijcs.9.si.05
Citation: Briel, H. (2024). SinoAsian Futures between Economic Forecasting, Science Fiction, Sinofuturism and Creativity. IAFOR Journal of Cultural Studies, 9(si). https://doi.org/10.22492/ijcs.9.si.05
Abstract
For many years futurology and forecasting have been a growing field and it seems that this trend is continuing. This article will therefore discuss forecasting, but will claim that it is in need of an important corrective: a kind of self-reflective Science Fiction (hereafter: SF) and the specific critical creativity associated with it. This approach is especially yielding when looking at the case of China. If for the longest time, Science Fiction has been thought of as a western genre, the following suggests that with new movements such as Asian Futurism, Sinofuturism, Afrofuturism or Gulf Futurism, one can observe a new multilateralism taking hold when it comes to the projection and description of possible futures. The Sinofuturism movement will here function as a case study, as it is well suited to point to the innovative power of non-traditional SF. Already one of its forerunners, 1980s Cyberpunk introduced a changing power differential between the east (Japan at the time) and the west, retiring older orientalist and colonial dreams of dominating Asia. This article suggests that this changing power differential can be updated and re-read via the rise of Sinofuturism, its visions and its politics and that it has already become an important socio-political phenomenon to study with which to study cultural Asian-western interactions for times to come.
Keywords
science fiction, futurology, sinofuturism, Chinese science fiction, creativity, probability