MIND AND PEACE: THE “DEMOCRATIC” INFO-TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM OF GU JUNZHENG’S “THE DREAM OF PEACE”

• Authors: Tsang Gabriel F.Y.
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Gu Junzheng (1902–1980) published “The Dream of Peace” in 1939, adapted from Edmond Hamilton’s short story “The Conqueror’s Voice”. Junzheng’s tale is highly scientific and includes many technical terms and ideas. It corresponds to the May-Fourth legacy of emphasizing scientific precision for strengthening the nation, but trickily excludes China in the information warfare between the US and “Easternmost Nation”. Taking “The Dream of Peace” as a both national and personal allegory that reflects the ideas of democracy, minzhu, and communism in relation to represented info-technological determinism, one can discover that Gu’s acceptance of techno-hierarchy, anti-concession, obscurantism, patriotic exclusionism, and absolute public control originated in his specific wish for peace rather than in democratic thought.

Keywords

EN

GU JUNZHENG; CHINESE SCIENCE FICTION; INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY; PEACE

• Publisher: Institute of World Literature, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: World Literature Studies
• Year: 2024
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 47 – 60

Contributors

author

Tsang Gabriel F.Y.

• Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong, China

• https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4243-6297

Identifiers

DOI

10.31577/WLS.2024.16.4.4