Elsewhere like here: heterotopias in Han Song’s science fiction

Abstract

This article focuses on the Chinese science fiction writer Han Song who often uses heterotopias in his work. I will use this concept to illustrate how Han Song uses these ‘other places’ for the emplotment of his stories to better reflect on the society and epoch described in his works. Indeed, Han Song often chooses the symbols of modernity put forward by the Chinese government as heterotopias and then distorts them to show the dark side of the government’s ideals, hence countering the official discourse. To do so Han Song has a particular way of emploting these heterotopias: he starts his stories right in the middle of reality before leading the reader towards a succession of exponential distortions of reality, while punctuating his text with references to Chinese history and current events, Han Song’s heterotopias hence encompassing many aspects of Chinese past and present society.