Ep 21 – Han Song and the Fundamental Nature of the Universe with Nathaniel Isaacson

‘Everything is going to descend into chaos and disorder. Entropy will accelerate rapidly…’

[episode transcript here]

this is episode 5 of 7 in our Chinese Science Fiction Season

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In the twenty first episode of The Translated Chinese Fiction Podcast, we are looking at Han Song’s The Fundamental Nature of the Universe (宇宙的本性/yǔzhòu de běnxìng)

A tale of artificial intelligence and ennui. Or should it be angst? Or simply just yanjuan? Musing darkly with me on this episode is its translator Nathaniel Isaacson, author of Celestial Empire: The Emergence of Chinese Science Fiction. He translated this story, so he ought to know a thing or two about it!

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// Discussed in this Episode //

• My That’s Shanghai! article on Chinese fast rail
• The Shanghai Metro Museum
• FULL TEXT – academic access required 
• Han Song on Paper Republic

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// Handy TrChFic Links //

Episode 21 transcript

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