君子不器
First published the same year Hugo Gernsback came out with his legendary science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, in 1926, The Young Companion《良友》catered to the tastes of young middle class people, but it was also a force for social change. This fascinating article (in Big5) talks about 《良友》the “natural breast movement” 「天乳運動」 among young women in the…
It was again a fun event, and I got to hear a lot of interesting talks. I was worried that 7 presenters might be too many, that folks would become tired, but it wasn’t too bad. (At least not for me). At the November workshop we only had four talks and that seemed to work…
It all began with a silly, transphobic meme [image right]…Then came the story, “I sexually identify as an Attack Helicopter,” which first appeared in Clarkesworld (Jan 2020 issue), but caused a huff among certain hypersensitive readers who claimed it was insincere, inauthentic, and insensitive to transgendered people in the same spirit as the original meme. After…
Both Ye Yonglie (葉永烈) and Zheng Wenguang (鄭文光) were “struggled” during the ASPC of the 1980s. Zheng was a Vietnamese astronomer and emigre SF author of “Pacific Ocean Man” 《太平洋人》 and Mirror Image of the Earth 《地球的鏡像》– the latter of which is about aliens who have developed an interest in the Cultural Revolution. Meanwhile Ye was…
Just some Chen links that are worth noting: Gary K Wolfe reviews The Waste Tide for Locus Magazine “Staying sensitive in the crowd” (Ken Liu interview) “何平访谈陈楸帆 ：它是面向未来的一种文学” (He Ping interview) “陈楸帆：科幻是最大的现实主义” (commentary w/Hu Yong interview) His non-fiction works to 2013 (from old blog) Magazine of SF and Fantasy: “Chen Qiufan on ‘The Year of…
Didn’t quite get it when I saw this Onion tweet: But a conservative from the The Atlantic clarifies that “Taylor Swift Succumbs to Competitive Wokeness” (Oct 11, 2018). There he explains: “I get the sense that the most aggressively “woke” young people are precisely those who find themselves in the most fiercely competitive environments. Status…