New China: A Future History (1)
Sunday, 31. December 2006, 14:00:00
A speculative novel by Liang Qichao 梁啟超
Translator's Introduction
New China: A Future History (新中国未来记 - xīn zhōngguó weìlaí jì) is an unfinished novel written by the late-Qing reformer Liáng Qǐchāo (梁启超). The title is typically translated as The Future of New China, which makes it sound like a post-liberation political treatise. I have chosen to use New China: A Future History for this translation; ironically, what this novel resembles most is precisely a political treatise.
New China was serialized in New Stories, a magazine Liang edited, starting with the inaugural issue in November 1902. It was the only fiction that Liang wrote, and despite reaching just four chapters before being broken off (the authorship of the fifth chapter has not been conclusively determined, but it almost certainly was not written by Liang), it was tremendously influential in the late Qing "fiction revolution".
Framed as a lecture on recent Chinese history given at an international exhibition sixty years into the future (sixty years being a full cycle of the traditional Chinese calendar), the novel lays out Liang's vision of the political and economic development of Chinese society.
[This is a placeholder awaiting a fuller introduction currently in preparation]
Notes
To my knowledge, New China: A Future History has not yet been translated into English. If this is not the case, please do not hesitate to inform me of the existence and location of any prior translations. And besides, this translation is merely a recreational exercise; I appreciate any suggestions and corrections you may have to offer.
The complete Chinese text of the novel is available online as a free download [currently unavailable]. Unfortunately, this version is in an inconvenient .ceb eBook format; the text can be copied out fairly simply, but the punctuation gets left behind. It is slightly better than OCR, but if anyone knows of a way to strip the text out from the archive automatically, please let me know. Otherwise, I will be running the original Chinese text after each translated section; if you wait until the end of the serialization you can grab the entire thing in plaintext format.
Translator's Introduction
New China: A Future History (新中国未来记 - xīn zhōngguó weìlaí jì) is an unfinished novel written by the late-Qing reformer Liáng Qǐchāo (梁启超). The title is typically translated as The Future of New China, which makes it sound like a post-liberation political treatise. I have chosen to use New China: A Future History for this translation; ironically, what this novel resembles most is precisely a political treatise.New China was serialized in New Stories, a magazine Liang edited, starting with the inaugural issue in November 1902. It was the only fiction that Liang wrote, and despite reaching just four chapters before being broken off (the authorship of the fifth chapter has not been conclusively determined, but it almost certainly was not written by Liang), it was tremendously influential in the late Qing "fiction revolution".
Framed as a lecture on recent Chinese history given at an international exhibition sixty years into the future (sixty years being a full cycle of the traditional Chinese calendar), the novel lays out Liang's vision of the political and economic development of Chinese society.
[This is a placeholder awaiting a fuller introduction currently in preparation]
Notes
To my knowledge, New China: A Future History has not yet been translated into English. If this is not the case, please do not hesitate to inform me of the existence and location of any prior translations. And besides, this translation is merely a recreational exercise; I appreciate any suggestions and corrections you may have to offer.
The complete Chinese text of the novel is available online as a free download [currently unavailable]. Unfortunately, this version is in an inconvenient .ceb eBook format; the text can be copied out fairly simply, but the punctuation gets left behind. It is slightly better than OCR, but if anyone knows of a way to strip the text out from the archive automatically, please let me know. Otherwise, I will be running the original Chinese text after each translated section; if you wait until the end of the serialization you can grab the entire thing in plaintext format.
WIDGETIZE