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in the context of contemporary chinese culture and technology, "roaming" is a multifaceted and symbolic word. in the cihai dictionary, it can refer to casual play or to technical phenomena such as mobile communications. this word carries a lot of complex meanings and cultural implications in different narratives and historical contexts. by tracing and analyzing the classical and modern meanings behind the concept of "roaming", we can open a new perspective to examine chinese science fiction.

first of all, "wandering" has a classical meaning, which particularly emphasizes the symbolism of aimless walking across boundaries and entering another world. this aimlessness is not really aimless, but points to a higher level of purposefulness. this symbolic journey not only crosses different boundaries in space, but also realizes a complex exchange and connection at the spiritual and cultural level.

secondly, the modern meaning of "roaming" tends to be more in the technical context, such as roaming in mobile communications. when a person leaves his registered service area but can still maintain a connection with the original service area, this technical phenomenon undoubtedly provides us with a new perspective to understand roaming in the modern world. in this context, roaming not only refers to spatial movement, but also involves the cross-regional expansion and connection of information and communications.

through these two different but interrelated concepts of "wandering", we can find out how they are presented and expressed in science fiction. ye yonglie's "little smart wandering in the future" depicts a young reporter xiao lingtong entering a future world with highly developed technology through the leap of time and space. this is undoubtedly the continuation and reinterpretation of "wandering" in the classical sense in modern science fiction texts. in han song's "subway: the last train", we are shown how a society moving towards the future in technology is trapped in the nightmare of the past through the protagonist lao wang's adventures in the subway. through the leap and wandering of different levels of space, it further explores the complex relationship between technology and politics in modern society.

book cover of "little smart wanders in the future"

ye yonglie is no stranger to the post-80s and post-90s generation, but his works seem too old to the new generation of readers. he wrote three books in the "little smart wandering in the future" series, covering a long period of time. i am focusing on his earliest one, "little smart wandering in the future" (1978). as one of the earliest science fiction novels after the reform and opening up, "little smart wandering in the future" is a science fiction work for children, but it can still be regarded as a symptom, revealing how the chinese people at that time unconsciously understood the "science fiction world" of the future. in this novel, the protagonist little smart enters the "future city" by chance, sees many fantastic technologies about the future world, and returns to the "present" to publicize his experiences to readers. it shows the future world in the eyes of a scientific optimist.

in the lifestyle of the future city, there are two aspects that deserve special attention. one is the obsession with "artificiality" and the other is the obsession with "transparency". the former is mainly reflected in the optimistic imagination of various artificial products replacing natural objects. we can see the optimistic and romantic imagination of artificial organs, artificial rice, artificial rain control, plastic world, etc.; the latter is mainly reflected in the admiration of lighting technologies such as "artificial sun" and "ceiling light". in this world, nothing is invisible, dark or cold. even antarctica has installed an artificial sun, where the ice and snow melt and the grass is green. this obsession with "light" contrasts with han song's portrayal of the dark night, the underground world, and the black moon in "subway: the last train".

subway book cover

in the future city depicted in "little smart wandering in the future", people can do whatever work they want, and no one wants to go out for leisure and entertainment. this is a marxist ideal:

"in communist society, no one has a specific scope of activity. everyone can develop in any department. society regulates the entire production, thus making it possible for me to do one thing today and another thing tomorrow according to my own wishes, hunting in the morning, fishing in the afternoon, raising livestock in the evening, and criticizing after dinner, but this does not make me a hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic." (the german ideology)

in han song's "subway: last train" (2011), the imagination of the future world is completely different. "subway: last train" is not a utopia, but more like a dystopia. in this work, lao wang, a retired employee of a company, found that everyone in the subway had become invisible when he took the last subway to go home. these invisible people were later captured by strange dwarves. "after the dwarves carried the passengers out of the carriage, they put them into large glass bottles filled with green solution. each bottle can only hold one person. one strange man carried it on his shoulders with difficulty, and the other seemed to be protecting it. in pairs, they climbed down the platform, walked along the rails, and went deep into the tunnel." the subway became a wormhole, allowing lao wang to "roam" in the present (actually after 2050) and the past (the sleepwalking era). in fear, lao wang wanted to find out the truth, and mistakenly entered the past world through an id card he found on the subway. in this story, technological change did not bring a bright future, but constantly made people fall back into the nightmarish sleepwalking era. although lao wang tried to rescue those who were captured, he ended up becoming the man trapped in the bottle.

unlike the obsession with artificiality in "little smart wandering in the future", "the last train" is pessimistic about the technology that can replace human labor. this attitude is reflected in the portrayal of the subway. in the public's imagination, the subway is a symbol of modern technological civilization, but in han song's writing, the subway seems to be an object in a kafka-style basement. the whole world during the day is like a cover-up, while the dark night and the black moon in the sky are the essence of this technological world. the reason for this is that the shadow of the sleepwalking era has always shrouded it. if there is no change in humanity and reflection on history, technology will not become a way of clarification, but a way of concealment. "the last train" also presents the opposite of transparency, the endless concealment brought by the smooth surface of technology. in the subway era, we are obscured and forget the sleepwalking era, but we slide into the sleepwalking era again.

xiao lingtong's "wandering" can be understood from at least two levels. first, it is the process of entering the future from the present, which is a process of entering from one world to another. secondly, it is xiao huzi who takes him to visit the future city. from xiao lingtong's own perspective, this kind of wandering is misguided, lacks planning, and is completely led. lao wang's wandering is also crossing different worlds, the real world and the dream world of the subway, the present world and the past time, but he is not aimless at the beginning: he starts to take the subway to go home or go to work, or to find the owner of the id card he picked up. but after realizing that the night is eternal and life has no intention, he is like a person lost in the jungle. life is the same. we know the purpose of every specific thing in work or life, but we don't know the purpose behind all things: where is the road of life heading? in this novel, wandering is not only the overlap and wandering between two eras, sleepwalking is a perverted form of "wandering". this sleepwalking is an unconscious action in a state of ignorance and fanaticism. when a group falls into this sleepwalking state, it carries political implications.

as stated in "little smart wanders in future city", "future city, not only can't be found on the current map of china, but also on the current map of the universe. however, in the future, such a city can be seen everywhere not only on the map of china, but also on the map of the universe." whatever the name of this city, the difference of more than 30 years between the two imaginary cities in these two novels is more worthy of our attention.

behind the novel’s different treatment of “artificiality” and “transparency” is the hidden political dimension. for example, the description of the ideal society in “little smart wandering in the future” has revealed its implicit political dimension. the inadvertent mention of the crater on the moon, as well as the national names such as china sea, li shizhen mountain, and luxun city (which can be expressed in more technical terms, such as h22 sea, s108 mountain, c81 city, etc.), also subtly reveal the consciousness of the nation-state. if compared with the recent public opinion carnival brought about by chang’e 6’s acquisition of lunar soil on the back of the moon, the meaning of this fusion of politics and science fiction is even more obvious.

since the late qing dynasty, chinese science fiction has been linked to politics (especially national salvation) and has been swept up in the tide of scientism. in the debate between science and metaphysics that began in 1923, the scientific faction won an apparent victory. the objectivity of science made it unnecessary for people to talk about politics (interests) when discussing science. however, when "science" became a dominant concept, objective science also implied political domination. at the same time, politics gained legitimacy by claiming its own scientific nature. thus, science and politics formed an alliance.

this becomes very obvious when we look at "little smart wandering in the future" from this perspective. it shows that the realization of the political ideal brought about by scientific progress is so confident that it is self-evident. when little smart wanders in the future city, no one shows him the political system of the city, which metaphorically shows that the political system is self-evident to him. and science is the only way to achieve this form, and there is no conflict between the two. however, entrusting the realization of ideal politics to science itself ignores the complexity of politics, and even the amplification of the evil of politics by science and technology. in aldous huxley's "brave new world", the highly developed technology brings about dystopia, people have become standardized tools, and human nature has almost been lost. further, on this issue, we are not clear whether in "little smart wandering in the future" it is because science is so prosperous in the ideal society, or because science is so prosperous that the ideal society can be realized. in this realization process, it is not clear whether the political system is as self-evident as it is presupposed, or whether the political nature can be cancelled as it appears. it is precisely because "little smart wandering in the future" intentionally or unintentionally lacks observation of the political system when observing the future city that it raises a rawlsian veil of ignorance question to us: as long as science is prosperous, can the people naturally organize themselves into a free and democratic community?

is this inevitable? why didn't it move towards the world of the last metro? as jonathan crary described in scorched earth tales: the last journey of global capitalism, in its own development, the internet is more likely to bring "scorched earth" rather than liberation under the blind expansion of global capitalism. when science becomes a way of urban construction, ignoring politics does not lead to the disappearance of politics. without conscious reflection, science is more likely to move towards dystopia. contemporary science fiction literature's observation of the broad political dimension is a reflection of this logic.

"metro: last train" gives a different response from "xiaolingtong wandering in the future" in terms of both artificiality and transparency. in a media city built by technology, we may go against our original intention by embracing the light (transparency) brought by technology (artificiality) without reflection and ignoring the politics in it. this brings us to a more fundamental question: wandering in science fiction literature means observing the real future world, but the reason why xiaolingtong's wandering is limited is that xiaolingtong is in a political space, but its way of observing the world lacks a political dimension, so what it witnesses is a sincere false world. as media animals in a technological media city, we have not transcended the ancient politics.