Reading Group Research Network Reading Group: Climate Fiction: Colonised voices in time Chen Qiufan and Giordano Nanni

“The belief that ‘progress’ and ‘civilisation’ are correlated with the human capacity to transcend the limitations of nature is a mainstay of Western mythology and cultural commentary stretching back for centuries”. Giordano Nanni

Following on from our Research Network event, we will host our first reading group in the More-than-Human Care series, further exploring the realm of contemporary speculative climate fiction.

In a time of climate justice, speculative climate fiction challenges colonial narratives and re-engages indigenous voices in the discourse on climate change. Join us in exploring an imagined future of e-waste in Chen Qiufan’s Chinese science fiction “The Waste Tide” alongside Giordano Nanni’s examination of western concepts of colonisation being imposed on diasporic cultures in “Colonisation of Time: Ritual, Routine and Resistance in the British Empire”.

We will examine the diasporic voice in the climate fiction, discuss who benefits in apocalyptic futures and explore whose narrative is ending over time.

About the authors

Chen Qiufan is an award-winning science fiction writer, screenwriter, and columnist. He grew up near Guiyu, China, home to the world’s largest e-waste recycling centre, an area the UN called an “environmental calamity.” His experiences there inspired the Waste Tide, written in Chinese 20 years ago and recently translated into English by Ken Liu. He currently lives in Shanghai and Beijing and works as the founder of Thema Mundi Studio.

Giordano Nanni is an Australian historian, author and driving force behind The Juice Media, a contemporary far-left political and social satirical film and media company.