Authors

Discussion

Science fiction, often seen as a universalist genre, frequently functions as a nationalist allegory in both Soviet and contemporary Chinese cinematic traditions. This paper investigates the divergent strategies of late Soviet and Chinese sci-fi in their transnational encounter with Anglophone sci-fi's imperialist legacy. This research is animated by the theoretical tension between John Rieder’s analysis of the inherited "colonial gaze" and Istvan Csicsery-Ronay’s theory of sci-fi’s transformation of imperialism into a techno-scientific empire. I contend these cinemas navigate this tension via two modes of spectatorship: the former cultivates a cognitive inquiry, while the latter orchestrates a visceral affective union.

This paper first examines the distinctiveness in the late Soviet science fiction films—characterized by its inherent tension between ideological demands and the utopian aspirations of posthuman universality. Starting from Darko Suvin’s concept of “cognitive estrangement,” I argue that films of this period pushed the genre beyond socio-political critique toward profound philosophical speculation. By staging encounters with radically unknowable Others, these films construct an estranged state of exception, transcending the colonial binary of Self and Other and redirecting inquiry toward reflections on identity and futurity.

In contemporary Chinese science fiction, though a similar tension between nationalist and universalist impulses exists, this paper regards Chinese sci-fi as a rupture in the Soviet legacy. Rather than constructing a sphere of estrangement, Chinese science fiction films turns instead toward an affective politics. Drawing on Brian Massumi’s theory of affect as pre-personal intensity, I analyze how the "technological sublime" (Ronay, Kakoudaki) generates a powerful, bodily response in the spectator. This form of affect subsequently forging what Despina Kakoudaki terms a "fantasy of union," transforming the audience to an imagined national collective.

In conclusion, beyond framing science fiction solely as colonial gaze or imperialism, this paper shows how Soviet and Chinese cinemas negotiate both the anxiety of that inheritance and the desire to transcend Anglophone paradigms. Their divergent strategies—cognitive estrangement and affective union—reveal alternative pathways for reimagining sci-fi’s political and aesthetic possibilities.