Beyond Escapism and Subversion: Fantasy Fiction in Post-Socialist China
Beyond Escapism and Subversion: Fantasy Fiction in Post-Socialist China
Speaker
Jun. Prof. Dr. Jessica Imbach (University Freiburg)
Date and Time
December 18, 2025, 4.15 pm - 5.45 pm
Venue
Rämistrasse 59, CH-8001 Zurich, Room RAA-E-21
Please registerhere.
Abstract
Over the past decade, Chinese fantasy fiction has experienced an extraordinary boom, both in print and online. This surge is in many ways an outcome of broader transformations of the post-socialist era such as economic liberalization, the rise of cultural capitalism, and the rapid digitization of everyday life. At the same time, the boom has unfolded under increasingly stringent media control, especially under Xi Jinping. How can we make sense of the scope, diversity, and popularity of fantasy fiction in this environment? Existing frameworks tend to read fantasy either as an escapist commodity, the inevitable outcome of a heavily commercialized cultural sphere, or as a subversive allegory, a coded mode of critique in a tightly monitored media environment. These two interpretive frameworks, fantasy as escapist commodity and fantasy as subversive allegory, offer important insights, but neither can account for the ideological and aesthetic diversity of contemporary Chinese fantasy worlds. Rather than normative analysis of fantasy fiction as distraction from reality or as coded modes of resistance, I argue in this talk for a more nuanced and historically-informed approach that studies Chinese fantasy fiction in relation to traditions of literary realism, the shifting structures of the cultural economy, and the evolving sensibilities of China’s digital publics.
Organization
Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies - Chinese Studies