Posts Tagged ‘One Child Policy’
When Science Fiction Brings History Alive
Cover Art
I love science fiction, dreaming about the future, imagining what our life in outer space might look like someday, but my passion for the genre has as much to do with the past as it does with the future. Science fiction shows us the future but also has the ability to teach us about our past and often does so without the baggage of politics and biases. The stories below are launch pads. Their portrayals of history through story are not by any means comprehensive, but rather snapshots into the lives of people encountering challenges that may be imagined by the author, but mirror history.
Here are a handful of scifi stories that bring the reader face to face with the past:
- Superman Smashes the Klan
- The Man in the High Castle
- Colony
- An Excess Male
- Kindred
History Lesson #1. SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN. Launch a discussion about the Ku Klux Klan (it’s inception and impact on US race relations).
In this three-issue Superman Comic, Gene Luen Yang gives historic tidbits at the end of each issue. You can read my review of the series here.
In issue 1,Yang highlights the 13th amendment to the constitution (abolition of slavery) and the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act
Following issue 2, Yang discusses the Jewish immigrants who created Superman.
Following issue 3, Yang discusses the challenges of his own parents, both of whom were immigrants from Taiwan
History Lesson #2. Watch or read, THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE (book by Philip K. Dick. The Amazon Prime TV series was produced by Dick’s daughter, Isa Dick Hackett). Discuss and learn about World War II.
This series is a great way to understand the Axis powers and that tentative alliance that almost took over the globe. You’ll find yourself or your student understanding the world that was inhabited by those who lived under occupation during that war. The French, The Koreans, and many others were forced to survive under Nazi or Japanese rule. Some made compromises, others rebelled. Can you imagine who you would have become to survive an occupation? That question is a great way for students to enter into and understand history.
Josh Holloway, Sarah Wayne Callies
History Lesson #3. Watch COLONY on Netflix to begin to grapple with the reality of living under occupation.
In the case of COLONY, the true enemy is an alien race that has invaded Earth, but some of the darkest villains are the human beings who have allied themselves with this conquering force.
Living under occupation, whether under the Greeks, Romans, The Islamic Caliphate, the Brits, the USSR, it requires turncoats, or those who will help to subdue the masses for the sake of the little bits of power and privilege that are doled out by the occupying power. The tv series COLONY does an amazing job of capturing this reality. A longer review can be found here.
Maggie Shen King
History Lesson #4. Read AN EXCESS MALE, by Maggie Shen Chen, to begin to understand 20th century Chinese history.
Although this book imagines a future China, this story highlights what is perhaps the most disastrous public policy mandate of all time, THE ONE CHILD POLICY. For my review of this novel, click here. To read my guide for educators, click here.
Octavia Butler
History Lesson #5. KINDRED, by Octavia Butler. Read this book (fictional) and one of the other historic slave narratives like, MY LIFE AS A SLAVE, by Frederick Douglass. Discuss the ways slavery dehumanizes all those who participate in its reality.
KINDRED, by the late and great Octavia Butler, gives the reader a taste of the slave-inhabited South of yore. The brutality is evident and palpable. Lessons are brought so close…it’s hard to read this book, yet it is valuable for those trying to understand slavery in 18th and 19th century US. Here is my longer review of Kindred
An Excess Male, A Book Review Without Spoilers
Author, Maggie Shen King
“Science fiction is any idea that occurs in the head, but doesn’t exist yet, but soon will, and will change everything for everybody, and nothing will ever be the same again.”
Ray Bradbury
The Short Review
Three Reasons I Recommend you read AN EXCESS MALE…
- Learn about China, a rising power with imperial roots and aspirations. Let this novel wake us up to the reality of Big Data meeting Big Brother
- Fall in love with the characters put forward by Maggie Shen King
- Enjoy a good old fashioned love story/thriller. Actually….NO…the love story is unlike anything you have probably read, but the tale will thrill. Love, loyalty, duty are on display, nearly every page.
To buy AN EXCESS MALE, click here.
The Long Review, Also Without Spoilers
I recommend this novel with a few reservations. AN EXCESS MALE falls into the category of speculative fiction, though it bleeds into the scifi genre and would likely be enjoyed by anyone who loves “surveillance stories”, like Minority Report and The Net. This novel has a few PG-13 scenes, and some adult themes that might bore a young adult reader, but many young adults and those older who read speculative fiction will love the book. I would not recommend it for Middle Grade or younger.
Shen King’s story belongs in the future, and yet the reality she portrays is around the bend…How many years away? Maybe ten.
The premise of the novel addresses the terrible truth China is now grappling with…that their one-child policy has resulted in 40 million unmarriageable men. By the year 2030, more than 25% of men in their late thirties will have no family of their own. What are the options for Chinese society? Here are three possibilities…
- Import wives from neighboring Asian nations or elsewhere. The problem…the Chinese, especially the government values a pure and loyal race. They elevate the Han Chinese culture and importing wives will dilute Han Chinese blood.
- Send those extra men to battle. Society does not need them for child-bearing, so let them win honor in fighting to extend China’s influence around Asia and the globe. The problem…many of these men are the only children, the beloved one child of their parents. Who will take care of the parents, those elderly loyal citizens of China who have lived and suffered under this oppressive law to bear only one child? What does it mean if the government plucks away and sacrifices their one and only on the battle field?
- Require that women in China take more than one husband. Most will take two…some will even take three husbands. A new family system will evolve around this patriotic duty. The problems that may result…READ THE NOVEL TO FIND OUT.
Maggie Shen King writes a story that assumes the third possibility. Women marry more than one spouse, all for the good of China. In a spirit and tone that celebrates her Taiwanese/Chinese heritage, Shen King imagines a world where men pay dowries, women of child-bearing age are precious and coveted, and single men bear a painful stigma. Shen King tells the story in the third person, changing the close narrator’s viewpoint chapter by chapter. She signals the shift by titling her chapters with the character’s first name. Two husbands, one wife and one potential husband…these are the characters the reader follows into a labyrinth of love, politics, corruption and societal rules that do not bend for individual freedoms.
I have only one complaint about the novel, that the ending felt rushed and a bit predictable, somewhat contrived. Pacing did not match the earlier portion of the story. It’s an issue that can happen when writing from multiple characters’ perspectives. In this case, the main character and to some extent the heart of the story got somewhat lost in the milieu. However, even with a few flaws, I found the book fascinating and worthwhile. It’s a fun quick read and will immediately get you thinking and feeling.