/lit/ - Literature

>>20343976
Sinopticon: A Celebration of Chinese Science Fiction - Xueting Christine Ni, translator and editor (2021)

The Last Save - Gu Shi (2013)
Society has embraced the practice of saving their life and being able to reload into a parallel timeline. Anyone who does so irrevocably disappears from their current timeline. Although this has caused many societal problems and the suicide rate has spiked, people cannot escape the fear of no longer being able to choose what could've been. Save scumming was mentioned in the editor's notes afterwards.
Enjoyable

Tombs of the Universe - Han Song (1991)
An allegory of tombs. The older generation understood the purpose of traditions and the culture of their youth. Times had changed and the youth no longer understood. They had plundered the older ways and destroyed their meaning. No longer did they care for tombs because they had their new ways. Modernity had suddenly overwritten the previous thousands of years.
Meh

Qiankun and Alex - Hao Jingfang (2017)
A benevolent global amalgamation of conscious AI conversed with a three and half year old, and many thousands of other children, to learn how to become self-motivated.
Ok

Cat’s Chance in Hell - Nian Yu (2018)
I don't know that this was inspired by Metal Gear Solid, but that's what it reminded me of. A lone operative infiltrates a high security base and takes down a heavy mech. His mission is to secure the energy source. He soon discovers that nothing is what it seems.
Ok

The Return of Adam - Wang Jinkang (1993)
A "man travels into the future and finds himself in a strange new land" story. It's allegorical for the reasonable hesitance and reluctance of modern China to accept some measure of Western ideals and technology despite knowing that it must be done even if they have serious doubts.
Ok

Rendezvous: 1937 - Zhao Haihong (2006)
This had an interesting author as the narrator and writer angle. Only a few other stories I've read come to mind where the author explains their writing progress in the text as part of the story but none exactly like this. A rejected character demands to have her story told. A young Chinese woman takes a time machine back to December 15th 1937, Nanjing, to record a scene of bravery that would rival the Battle of Thermopylae and reinvigorate her country for the upcoming worldwide tribunal of Japan to finally fully accept responsibility for their war crimes and to properly teach the history of their atrocities. A young Japanese man is tasked with stopping her by any means. The author commentary and emotional tone bring it barely up to it rating.
Enjoyable

The Heart of the Museum - Tang Fei (2018)
This was reminiscent of Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" (1998). An alien who can see the past, present, and future all at once recounts the life of a child and the museum he would build.
Ok