"Ether" by Zhang Ran
 

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"Ether" is a substance envisioned by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle. He believed that the four main elements of earth, air, water, and fire make up our world, and that all matter in the universe is made up of a fifth, massless, eternal element called Ether.

In the story "Ether," Zhang Ran uses the name "Ether" to refer to an omnipresent system that maintains social stability and national security. Initially, Ether is an automated system for monitoring the Internet, replacing text, video and audio identified as potential threats with data spoofing, such as replacing the topic of "Senator's Lunch" with "KFC Value Lunch". Later, the authorities spread nanomachines into the air that automatically detect potentially threatening visible light and sound signals and replace them with harmless information. The nanomachines float in the air, omnipotent and omnipresent, just like the mysterious substance that filled all space - "Ether" - as envisioned by ancient Greek philosophers and 19th century scientists.

In the ubiquitous Ether system, information on the Internet is becoming increasingly boring, and some of the members who have been involved in weaving the Ether system have become rebellious. In the foreseeable twenty years, there is no possibility for nanomachines to deceive the sophisticated human sense of touch, so the rebels secretly organize the “finger-talking gathering" to evade surveillance and transmit messages by writing with their fingers on their palms - "If you are determined, you can always join the Finger-talking through your introducer and join the only and last rebel group under the omnipresent surveillance of 'Ether' and join the only reality in the false world.

In this April, we are delighted to have Zhang Ran with us as the special guest for our 3-year-old birthday (yay!), and with his short story “Ether”, we’ll discuss the Internet, surveillance, and silent rebellion.

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Reading ahead of the session is recommended but not a must, if you have any access requirements to the text, please let us know by email. You are welcome to join in the conversation on Sunday as simply a listener or comment or ask Zhang Ran about this story and other ones as well.

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Born in 1981, Zhang Ran (He/Him) graduated from Beijing Jiaotong University in 2004 with a degree in Computer Science. After a stint in the IT industry, he became a journalist and news analyst with Economic Daily and China Economic Net, during which time his news commentary won a China News Award. His stories have won numerous Gold and Silver Chinese Nebula Awards, and three Galaxy Awards for Best Novelette. He runs a coffee shop in southern China and writes in his spare time. The Windy City, his short story collection, was published in 2015.

 

 
From The Way Spring Arrives / 《春天来临的方式》by Wang Nuonu/王诺诺
Translated by Rebecca F. Kuang (2022)

 

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In this spring, The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories, a collection of novelettes by an all-female and queer cast, is being released simultaneously in Chinese and English. The collection includes 17 short and medium-sized stories by 15 science fiction and fantasy writers in a variety of styles, which is, in a sense, the sound of the arrival of “spring” for women's SFF writings.
 

In one of the non-fiction essays collected in this book, Jing Tsu, John M. Schiff Professor of Modern Chinese Studies & Comparative Literature at Yale University, claims: “A better approach to the question of women and contemporary science fiction may well not be a literary issue at all, but a sociological and anthropological one. Looking at who has access to knowledge, science, and technology, one could also think of marginality not simply as pitted against the mainstream, but also a position created by other margins.” Then, how should we understand the relationship between gender and SFF? What are the dilemmas encountered by women writers' creativity in the present? How can technology and knowledge participate in the production of SFF? We welcome you to join us in this reading, and let's think about "the way spring comes" in this spring.

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Reading ahead of the session is recommended but not a must, if you have any access requirements to the text, please let us know by email. You are welcome to join in the conversation on Sunday as simply a listener or comment or ask Wang Nuonuo and Regina Kanyu Wang about the story and this anthology.

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Wang Nuonuo (she/her) is a science fiction writer. She has won the 2018 Best New Writer of Chinese SF Galaxy Award, the 2018 First Prize of Lenghu Award, the 2018 Third Prize of Lenghu Award, and the 2019 Special Morning Star Award. She has published her short story collection, No Answers from Earth, and her stories have been included in Best SF Works of China Anthology, published by People’s Literature Publishing House, three years in a row.
 

Regina Kanyu Wang (she/her) is a PhD fellow of the CoFUTURES project at the University of Oslo. Her research interest lies in Chinese science fiction, especially from a gender and environmental perspective. She is also an award-winning writer who writes both science fiction and nonfiction. She has won multiple Xingyun Awards (the Chinese Nebulas), the SF Comet International SF Writing Competition, Annual Best Works of the Shanghai Writers Association, and others. She has published two science fiction story collections, been translated into ten languages, resided in Writing in Downtown Las Vegas Residency, been supported by the Shanghai Culture Development Foundation, and been a contracted writer of the Shanghai Writers Association.