Developmental Allegory of the Posthuman Era: Waste Tide , Cyborg ‘Children’, and South Narrative

This essay delves into Chen Qiufan’s science fiction work Waste Tide (2013/2019), ¹ critically examining the intricate interplay between the novel’s South narrative in the posthuman era and the prevailing developmentalist myth in post-socialist China. The novel illustrates the polyphonic nature of the South narrative by shedding light on the cyborg ‘children’ – namely, chimpanzee Eva, Mimi, and Luo Zixin – afflicted with aphasia. The aphasia experienced by these cyborg ‘children’ symbolises, on the one hand, the inherent resistance of the subject to embracing alterity, resulting in a failure to integrate the future with the present. On the other hand, their muteness resulting from cyborgisation also represents a transgression of established conceptual and social boundaries, unveiling the alterity nurtured within the seemingly self-contained categories. Through its portrayal of cyborg ‘children’ with aphasia, the novel disrupts the developmentalist South narrative across various scales, serving as a crucial allegory for contemplating the developmentalist myth in post-socialist China amidst the globalisation era.