Chinese science fiction tends to have the mandate to enlighten the public and popularize science, Taiwanese author Egoyan Zheng's full-length science fiction novel The Dream Devourer not only popularizes science but also demonstrates the lyrical dimension of Chinese science fiction, expressing the identity concerns and cultural nostalgia of the post-human era. While constructing a technocentric post-human landscape, The Dream Devourer attempts to respond to the call of posthumanism by subverting anthropocentric views. However, the novel reduces humanity, a norm of values, to emotion, making it the key to distinguishing between human and non-human. Ultimately, the novel remains a quest for the "Man". At the same time, the novel uses "emotion" as a medium to explore the path of human redemption in a post-human era with technology at the center, but it also exposes the limit of humanist emotions. In conclusion, The Dream Devourer shows the "emotion-orientation" of Chinese science fiction, but also presents a post-human myth.

science fiction  /  Egoyan Zheng  /  The Dream Devourer  /  emotion-orientation  /  post-human