Spatial Disparity and Social Injustice: Interrogating Urbanization in Post-2000s Chinese Science Fiction

China’s rapid urbanisation has caused many social problems including the segregation of social spaces and intersectional social inequalities in region, class, and gender. The persistence and growth of the rural/urban divide, class solidification, and gender asymmetries have produced different forms of spatial division and social injustice. Post-2000s Chinese science fiction offers a unique medium for exploring the contradictions and polemics in China’s large-scale urban transformation. The sci-fi works discussed in this article highlight the discrimination and exclusion suffered by socially marginalised people, including rural dwellers, migrant workers, and the urban poor. Through their imaginative approaches, these works of fiction question the unbalanced regional development, spatial divisions, and disparities in social and cultural capital in the process of rapid globalisation and urbanisation. By disclosing the ‘invisible’ social realities, science fiction offers insights into modern-day China through its speculative stories, pushing readers to rethink the problematics of urbanisation with Chinese characteristics. With the skills of ‘sci-fi realism’, these writers dissolve the boundaries between fiction and reality to make sharp social commentary. As significant critical voices, these post-2000s Chinese sci-fi works play indispensable roles in complicating the current cultural narratives on urbanisation.