Listen, if Jess Nevins didn't already exist, we'd have to invent him. Who else could dig up goodness like this?



Jess talked a bit about this early 20C Chinese science fiction (complete with airships and subservient European states) here:

"In this tale, Europe is a Chinese colony and it describes the Chinese government’s suppression of an uprising planned by European "restoration" rebels. The Chinese Emperor orders the generalissimo in charge of Europe, Wen Suchen, to suppress the rebellion with flying warships. Generalissimo Wen not only conquers all seventy-two European nations but continues on to the moon and Jupiter as well. The most marvellous part of this tale is that Jupiter is described as being covered completely with gold and abounding with flora and fauna–the perfect destination for migration. Wen is then appointed Governor of Jupiter. From then on, the means of communication and transportation between Earth and Jupiter is, naturally, by flying ship."

The story? Lu Shi'e's Xin Ye Sou Pu Yan (1909). A shame it will never be translated--I think it'd make for fascinating reading, if only as a counterpoint to the Victorian colonialist sf.

If you don't think that I'm going to use this stuff, whether in a Celestial Empire story or elsewhere (and at the moment, I'm thinking it might fit better in The Great Crosstime Airship Race), you're nuts. This is gold!