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group, called
Scorpion, a landlord who owns a plantation of "reverie leaves", an addictive drug reminiscent of opium that is used by all cats. The narrator is employed by Scorpion to guard his reverie leaves and eventually learns Felinese and gets acquainted with the country and its culture, guided by Scorpion and his son Young Scorpion. He encounters many problems in society, including ill-treatment of women, lack of hygiene and poor building standards, culminating in a visit to a school where a single gunshot makes the walls collapse. The schools give out university diplomas on the first day, and the museums are filled with empty rooms as the contents have been sold off to foreigners. The political debate is dominated by "brawls", political parties modeled after foreign systems, with the currently leading ideology being "Everybody Shareskyism", whose leader killed and then replaced the cats' emperor, and slogans composed of pseudo-Russian gibberish. Many cat people are killed in a revolution, and finally the country is invaded by a foreign power. The invaders lock up the remaining cat people in a cage, and they end up biting each other to death. Some months later, the narrator is rescued by a passing French spacecraft.
29:
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The unnamed first-person narrator's spaceship crash-lands on Mars. His companion perishes in the crash, and he is stranded alone on Mars. He soon meets the planet's inhabitants, who have the faces of cats but otherwise appear human, and is captured by some of these cats and meets the leader of the
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The novel is a dystopian satire. It has been described as critical of
Kuomintang's rule, and the corruption in society in that time, but also more generally suspicious of political indoctrination in China. The critique of political parties (called "brawls") has been seen as applicable to KMT and
283:
being classified as science fiction, there is little interest in technology, and some authors have declared it to not be science fiction. Nevertheless, it has been seen as the most prominent example of
Chinese science fiction between 1910 and 1949.
238:(現代 / "Les Contemporains") and then as a standalone book in August 1933, published by Xiandai Shuju (現代書局) in Shanghai. It was reprinted seven times until 1949, and then no edition appeared in the PRC until 1984.
256:
communists alike. Overall, many purported weaknesses of the
Chinese national character are examined, and the satire criticises conservatives as well as radicals.
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by standards not applicable to utopian fiction, and states the book "placed among the successful modern writers of dystopia in world literature."
1133:
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Lao She declared his attempt at satire a failure, lamenting its lack of humour, and some critics have described the book as not a great novel.
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A Tale of the Cat
Country, finished in 1932, was a novel in fable form. A Tale of the Cat Country was critical of the Kuomintang's rule.
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198:(1899–1966), first published in 1933. It has been translated into English, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese and Russian.
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describes it as sound in structure and fun, but very uneven. Koon-Ki Tommy Ho argues that many critics evaluated
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Lao She had lived in
England for six years before returning to China in 1930. In 1931, while living in
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747:
739:
548:
411:
373:
234:. The novel first appeared in serialised form between August 1932 and April 1933 in the journal
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Raphals, Lisa (2013). "Alterity and Alien
Contact in Lao She's Martian Dystopia, Cat Country".
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Prado-Fonts, Carles (2014). "The
Anxiety of Fiction: Reexamining Lao She's Early Novels".
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The novel shows the influence of
European utopian literature and is reminiscent of
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Biographisches
Handbuch chinesischer Schriftsteller: Leben und Werke
438:(2nd ed.). W W Norton & Company Incorporated. p. 404.
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901:
714:
Birch, Cyril (1961). "Lao She: The Humourist in His Humour".
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HO, KOON-KI TOMMY (1987). "Cat Country: A Dystopian Satire".
129:
897:
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Celestial Empire: The Emergence of Chinese Science Fiction
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The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China
821:"New Release of Lao She Books Revisits a Dark History"
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Perfect Worlds: Utopian Fiction in China and the West
323:
A Selective Guide to Chinese Literature: 1900 - 1949
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226:. Lao She then turned to a new project and started
194:) is a dystopian satirical novel by Chinese writer
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636:(in German). Walter de Gruyter. p. 126.
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8:
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798:. University of Hawaii Press. p. 298.
771:. Amsterdam University Press. p. 286.
663:. Hong Kong University Press. p. 129.
920:
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484:. Univ of California Press. p. 136.
709:
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606:. Foreign Languages Press. p. 259.
315:
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851:Isaacson, Nathaniel (7 February 2017).
795:Blades of Grass: The Stories of Lao She
389:
387:
320:Doleželová-Velingerová, Milena (1988).
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351:
349:
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279:and the dystopian content have led to
222:, was attacked by the Japanese in the
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478:Rea, Christopher (8 September 2015).
396:Modern Chinese Literature and Culture
7:
1019:Peaches and Plums in the Spring Wind
792:Lao, She; Goldblatt, Howard (1999).
603:History of modern Chinese literature
687:Lao She and the Chinese Revolution
14:
230:, which had been commissioned by
657:Witchard, Anne (1 August 2012).
1000:Four Generations Under One Roof
1134:Chinese science fiction novels
819:Bruno, Debra (9 August 2013).
765:Fokkema, Douwe Wessel (2011).
553:10.5621/sciefictstud.40.1.0073
537:10.5621/sciefictstud.40.1.0073
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169:
153:
1:
1124:Chinese Republican era novels
857:. Wesleyan University Press.
210:, he wrote a novel about the
690:. Harvard Univ Asia Center.
1119:1933 science fiction novels
1114:1932 science fiction novels
1109:20th-century Chinese novels
883:. Penguin Group Australia.
435:The Search for Modern China
251:Analysis and interpretation
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202:Background and publication
877:Lao She (1 August 2013).
728:10.1017/S030574100000179X
358:Modern Chinese Literature
276:The First Men in the Moon
119:Published in English
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26:
936:Novels and major stories
826:The Wall Street Journal
525:Science Fiction Studies
944:Lao Zhang's Philosophy
684:Vohra, Ranbir (1974).
630:Hermann, Marc (2011).
565:Isaacson, pp. 130–133.
326:. BRILL. p. 104.
190:, also translated as
16:1933 novel by Lao She
33:1947 Chinese edition
716:The China Quarterly
430:Spence, Jonathan D.
224:January 28 incident
166:traditional Chinese
49:Original title
23:
1149:Novels set on Mars
600:Tang, Tao (1993).
288:Critical reception
266:Gulliver's Travels
150:simplified Chinese
1144:Novels by Lao She
1096:
1095:
1054:This Life of Mine
992:This Life of Mine
890:978-0-14-380022-4
864:978-0-8195-7669-9
805:978-0-8248-1803-6
778:978-90-8964-350-6
697:978-0-674-51075-3
670:978-988-8139-60-6
660:Lao She in London
643:978-3-598-24550-3
613:978-7-119-01459-3
590:Isaacson, p. 142.
504:Isaacson, p. 129.
491:978-0-520-28384-8
468:Isaacson, p. 125.
445:978-0-393-98363-0
333:978-90-04-07880-2
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873:Introduction
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845:Bibliography
830:. Retrieved
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722:(8): 45–62.
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579:Introduction
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531:(1): 73–85.
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22:Cat Country
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1129:1933 novels
968:Cat Country
880:Cat Country
298:Cat Country
294:Cyril Birch
281:Cat Country
271:H. G. Wells
228:Cat Country
216:Lake Daming
145:Cat Country
1103:Categories
1088:Hu Jieqing
952:Zhao Ziyue
832:20 January
304:References
232:Shi Zhecun
187:Māochéngjì
95:1932, 1933
61:Translator
1027:Longxugou
752:154319725
736:0305-7410
577:Johnson,
545:0091-7729
408:1520-9857
370:8755-8963
136:966097069
100:Publisher
92:Published
83:dystopian
54:貓城記 / 猫城记
1035:Teahouse
432:(1999).
416:43492547
378:41492507
69:Language
976:Divorce
929:Lao She
236:Xiandai
214:called
196:Lao She
73:Chinese
43:Lao She
1081:People
1073:(2016)
1065:(1982)
1057:(1950)
1038:(1957)
1030:(1951)
1022:(1943)
1003:(1943)
995:(1937)
987:(1936)
979:(1933)
971:(1933)
963:(1929)
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182:pinyin
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86:satire
39:Author
1011:Plays
748:S2CID
740:JSTOR
549:JSTOR
412:JSTOR
374:JSTOR
208:Jinan
112:China
79:Genre
885:ISBN
859:ISBN
834:2020
800:ISBN
773:ISBN
732:ISSN
692:ISBN
665:ISBN
638:ISBN
608:ISBN
541:ISSN
486:ISBN
440:ISBN
404:ISSN
366:ISSN
328:ISBN
242:Plot
130:OCLC
123:1970
724:doi
533:doi
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177:記
174:城
171:貓
161:记
158:城
155:猫
148:(
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