China is a big country that maybe does not get a lot of attention in Poul Anderson's works?
In "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson," the large quadrupedal alien, Adzel, performs the Chinese dragon in street parades while he is a student on Earth.
In Rogue Sword, Lucas has returned from Cathay.
China is more civilized than Europe here.In The Boat Of A Million Years, one of the immortals is Chinese. See here. Thus, his introductory chapter is set in China.
In "SOS," Pitar Cheng leads a Great Asian space fleet.
Finally, not to ignore our ever-growing food thread, in exchange for his dragon performances, Adzel:"...has an unlimited meal ticket at the Silver Dragon Chinese Food and Chop Suey Palace."
-Poul Anderson, "How To Be Ethnic In One Easy Lesson" IN Anderson, The Technic Civilization Saga: The Van Rijn Method, compiled by Hank Davis (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 175-197 AT p. 195.
What have I missed? (See comments.)
9 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Some Chinese do play a role in Poul Anderson's OPERATION LUNA (Tor: 1999). A fairly important secondary character is Fr. Fu Ch'ing, a master spy serving a new dynasty which succeeded the Manchu Ch'ing Dynasty after a time of chaos and civil wars. In his cultured urbanity and quietly understand lethality Fu Ch'ing reminded me of Aycharaych.
There's also David Wingrove's CHUNG KUO series, set in a world where China conquered the entire Earth.
Sean
Correction, I meant DOCTOR (Dr.) Fu Ch'ing, not "Fr." Drat!
Sean
Sean,
Thank you. That is the sort of detail that I expect Comments to cover.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Anytime! Maybe I should soon reread OPERATION LUNA?
I know I shouldn't get too worked up about petty combox mistakes, but the "understand" in my first comment irks me. I meant UNDERSTATED. Triple drat!
Sean
Sean,
You worry. Others don't!
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I suppose I should not be so fussy about my mistakes. I want to make sure I am understood. And some mistakes can make the point a person is trying to make ambiguous.
Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Poul Anderson wrote another novel featuring a Chinese as a major character: Wang Li in THE BYWORLDER.
Sean
Sean,
And the Chinese discovered America in "The Only Game In Town."
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Drat! I missed that. Altho the Chinese in that story were mainly mariners. Kublai Khan's Mongols were the leaders. But they did have a Chinese scholar along as an adviser.
Sean
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