Aging into Posthumans

Bibliographic Data

ID12424205
AuthorsKeren He (0000-0003-4196-4992, corresponding author)
Year2025
Volume34
Issue1
Pages91-117
Publication date2025-11-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
Venuepositions asia critique (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1067-9847 • E-ISSN: 1527-8271
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/10679847-12157528
OpenAlexW4416346481
LanguageEN
References cited19

This essay explores the intersection of technology and eldercare in the contemporary PRC by bringing Chinese science fiction into conversation with public health policies. Central to the analysis is the notion of posthuman aging—a social imaginary that addresses the eldercare crisis amid population aging through a cyborgian fusion of elders and machines. The essay begins with the state-sponsored smart eldercare initiative, a system driven by big data and roboticization, which paradoxically perpetuates entrenched anthropocentric prejudices against old age. To counteract the limitations of this approach, the essay turns to the alternative vision of posthumanist aging in Liu Cixin's novella “Supporting the Gods.” Here the seemingly dehumanizing aspects of old age, such as incapacity and dependence, provide fertile ground for redefining notions of agency and autonomy that underwrite anthropocentrism. The human-machine interaction configured in Liu's narrative also enables intergenerational connections, paving the way for a new eldercare ethic in Chinese-speaking worlds and beyond

Agency (philosophy · Autonomy · Dehumanization · Narrative · Population · Posthuman · Posthumanism · The Imaginary · Digital Media and Philosophy · Posthumanist Ethics and Activism · Utopian, Dystopian, and Speculative Fiction

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