The Li Ao of technology?
Although Chu Bong-foo has achieved fame for information technology, and has carved out his own patch in the field, his ultimate concern is for the greater issues of culture and which way humankind should go.
Chu Bong-foo saw the premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey at the Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, and the film inspires his imagination to this day. This is why, 30 years later, he has written a science-fiction novel himself. Last year, in six months of concentrated effort, he completed the 12-volume sci-fi novel Cosmic Drifter.
The novel, which combines science fiction, tales of immortals and kung fu fighters, and fable, has the structure of a traditional Chinese episodic novel, with each chapter headed by a line of seven-character verse to indicate the main points of the plot.
In the novel, humans have long since created intelligent computers, the Earth is in the complete control of a cosmic computer alliance, all material needs are met, the genetic codes of all organisms have been fully decoded, the human dream of eternal youth has been realized, and humans can acquire all kinds of knowledge at any time through the network communication systems that they carry with them.
To provide humans with work and entertainment, the computer authorities have created a high-grade virtual reality system-the "dream maker." People need no longer be disappointed in love, for they can have a romance with the person of their dreams, or even with somebody tailor-made according to their wishes. They can also choose at will the plots of their fantasies and the roles they will play in them. There is even a "forgetting device" with which they can erase memories and start everything afresh. The biggest vexation for people living in this new age is how to while away the endless time at their disposal.
Chu Bong-foo says he first conceived Cosmic Drifter in 1998. The ideas came from his previously published Nine Essays On Intelligence, in which he discusses thought, human nature and value in terms of energy conversion, the formation of matter, the nature of time and space, and the evolution of the universe. But the essays' content was dry and dull, and nobody understood it. Therefore he wanted to turn his theories into a popular novel that ordinary people would understand.
Before beginning to write, he used the Book of Changes to predict the major events of the next 50 years, which he then took as the "factual" backdrop against which to let the plot develop naturally. He also used the Chinese language systems he had developed himself to index the background and content of what he wrote as he went along, to maintain consistency. He wrote the novel in one stretch, churning out around 10,000 characters a day. Hence although the book was not completed until three or four years after he had the idea, the actual time he spent writing it was only six months.
"Writing is not a question of inspiration, but of whether you have sufficient information, and whether your will to express yourself is strong enough. I want to tell everybody my great insights into human life, so that people who are suffering no longer have to suffer." He says jokingly that he only has to think of who has wronged him and whom he has wronged, to get "angry enough to write."
"This book is sure to last, but what I mean by lasting is not how well it does today, but whether it is still around ten years from now," says Chu Bong-foo with boundless confidence.
Whatever the occasion, Chu says what he thinks, criticizing education, criticizing technology, criticizing culture-criticizing everything. His tone is overbearing, and once he gets going he can often rant for two hours at a stretch. This is why he has been called the "Li Ao of the technological world," although he himself takes great exception to this description.
"Li Ao lays into everyone, but I only have a go at Westerners, not Chinese. The people I have the least time for are scientists and technologists, because they so often have an overrated opinion of themselves based on their skills in their particular specialism. But what's the use of technology without culture? If one day this world is destroyed, it will all be the fault of technology," he says.
Chu Bong-foo, who has been deeply influenced by the fantasy novels of Li Shoumin, seems like a knight-errant of old, caring nothing for fame or fortune, but fighting to realize his ideals.