TO THE CHINESE
By:
May 15, 2026
A series dedicated to poems, published c. 1900–1935, the Radium Age sf-adjacent themes of which include: dystopia and utopia, far-out mathematics and the fourth dimension, Afro-futurism, catastrophe, future war, new technologies, scientific breakthrough, dehumanization, cosmic awe, disenchantment and unseen forces, unknowable aliens and singularity. Research and selection by Joshua Glenn; thematic index here.
Rejoice, O ancient brothers of the East.
I hear your voices thrill across the seas,
And hail you, too, unto the marriage feast
Of waking men. Did not the Japanese
Put on the wedding garments bright and new
Though long denied by silly creeds of skin.
Rise ye, and break the “cake of custom” through,
And, at the New World bidding, enter in.
Faint not, O brothers, if the forward way
Must lie through fire and famine, death and blood.
There follow you the kindling sympathies
Of other trammeled millions, and some day
These shall pour forth in swarthy hordes and flood
Some worthy field, and be your staunch allies.
— Found in the author’s sole poetry collection, Wings of Oppression (1921). Not sure if it first appeared elsewhere.
My friend and collaborator , the sf scholar and editor Lisa Yaszek, recently sent me the following note about this poem:
It is amazing! It’s weird how it anticipates the opening chapters of The Three Body Problem — when the Chinese scientist invites aliens to invade because nothing could be worse than the massacre of scientists by the Communist party…
RADIUM AGE PROTO-SF POETRY: Stephen Spender’s THE PYLONS | George Sterling’s THE TESTIMONY OF THE SUNS | Archibald MacLeish’s EINSTEIN | Thomas Thornely’s THE ATOM | C.S. Lewis’s DYMER | Stephen Vincent Benét’s METROPOLITAN NIGHTMARE | Robert Frost’s FIRE AND ICE | Aldous Huxley’s FIFTH PHILOSOPHER’S SONG | Sara Teasdale’s “THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS” | Edith Södergran’s ON FOOT I HAD TO… | Robert Graves’s WELSH INCIDENT | Nancy Cunard’s ZEPPELINS | D.H. Lawrence’s WELLSIAN FUTURES | & many more.