* Provides insights into the Chinese people's experience of one of the most rapid modernization and urbanization processes in history, as expressed through science fiction
* Offers a useful introduction to a host of Chinese writers who are not well known outside of the world of sci-fi but who should be read by anyone wanting to grasp the realities of urban and rural life in China.
* Highlights how the experience of modernization in developing countries is qualitatively different from that of Western countries, which could provide references for scholars from other developing countries