An Old, New Home: Technology, Temporality, and Wasteocene of the Wandering Earth.

The Wandering Earth 2 places a heightened emphasis on the vision of a technologically augmented Earth as the only home for humankind. However, this vision is compromised by the exclusion of "waste"—abandoned habitats, non-human life, and marginalized individuals. This study examines the contradictio...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Chinese Literature & Thought Today Vol. 57; no. 1/2; pp. 41 - 57
Autor principal: Qi, Xiangu
Formato: Essay
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd 2026
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:The Wandering Earth 2 places a heightened emphasis on the vision of a technologically augmented Earth as the only home for humankind. However, this vision is compromised by the exclusion of "waste"—abandoned habitats, non-human life, and marginalized individuals. This study examines the contradictions within the film's grand narrative of "new-future-making" and challenges the ideal of a shared Earth as home, revealing how both are persistently overshadowed by invisible environmental injustices. Specifically, this paper teases out the fissures within the narrative of Earth-as-home as presented in Wandering 2. First, the film functions as a technology about and for technology, not only showcasing the (re)construction of a future home anchored in unprecedented technological achievements, but also demonstrating human power in capturing/displacing, rather than caring/emplacing, the Earth through technology. Second, by repurposing the past, the film envisions a future home where humankind can regain the long-lost symbiosis with nature and equally shared by a homogeneous collective of "we," which starkly contrasts against the backdrop of urgent ecological crisis and humanity's relentless reconfiguration of the Earth. Most critically, the promise of a shared Earth, reinforced by spectacular displays of technology and repeated invocations of a distant past, is disrupted by the wasting relationships embedded both within the film's narrative and in broader socio-ecological contexts, a Wasteocene à la Marco Armiero, which, more than ubiquitous physical waste, points to the global scale of socio-ecological relationships aimed at excluding disposable others—such as the sick—from the envisioned only home.