Par-delà les mers de l'Ouest : de l'usage uchronique de Zheng He

Abstract

Biographical sources and documents appear to be scarce on the life of Zheng He. The interest he sparked is mainly a 20th-century phenomenon, starting after 1905. From this time on, he was represented as a great seafarer of the Chinese motherland and became an acclaimed national hero. Building the hypothesis of a Chinese worldwide circumnavigation, Gavin Menzies explores the idea that Zheng He might have discovered America in 1421. Liu Cixin follows Menzies’s hypothesis and imagines what would have happened if Zheng He had discovered America and how China could have taken the lead in a new world order.